Maris Ayin - Office Party

QUESTION: My office is ordering non-kosher pizza for a party. May I order a few slices of kosher pizza and eat them together with everyone else at the party?

ANSWER: Rav Schachter shlita ruled that if you keep the box from the kosher store near your seat or if it is obvious that your pizza is different from everyone else’s, you may eat the kosher pizza at the party. But if a casual observer would not be able to tell that you are eating kosher pizza, it would not be permitted. Even if there are no other Jews who work in your office, the rules of maris ayin can still apply. Although we mentioned previously that if one would only be suspected of having violated a rabbinic prohibition, such an action is permitted in private, an office setting does not qualify as private. An action performed privately means that one does it alone or, according to some Poskim, in the presence of one’s immediate family. Furthermore, eating pizza that may be misconstrued as non-kosher with one’s non-Jewish coworkers gives the appearance of impropriety even in front of non-Jews and can be a chillul Hashem. 

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The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.