LOS ANGELES—It might have taken more than two years for the Rabbinical Council of California to name Wet lubricants certifiably kosher, but it only took a few days for it to rescind that status.
Earlier this month, Trigg Laboratories announced 95 percent of its Wet line of products was certified kosher following a two-year review process. The review included visit to the labs by the Council to inspect the facilities and manufacturing processes.
The certification came 14 years after Rabbi Shmuley Boteach published his book Kosher Sex, and seemed to be just as interesting to Jews and non-Jews alike.
After officials from Trigg Laboratories made the announcement, and mainstream press had their fun with the news (One of the better headlines was, “The oy of sex!” from the New York Post), the Council issued a formal statement that they may have erred in giving their blessing.
“As reported in the media, the Rabbinical Council of California’s Kashrut Division was in the final stages of certifying products produced by Trigg Laboratories,” the statement reads. “Certification of non-edible items is common in the kosher industry, but the intended uses of these items as now revealed, was misunderstood. The RCC has rescinded its certification with immediate effect, and deeply regrets the widespread consternation that this error caused.”
We can’t help but wonder exactly how the “intended uses” of a lubricant called Wet slipped by the rabbis. (See what we did there?) And we also wonder why there was a need for a kosher lube in the first place?
Turns out while Orthodox Jews can use all types of cosmetics on their body that aren’t necessarily kosher, the bottom line is kosher certification is relevant to Jews who swallow a product. See where this is going now?
So Orthodox Jews have always been able to use lubricants, but what purposes they could use them for were limited. The certification would have allowed for kosher oral sex. And since it’s been debated for hundreds of years whether oral sex belongs in the Orthodox Jewish bedroom, a kosher lube—in eight flavors no less—would have been an interesting development.
Now, the world may never know.
