LOS ANGELES — It turns out kosher sex can be a slippery slope.Trigg Labs’ Wet Lubricants has “self-certified” their product kosher after the Rabbinical Council of California withdrew its official approval July 19.
According to a statement from the RCC posted on Friday, the religious organization “was in the final stages of certifying products produced by Trigg Laboratories. Certification of nonedible 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 The RCC has rescinded its certification with immediate effect and deeply regrets the widespread consternation that this error caused.”
The RRC’s Assistant Director of Kashrus Services Rabbi Yosef Caplan clarified the statement by adding that manufacturers can “legally” place a ‘K’ on their product to indicate it as kosher in the absence of outside certification if the ingredients used are known to be kosher and experience no cross-contamination during bottling or packaging. This, Caplan explained, is called “self-certification” within the rabbinical community.
Michael Trigg, founder of Trigg Labs, is standing firmly behind the ‘K’ imprint on his products’ packaging, saying that he and his company “maintain the highest standards of purity and answer to a higher authority.”
“Our 52,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility successfully passed the RCC’s stringent rabbinic review process and 95 percent of our products were certified kosher. Regardless of RCC’s reversal of the certification they granted a few days ago, our kosher qualification has not changed,” Trigg said.
"I have spent my life promoting and saving marriages, and in this age of widespread marital sexual famine, where so many husbands and wives drift apart due to the loss of the spark of attraction, marital aids which increase sexual passion can be a blessing which rabbis should recognize,” said Shmuley Boteach, author of “Kosher Sex,” the upcoming “Kosher Lust” and host of the national TV show “Shalom in the Home.”
“So long as the ingredients of a product are kosher, married couples should be allowed to determine their own sexual path in accordance with Jewish teachings, which promote a vigorous and intimate sexuality connecting husband and wife and allowing them to become bone of one bone and flesh of one flesh,” Boteach concluded.