Sunday, September 10, 2006

Why Monsey is screwing itself

By CA

The whole chicken scandal business is a shanda for die Yidden. And the worst part is, none of this is necessary, if only people would pay attention to the works of Rabbi Leff:
To summarize, if we can avoid both a taste of a forbidden substance and consuming more than 1/60 of a forbidden substance, we are not eating anything that is not kosher on either a biblical or rabbinic level.
And as I have interpreted Rabbi Leff's work:
What I learn from this is that, with the exception of ensuring that shechita is done correctly, all kashrut certification is unecessary. All one needs to do is make an honest attempt to inquire about the ingredients used, and any noncompliance with the standards of the Shulchan Aruch is "accidental" and not your fault. And given that the recurring scandals that seem to pop up in the kashrut certification industry, it would seem that eliminating hekshers would remove a large amount of chilul hashem. And eliminating the rules about sperate dishes etc. would also go a long way towards increasing observance by making it easier. After all, who says that Torah observance whould be hard? "It is not in Heaven" (Deut. 30:12), that it should be such a burden.
But why should you pay any attention to me? No reason, I suppose. But at least I'm not part of a community that forces aged grandmothers to do uneccessary hard physical labor in their kitchens.

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