Ma’aseh Shehaya – Once Upon A Time A Cautionary Kashrus Chronicle

(Dear Readers: Although at the end of last week’s article I stated that I would delve deeper into the meaning of the Chasam Sofer’s novel description of the events of Asara B’Teves, and how it is relevant to unfortunate events occurring all around us, I beg the readers’ indulgence to wait another week for that, as an event took place last week which highlights the importance of reading these columns in Chadash and attending the lectures that are sometimes shamelessly promoted therein.)

Way back when, when we were first getting to know each other, I wrote a series of articles entitled “Just What Are Mehadrin Standards?” We discussed that there are different standards for different Hechsheirim, much as there are different standards for different qualities of anything we deal with, e.g., washing machines, tape recorders, cars, elevators — the point being that even if we can point to a bottom-line seeming similarity (at the end of the day — It’s kosher, isn’t it? It gets the clothes clean, doesn’t it? It plays music, doesn’t it? It gets you from point A to point B, doesn’t it? It moves you up and down, doesn’t it?), there are, nevertheless, distinctions in dependability; in ability to work under less-than-ideal circumstances; in durability; in extra features which ensure a safer, more confident experience. And so surely we should understand that different Hechsheirim offer different standards to confront practical problems which inevitably arise in the real world, especially given the sophistication and intricate reality of the food industry and the complex halachic issues that have to be dealt with. We concluded by making the point that as most laymen (and Talmidei chachamim) are not up to the task of researching the standards of the plethora of kashrus organizations, and equally not up to the task of doing the necessary halachic research (and making halachic decisions) to determine just what those standards should be, every person must have a rav, or some expert in the field to be guided by, no less than we are guided by our doctors, our car mechanics, and our Consumer Reports. To be continued: