Q&A: Kosher Certification – Forbidden Foods?
Kosher Certification – Forbidden Foods?
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Is there a possible halakhic situation in which a person who eats foods bearing a "kosher certificate" would still stumble into eating forbidden foods? And if not, what is the reason many rabbis instruct people to check the "level of kashrut"? It seems to me like an impossible thing to determine.
Answer
I didn’t understand the question. Why couldn’t the rabbi or the supervisor make a mistake?
Maybe you mean to ask what the law is if the supervisor made a mistake—did the person eating transgress a prohibition? Simply speaking, yes—except that he did so under coercive circumstances or by mistake. Also, if it is possible to check, then you are not acting under coercive circumstances but at most by mistake, and then there is a transgression. Beyond that, regarding forbidden foods, the Sages and the medieval authorities (Rishonim) say that eating them causes a kind of spiritual dulling of the heart ("and you shall be defiled by them"), so people are concerned about this even when there is no prohibition on the formal halakhic level.
Discussion on Answer
I’m not familiar with the details of Tzohar’s supervision, but I do know the organization as one that is run properly and appropriately by God-fearing people. If they don’t scrutinize every last detail, that may itself be the right judgment call. Checking down to the last detail is not necessarily the proper way to operate—both because people are generally trustworthy, and also practically speaking, because if you create a sense of partnership with the business owner, the kashrut may actually improve. And beyond all that, there is of course value, for all our benefit, in undermining the monopoly of the Chief Rabbinate.
Why does the Rabbi recommend eating food under Tzohar supervision (https://mikyab.net/%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA/%D7%9B%D7%A9%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%A9%D7%9C-%D7%A6%D7%94%D7%A8), when they do not, from the outset, scrutinize slaughterhouses and meat-processing facilities down to the last detail? Where is the line between the ideal and the reality, between what is possible and what is not possible, when it comes to kashrut? And in general, what is that formal halakhic level?