Q&A: Kashrut Certifications
Kashrut Certifications
Question
I wanted to know the Rabbi’s opinion: up to what point is the rule that one witness is trusted regarding prohibitions applicable in matters of kashrut certification?
In other words, my question is whether, when I see a Rabbinate certification on some product, that has the significance of “one witness is trusted regarding prohibitions” and I can eat it, or whether, since I can inspect the certification itself in detail and follow the supervisors, it no longer has the status of trustworthiness and it is forbidden to eat.
(I’d also be happy to hear the Rabbi’s general view on this whole issue of certifications, what is appropriate to eat, etc.)
Answer
I don’t have a clear position, because it is very hard to know the details of the reality. Descriptions of it are biased by political agendas. In general, I have no doubt that every certification has serious problems, sometimes because of mistakes and sometimes because of corrupt people. But there is no alternative, and if there is an organized certification one may rely on it.
The rule that one witness is trusted regarding prohibitions is true when we have no suspicions of various biases. You have to understand that one witness regarding prohibitions is not a formal law but a matter of reality. In matters of prohibition, testimony is not required; rather, clarification of the facts is required (which is why a woman is also trusted, and likewise a non-Jew speaking casually or one who would not undermine his own credibility, as in civil courts). Therefore, you are the one who has to decide whether, from your perspective, the reality is sufficiently clarified or not. The formal discussion about the parameters of the trustworthiness of one witness has no relevance at all. But you cannot really investigate the various supervisions, unless you devote your life to a separate comprehensive investigation every time you put some food into your mouth.
Of course, if the standards themselves are not acceptable to you, then don’t eat it. For example, if you do not eat milk of non-Jews, then Rabbinate certification on dairy products is of no use to you. Not because you do not trust them, but because even according to their own standards it is forbidden for you.
Discussion on Answer
Your Honor hasn’t checked anything, because it’s impossible to check. All certifications have a presumption of kashrut, and from there on, decide for yourself.
Just to give you an idea:
I work from time to time in matzah supervision.
And the failures are insane.
A. Some of the supervisors are supervising their smartphones, not the conveyor belt.
B. There are places in the machine that there’s no chance of cleaning, and dough sits there for hours and becomes leavened.
C. Sometimes a flood of leaven comes through that there’s no chance of controlling. (Fast conveyor belt.)
To finish, a short story:
They assigned me to clean and vacuum dough that stuck to the side of the machine
Every few minutes, so that 18 minutes wouldn’t pass over the dough.
And suddenly I notice that on the other side of the conveyor, which has no access, a lot of dough is stuck there that can’t be cleaned.
I asked the machine operator, what is my work worth?! When on the other side the dough is having a party?!
And he answered without blinking:
“It’s dangerous to clean inside there.” And danger is treated more stringently than prohibition,
and therefore the matzot are kosher!!!
Under the certification of the Badatz of the Edah HaHaredit.
Which certification is that?
Did you contact the relevant people in order to disqualify that certification?
I don’t think all this is any more severe than finding a slaughtered kid between Tiberias and Tzippori, where the ruling is that we follow the majority and it is permitted to eat it.
There is a possibility of a kashrut problem, but it seems to me that in the great majority of cases there are no problems.
There’s no one to contact. The supervisor knows.
I eat only chaburah matzot.
The answer is usually: don’t interrupt the Arab from cleaning.
A huge factory like that is a money-printing machine.
If there’s a screw-up, they let it pass. You can’t stop machines that big and clean every 18 minutes.
You have to ask whether there is even such a thing as kosher machine matzot.
With God’s help, 11 Tevet 5782
To the Rabbi — greetings,
See Rabbi Mordechai Volnov’s article “Mehadrin Matzot” (on the website “LeMaaseh”), which discusses the common problems with “machine matzot.” There are bakeries that are strict about having a special oven for matzot and about cleaning the system every 18 minutes. (A description of working with two machines that alternate every 18 minutes, where one operates while the other undergoes a thorough cleaning, appears in the article “Cleaning Machines for Baking Matzot” on the “Din” website.)
In bakeries where that is not possible, they rely on nullification of the remnants in the majority before Passover (according to the Shulchan Arukh, it does not reawaken, and according to the Rema, liquid mixed with liquid does not reawaken, and they reason that the dough remnants are considered “liquid mixed with liquid”). And they rely on the lenient opinions, since every “tiny amount prohibition” is only rabbinic.
And the rule in life is:
Whoever can be stringent should be as “Rhein” as his means allow. But if this involves, Heaven forbid, “nerves” or contempt for the many who rely on lenient opinions—there one should rely on “God is gracious” who does not come with excessive demands upon His creatures in a place of pressure and difficulty.
With blessings, Shraga Kopel Halevi Feitelovsky
Hahaha, I liked that.
Thanks.
And may I ask Your Honor, since you surely checked this, which certifications are permitted to eat?