Q&A: A Question About Rabbis Who Keep Turning Out, in My Eyes, to Be Full of Nonsense
A Question About Rabbis Who Keep Turning Out, in My Eyes, to Be Full of Nonsense
Question
Forgive me for the strange question, but I’m already bursting.
Really.
Is there some organization that answers questions about kashrut (and let’s assume they don’t have political agendas…)
Lately I’ve noticed that the people answering there are apparently ignoramuses, or something close to that.
Of course, they’re not embarrassed to come out against other rabbis and organizations (maybe a bit more liberal than they are, but certainly Torah scholars and not clownish hacks and frauds pretending to be so pious).
I’ve already caught them publicly in 3 cases.
1. A rabbi in his community, before taking the risk of bringing in new products, checks into them.
He told me that his policy is that when a new slaughterhouse enters the market, he investigates and tries to bring it into the area under his authority if it meets the high standards he requires.
And why?
Because usually a new investor who wants to enter the market lowers prices, and it’s good for the public to have fresh chicken at a reasonable price if the kashrut is satisfactory.
A new slaughterhouse came in, and that organization published something against it, so the rabbi instructed that they not be brought into his area.
But afterward he invested effort and investigated, and it turned out this was just slander they had bought from a bitter ritual slaughterer who had been fired, and there was no halakhic justification at all for smearing them.
The rabbi, who had been persuaded to believe them, told me he is full of sorrow that he caused financial harm to members of the community (one of the most prominent senior rabbis).
2. On the last Seventh Day of Passover, which was adjacent to the Sabbath, they published laws about how to organize the kitchen for the Sabbath (going a bit beyond the field of kashrut, which is supposedly their only official agenda) and wrote that on a Jewish holiday it is forbidden to use a Sabbath timer. I checked the Jewish law, including strict books like Shemirat Shabbat Kehilchatah by Neuwirth and others, and it is plainly permitted.
I posted that they were mistaken and misleading people, and being strict beyond what the law requires (just a pile of ignoramuses there spraying out rulings), and they neither apologized nor corrected it. (Their honor is apparently more important than the truth of Torah.)
3. Someone asked them about chips (a snack in a bag), and they answered that it is forbidden.
Why?
Because of a (reasonable) concern about food cooked by non-Jews.
I pointed out to the rabbi there that this is not food fit for a king’s table, and it’s simple street food (and that was also Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv’s ruling; I sent him testimony), so it is permitted, and as expected he did not retract.
It seems we’re dealing with arrogant, nonsense-spouting, mediocre ignoramuses who present themselves as careful conservatives, while multiplying attacks on other important rabbis and organizations. (Whose sin is that they aren’t considered conservative.)
Is it permitted? Is it proper? To publicize this in public?
Mentioning them explicitly by name?
So people will know to keep away from these clowns?
Are 3 cases that I happened to come across enough?
Answer
I also don’t like these organizations and think they are influenced far too strongly by an agenda, but what you write here is also biased. You certainly have not shown that they are ignoramuses.
- The fact that they mistakenly accepted testimony is not ignorance. A single witness is trusted regarding prohibitions, especially when there is no established presumption, as with a new organization. They didn’t realize that he was a biased witness. That can happen to any of us. I don’t think there is a single kashrut organization that hasn’t stumbled in something like this.
- I assume they are relying on an approach that they themselves hold by, and that is their right. You can disagree with them and also choose not to follow them, but from there to the conclusion that they are ignoramuses is a long way.
- The question of what qualifies as food fit for a king’s table depends on assessment, and it is entirely reasonable that there would be differences of opinion about it. By its nature, this is a question of accepted social norms. The fact that Rabbi Elyashiv said something does not mean everyone is obligated to agree with him.
- You can publicize what you know and what you think in a reasoned way, if the facts are verified and the positions are well argued. You cannot slander them and call them clowns or ignoramuses, at least not on the basis you have presented here.