From the Q&A:
Author: avrom
E-mail: not available
Date: 12/1/2005 2:07:00 PM
Subject: hechsherim
Message: if faced with two products with the same ingredients on the label one bearing the ou and one not could you lechatchilah take any?

Reply: either
CYA

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Author: Chaya Weiss
E-mail: chayaweiss@hotmail.com
Date: 11/22/2005 6:00:00 PM
Subject: Gelatin as medication medium
Message: Are Metamucil and other medicinal capsules, containing medications but made with gelatin, alright to use?

Since they are made from real gelatin and are therefore of meat origin, is there an additional inyan with also avoiding dairy products at or near the time one would take such a capsule?

Thank you for your time and attention. Tizkeh Lemitzvos.


Reply: gelatin is not a problem and not considered meat-and therefore no to #2...
YA


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Author: Ezra
E-mail: not available
Date: 10/31/2005 1:08:00 AM
Subject: eating in non-kosher restaurants
Message: Rabbi:

I am a yeshiva-educated young man who is now in the work force. It seems to me that many rabbis ignore a pressing, practical set of halachos - how to behave when work takes us to a non-kosher restaurant.

1. Should I remove my yarmulka when entering a non-kosher establishment?

2. It would be helpful if you would provide some guidance as to what we can order (other than Diet Coke and coffee).

How do you feel about the following foods:

vegatable salad - no dressing
vegatable salad - with olive oil
cut fruit
sashimi (raw fish such as tuna, salmon)
lox/smoked salmon
cooked/baked/grilled tuna or salmon (and, if so, how must it be prepared?)
bread/breadsticks
cheese

I know there are hundreds of people like me who are placed in this position on a daily basis. I also know that it is easy to tell us to avoid such situations. Frankly, though, I don't think that that is practical advise.

You are one of the few who are willing to address uncomfortable questions such as this one. I admire that very much, and thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

Respectfully,

Ezra

Reply: 1) Do not remove your Yarmulka (Kippa) at the restaurant, unless you are in a place where it would be dangerous to wear one, like the Gaza or Paris. Then try wearing the local headcovering (in both cities probably a Kafia).

2) Salad is OK in a clean establishment if you stay away from green leafy stuff. Red cabbage is good, cucumbers, olives, peppers, tomatoes, baby corn, chick peas, you know....

Sashimi that is clean (look at it) is OK. (obviously only of Kosher fishes).

Grilled Fish is OK only if there are Jewish chefs or if you turn the fire on, or better yet put the fish on the grill. The grill can be Koshered in advance by having it clean and the fire on high for five minutes, clearly destroying any remnants of flavor from any previous dish.

Ask about the bread and the soup if it is vegetarian. Say "I cannot have any beef or chicken." If you stick to regular breads that you are familiar with you'll be fine. Like Rye Bread, White Bread, Italian Bread, etc. Beware of breads in Europe that have higher odds of lard being used. Ask, ask, ask. People are very frightened of lawsuits from allergies and will be honest about these things.

Breadsticks are fine.

Smoked fishes are not a problem.

All fruit is OK.

Most deserts are fine. Again, ask if any animal derivative. In America today it is almost unheard of to put lard in a cake.

Also, don't be afraid to say Birkat Hamazon" right there in the restaurant. Most people respect your religion and look favorably on a person with some self-respect.

Hatzlachah Raba!
AA

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You've been very helpful in teaching people about which ingredients determine the kashrut of a product, so that people need not be dependant on certification organizations.

My question is about bread. Recently, you said that a particular bread (Pepperidge Farm Raisin Bread, I believe) was kosher, based on the ingredients.

My husband pointed out to me the rule of taking of challah, in which a bit of dough is set aside and burned. He's concerned that non-certified bread will not have been made doing this, and that this might be problematic.

I appreciate any response to this question. There are many great breads available in my area (often from local breadmakers) that are probably made with acceptable ingredients, and I would like to know what you think about eating them, in light of this issue.

Thank you.

Reply: It is a good point, but it is not required.
CYA



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Author: Ari
E-mail: not available
Date: 10/3/2005 8:21:00 AM
Subject: Pizza
Message: Knife by MS on 7/12/2005 3:24:00 PM
I was at a birthday party and one of the workers cut the kosher pizza with the non-kosher knife. Assuming the knife was ben yomo and had earlier been used to cut non-kosher pizza, does that mean that all th eslices that were cut are treif?...
reply: If the knife was clean, it is no problem. CYA...

But why isn't the knife treif, since it cut non-kosher pizza?

Reply: HUH?
CYA

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Author: Julian
E-mail: not available
Date: 9/24/2005 9:43:00 PM
Subject: Kosher Gelatin
Message: Hi Rabbi,

What exactly is kosher gelatin, and how kosher is it? I'm specifically talking about an ingredient found in Dannon Lite N' Fit yogurt that only has a K hashgacha as opposed to the OU which they have on all others.Thank you

Reply: all gelatin is kosher. In recent years, they also manufacture gelatin from fish.
YA

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Author: Chaim
E-mail: not available
Date: 7/6/2005 4:02:00 AM
Subject: is this site APIKORSUS?
Message: Hello AA,
I was reading through your responses to people's kashrut questions and your answers to everything seem to be along the lines of "Check the ingredients, and if nothing looks to be a meat or cheese product, it's OK". We don't need that response, as we already have our Yetzer Haros telling us that.

There are other Jews who are asking from you an honest answer and you are telling them what you think they want to hear, and leading people in a directions away from Torah! You may be caught up in things and be unaware of what the effects of such answers are, which is why I urge you to please rethink your approach to these answers.

You told somebody that they can go to Subway for a Tuna sandwich... a Jew is not even allowed to walk into a Subway because of Moris Ayin! Are you inside this particular Subway that this person was inquiring about, and watching the production process of all the ingredients involved in the tuna, the mayonaise, the bread, the knife that was just used to cut bacon?... and you told somebody else that dependent on the ingredients in the McDonalds Veggie Burger heated in the McDonalds microwave, it may be kosher. Even if by some chance the veggie burger is of kosher ingredients and prepared properly, the microwave is definitely not kosher!

You wrote to somebody else that we do not need Hashgachos because before the 1900s they did not have such things, so why should we have today? Before the 1900s everybody made they're own food and knew what was inside of it. Nowadays we have ingredients that people can't pronounce originating from plants from all over the world.

Thank G-d, we have OU and OK and all the other kosher symbols out there to tell us what is and is not consumable by a Jew. If it weren't for those, we would have to be still be making our own food.

We don't need a second opinion to simply say that we can make our own rules, and certainly do not need somebody with the title "Rabbi" posting it on a website kashrut.org.
It is time to lighten up.

Please, please rethink what you are doing and act accordingly.

- Chaim

Reply: We rethought about it and we are continuing to stay on the path of the Tanaim of the Gemara.
However thanks for your concern for K'lal Yisroel.
CYA

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Q & A Board - View Post

Author: Sam
E-mail: not available
Date: 5/15/2003 2:41:00 PM
Subject: Tuna
Message: I have read that since sometimes non-kosher fish are found mixed in with the tuna that is caught in
the ocean, since each fish is a separate and distinct entity the halocho kol deporish meruboh porish does not apply. Does this make any sense?

Reply: These people are so full of baloney, it isn't funny. They suggest that since Dolphins are caught with Tuna, the tuna isn't Kosher. How? why? What did the dolphins do to the tuna? Are you going to open a can of tuna & find dolphin & not know the difference? Give me a break!
AA

==================
Author: hidden from view
E-mail: not available
Date: 8/1/2004 9:05:00 PM
Subject: Rabbi Abadi
Message: You wrote:

In regards to packaged products...
Did you ever eat one product and taste the flavor of another product? You eat mars bar and you taste Milky Way?
Isn't the Halachah of Taaruvot dependant on TASTE? If we know that there is no taste, we are done. We don't need 60, we don't need a Kefeila, and we don't need Pagum. Why is it that basic Halachah is forgotten and we just follow to the letter whatever propoganda is fed to us?!

---------------

This "propaganda" is the view of the Rama, who ruled that we do not rely on our tastebuds and follow 60 and ben-yomo without distinction. Your father holds like the Beis yosef? Good. But the other side is not propoganda.

Aaron, I truly have trouble understanding part of your style.

I would say that the areas of disagreement between your father Shlita and other poskim and rabbis can be narrowed down to the following:

1- The corruption of the unqualified people in the Kashrus industry, that fools or coerces food companies into paying for supervision and symbols when they are not required by halacha.

2- Actual, real and understandable machlokes poskim based on different understandings of the words of the Talmud and Rishonim.

3- Your father shlita, a sefardi, does not accord the same weight to Ashkenazi precedent that Ashkenazi poskim traditionally give. i.e. eino ben-yomo rules, glass, grama on shabbos.

Your father shlita's views are part of the mesora and all those who follow his psak are justified in considering them as Divrei Elokim Chaim.

In my opinion, where this website veers off is when you accuse other rabbis, balebatim who disagree with your father's shitos of the corruption and stupidity of cause #1 above.

Why can't you distinguish between those who honestly and knowledgeably disagree with your father (e.g. gelatin, eino ben yomo, grama) and those who are crooked (e.g. give a hechsher to Tide detergent and bleach)?

Please reply kindly. I have been polite.

Reply: Propoganda?

Not true! Look at the Teshuvot Haramah. As I said, “propaganda.” It is just a simplistic reading of the RAM”A without proper background research. The entire concept of Shishim is taste. This is undisputed. The RAM”A just says that we cannot trust Kefeila today for certain reasons. It is a trust issue. When people read the Shulchan Aruch & Ram”a and without background info think they have the Laws and their reasons under control, they go under the category of “Baaley Mishneh MeValey HaOlam.” (This is not my statement, look into it) Not referring to you or anyone in particular, just explaining why if someone has a an attitude of a Psak my father makes based on his understanding without doing his proper research, that is why I will chop his head off....
"holds like the Beis yosef..."

Not true at all! Many Sephardim, unfortunately, are like that, but not my father. Your guess is wrong. My father takes into account all Jewish Talmidey Chachamim. Not just the Ramba"m, not just the "Kaf HaChaim." Not just the Satmar or Lubavitch Rebbis, and so on.
Grama?

People who hold Grama on Shabbat is not allowed, don’t open their refrigerator, and do not leave their heat or air conditioner on on Shabbat. I disagree with those that do some Gramas and not others, due to a lack of understanding.
Gelatin?

I don’t discount other opinions on gelatin, however, I do wish that those others took the time to determine if it is edible today. Not just assume facts without even attempting to verify.
Eino Ben Yomo?

It is Shulchan Aruch. There is no dispute on this. I’m not sure what you are referring to. Can anyone just make up an opinion to accommodate Halachot that he grew up with? If yes, can a member of Jews for Jesus also rely on the Laws he grew up with and go straight to Heaven?
AA

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Additional Q&A's here:
http://kashrut.org/forum/default.asp?fid=4#4

What do informed people think? Who is the rabbi (Rabbi Yitzchak Abadi)?

Thanks Artscroll for the link, it made for a very interesting reading.

I thought "Chaim" raised some valid points there. Interesting that he was brushed off like that.




I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between crushed tuna and crushed dolphin. Especially since I've never knowingly tasted dolphin in my life.

They talk about most of Chaim's issues throughout the page...





He's not just all heter all the time.

I'm not denying that he knows what he's talking about. I would have been most interested to read his response to "Chaim," however. Not because I think he's wrong - I'm not nearly well-versed enough in the halachos of kashrus to say that - but because I want to understand.

I didnt find any real issues with most of what he says.

and yet, you wouldn't do what he says even for the things you agree with him on, and rely on an agency only.

While he's mostly right, he's still a clown.

What's wrong with being a clown if you're mostly right?

There's nothing wrong with it, but let's face it, very few people follow clowns, even the ones who are right.

Jell-O brand Gelatin once had an OU on it (I think, it might have been another major hescher). It was ruled that the product was 'turned to wood' during production from pork collogen into refined gelatin!

Eliyahu

Well, the clown part is an exaggeration, but the bottom line is very few people follow things they read on the internet as psak halakha. Nevertheless, I think a lot of his arguments make lots of sense, and it is very sad that they'll be thoroughly ignored in favor of the tyranny of the Vaad.

But I'm definitely tempted to print out some of the things he says and take them to my Rav.

I dont understand his issue with soft cheeses. These seem to be no different than butter, which does not fall under gevinas akum.

I read the first few letters, and then had to stop. He is WAY too lenient for my taste (pardon the pun).

I would never eat at his house.


Just my opinion.

I've known about this site for a while. Rabbi Abadi has my utmost respect for not hesitating to dispel popular halachic myths. Anyone can be machmir but only those with 'pleytzus' can be meikel...

BTW he is oftemtimes more machmir than others too...

That's an amazing thing to say. Really.


BTW:





Lakewood Kashruth Organization, POB 1361, Lakewood, NJ 08701. (732) 905-0388. Rabbi Yitzchok Abadi, Halachic Authority; Rabbi Yosef Tesler, Administrator.

On halakhic grounds?

And nobody mentions the fact that he was kinda pushed out of lakewood.

and with regards to "Lakewood Kashruth Organization", i've asked some lakewood folks, and they never heard of it

More hearsay.

Sad.

It isn't hearsay. As I keep saying, he is a maverick. But that doesn't mean that he is pulling his pesak out of a hat. There is a reason why, even though he is definitely not mainstream, he is also not regarded as if he's just issuing phony piskei halakhah. He may be vilified for it (as in the silkscreening) but that's because he is still regarded as an insider in the world of pesak, at least on some level.

Personally I think his approach and method is fascinating, if not something I would consider normative. But facts are facts: he did not leave Lakewood under ammicable circumstances. We would be fooling ourselves if we suggested that his approach to kashruth is Lakewoodesque.

Why does any of that matter? If his psak is halakhically correct, then there you go.

I don't know if his pesaks are correct. I haven't learned the topics well enough and/ or asked a rav who has to peer review him.

I know, but it is all that should matter imo.

I'm very tempted to give them to my Rav, but I haven't exactly figured out how to do that.

Print some out and go, "Rabbi, read this. What's the dealy-o?"

I just went back and re read the whole article. I stand by my original opinion.

Allowing gelatin, cheese without a heksher, bread baked by non-Jews, salad dressing with nonkosher vinegar, etc. Ewww.

There have been times that I have been tempted to buy things without a heksher(frozen chinese food) because all of the ingredients listed were vegetarian, but on closer inspection of the label it says that they were processed on equipment that processes shrimp!

My sister has a seafood allergy that is life threatening. It's made me more aware of how treif things can sneak into otherwise "kosher looking" foods. When it comes to kashrut, I think of myself as having a physical "allergy" to treif, and that helps keep me honest.

Where does he say something about cheese without a heksher?




So there you go then, it only proves his point.

I never heard we prohibited things because of "ewww." Is ewww an issur d'rabbanon or d'oraysa?

There is no question his psak is a valid psak. He is a big rabbi and authority in halakha. Whether someone wants to follow his psak or not is between that person and his rabbi.

the guy is a real apikores. I am syrian, and so is he. The father of the website admin is Yitzhak Abadi, a rabbi they claimed would be the next gadol- he was thrown out of his brooklyn kehila for numerous controversies he created. His sons, more radical than him, are out against the world. Among many things- they allow one to eat at burger king (probably solely because one of their main contributors owns many locations) a veggie burger, salads and the like. They allow eating at subway all tuna. They allow all gelatin Their leniencies in regards to mikveh are totally out of whack- women can go in with nailpolish, or even better- DIP IN A SWIMMING POOL!!! these people are nuts!

There are allot of poskim that allow gelatin, the fact that in American "normative" kosher is not to allow gelatin, is not as clear cut as we put it.

Rav Abadi, is actualy really machmir on cheese, and says allot of the cholov yisrael cheeses are actualy treif, or rather gvinas akum.

His other things deal with the halachos of bitul etc...

He is giving a psak from halacha, whether you like him or not, or whether you are used to it or not, he certainly can give his psak. You don't have to agree with it. But its not "ewww".

He does bring to light though just how MACHMIR we are when it comes to many halachic issues, and how many things really ARE mutar mikkar Ha'din that we just "don't do".
That's not to say that in practice we should be mafrish min hatzibur and be makel on these things, but at least we should KNOW that we are going beyond the letter of the law and that someone who is slightly less strict might not be a total sheigetz....

Since when is "Lakewoodesque kashrus" a halachic standard. It doesn't take a halachic authority to be machmir,it takes ignorance and fear. It takes an expert halachic authority to be a meikel. That said, it doesn't mean there aren't valid points of disagreement within the views of the poskim on his positions.
At least he has the strength of his convictions and sound s'varos to back them up .


Exactly!

R'Moshe iirc has a teschuva where he considers a woman who has gone to a swimming pool to no longer be niddah, and the pool sufficing as a kosher mikva. He says it is okay after the fact. In R'Abadi's answers, he makes it clear that the pool (most pools) is only a good option for people who do not have regular access to a real mikvah, or who would go nowhere at all rather than go to a real mikvah for various reasons. I don't claim to be an expert in the matter, but it seems to me that he has solid grounds to be lenient here.

Not to hijack the thread, but if that's the case, why do we then consider all unmarried women b'chezkat nidah?

In certain communities where swimming in natural bodies of water is at least a once a week kinda thing, it would seem that the umarried women are almost certainly not niddah. If pools are also good, well, that just further weakens the assumption of nidah.

...

Or pre-marital sex?

Because a child born from a niddah is a mamzer otherwise?

Not even close!

I'm lost. מה ענין נדה אצל ממזרות?

Only according to Rabbi Akiva.

Rav Moshe distingishes between halakhah and metaphysics. His reponse is that if one is concerned that the baal/as teshuvah is paguma/pegumah (flawed) in middos (character traits) due to being a ben/bas niddah, that would be a metaphysical concern. Seeing as this baal/as teshuva is not flawed, it must be the case that his/her mother had not been a niddah in the sense that mesntruation had ended as had the week of menstruation (de'orraisa) and she had swum in a halakhically valid body of water.

However, a woman remains a niddah, halakhically, until she has done a hefsek tahrah (mi-de'orraisa) and until she has counted seven clean days - of no bleeding (mi-derabannan).

That's why I am confused with melech's comment.

Perhaps you missed the "dunce" smily.
[It doesn't make sense to me, either, at this point, so it's not like I can even attempt to clarify anything anyway. It's roadkill. Just keep driving].

Ah, ok.

There's a discussion somewhere about the status of nonorthodox women, and children born out of niddah. I'm not sure of the details, but the swimming pool teschuva was brought up in context of that discussion iirc. I'm not sure what exactly the halakhic problem is with mother being in niddah, but that's what the teschuva was trying to solve, and perhaps that's what melech was referring to? Maybe or maybe not.

As I explained above, there is no halakhic problem with a ben niddah; it was/is understood to create a character flaw. Rav Moshe neutralizes the concern, when the baal/as teshuvah is of good character.

Since that obvious point was missed, here are some sources:

"ר' יהודה אומר עז פנים לגיהנם, בוש פנים לגן עדן. עז פנים, ר' אליעזר אומר ממזר, ר' יהושע אומר בן הנדה, ר' עקיבא אומר ממזר ובן הנדה." - מסכת כלה רבתי ב:א

Rambam Issurei Biah 15:1, Sh"A EH 4:13, and Igros Moshe YD 4:17

So did you ask him?

(That site is great!)