Equating your own kashrus standards with facts on the ground

Last night I went to a presentation by R' Yechiel Spira of Jerusalem Kosher News, hosted in the Beis Tefilla Yonah Avraham social hall.

The presentation was on, that's right, good guess, the kashrus scene in Israel, mostly focused on Jerusalem. His main focus of the discussion was the kashrus in restaurants and stores (including the shuk), and he touched on the issues of bugs, catering halls, imported goods and more.

The main point I took from the presentation, and that i felt was the focus of his talk, was the important message that no matter what hecsher or hechsherim you choose to rely on, and everyone should decide that for himself, if necessary with the advice from his own rav or someone knowledgeable in kashrus issues, you need to make sure that the place you are going to eat or buy food from adheres to the standards you expect them to.

There should be no such thing as assuming they adhere to it, thinking they do, and the like. It is so easy to check and see if everything looks ok or looks slightly, or largely, suspicious, there is no reason it should not be done.

if one had a peanut allergy chas vshalom, he would check to the nth degree to make sure there was no trace of questionable product. With kashrus we are affecting oru neshama like the body is affected by those peanuts. if we don't check, at least a reasonable amount, to ensure that the place satisfies our own (and each person will decide his own requirements) kashrus requirements, we are damaging our neshama.

he gave countless examples of situations that on a quick glance, that most of us give when walking into a food establishment, we might think the place is certified and supervised. Yet, if we would take just a few more moments to look a bit better we would see that many times places we choose to eat in might not actually adhere to the standards we have set for ourselves.

A restaurant might have a photocopy of a kashrus certificate rather than the original. It might have a copy of the certificate that sits in the main branch. You might choose to trust the guy telling you it is kosher, but know hat you are trusting him and not relying on the certificate that does not exist. Unless a place has a valid original certificate, it is not considered under supervision. if you call up the certifying agency, whichever one it might be in any given case, and ask them, they will tell you that unless the original is there they are not certified by this agency, no matter what the photocopy says.

This is true whether you trust Rabbanut, Eida Haredis, Rav Rubin Rav Landau, Chasam Sofer, etc. They write signs stating they are under supervision of agency x, y or z, yet it is not true. If you choose to eat there, so be it. Just don't think it is under that supervision unless you see the certificate and/or speak to the mashgiach.

He spoke about more, but that, to me, was the main focus, and lesson, of the presentation.

Yasher Koach to BTYA (and to the sponsors) for hosting this enlightening and educational event that was open to the whole community.