1. The man in a skirt who convinced me to be a proud Jew
2. The idiot's guide to finding a job in Israel
3. Discovering our real heroes
4. This month in the army...
5. A fraudulent kashrut teudah... or not.. - Yechiel Spira does some good work raising awareness to kashrus issues, but sometimes, and this is a good example of it, he just goes too far. He makes his own standards and expects everyone to adhere to them as if they are givens. Yes, it is illegal for someone to declare the restaurant kosher without a Rabbanut hechsher, and then one can place his own hechsher in addition to that. But beyond that, it is a matter of trust. Some organizations giving out hechsherim have been found to be fraudulent, but R' Spira automatically assumes every hechsher he has never heard of is a fraud, and is trying to deceive the public with a teuda that looks like someone else's (note: I did not think the teuda looked so similar to the Jerusalem Mehadrin Rabbinate that it would be confused). As you can see in this post, when he spoke to the person her realized he isn't a fraud (saying nothing at this point about the actual quality of the hechsher) and then took down the original post. Maybe he shouldnt be so zealous to call everyone a fraud in the first place...
6. Proof The Internet is here to stay in the Haredi World - as if proof is needed...
7. Mortality is an opportunity
8. Injured soldiers who returned to service
9. Crediting Tzvi Fishman
10. Still rooting for Aly Raisman
11. Fallen icon - Jimmy Saville
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Thanks for the link!
ReplyDeletehttp://thepartialview.blogspot.com/2012/10/divrei-chizuk-as-vinter-zman-gets.html
ReplyDeletei want to say something about the Spira article.
ReplyDeleteI've heard him speak, and i've heard rabbanim speak about things that he's doing in a negative way. I agree with the rabbanim, he shouldn't be so overzealous. it seems that sometimes he jumps to conclusions quickly and we need to have some more respect for our kashrus system.
But i want to say something else that came up in my head when you mentioned your commentary.
They say that had it not been for Rav Yaakov Emden single-handily fighting the battle against Shabbatai Tzvi-niks, we would still be fighting them today. It was a plague back then, and you didn't know who was a sabbatian and who wasn't. Rav Yaakov Emden, arguably one of the greatest zealots ever, fought everyday of his life against it and never stopped, and sometimes he may have (probably?) went too far. BUT, it is only due to him that it's not a problem we have to fight with today.
With that in mind, there is a problem with kashrus today, and I respect that he is pushing people to think twice about it, and hechshers and restaurant owners need to be more vigilant. Its a fine line between keeping in the right path and showing people where they are wrong. I definitely don't agree with everything he does, but at the same time, i respect what he is doing. It needs to be done - in my opinion.
I hear your point, and I dont disagree. as I said he does a great job raising awareness of kashrus issues.
ReplyDeleteOur Rabbi was asked to look into the kashrut situation of a particular restaurant. During his investigation they did some things that were unusual that set off flags. He asked is Posek what to do. The Posek said that, yes their were things that were suspicious and could be acknowledged as being problematic. Al Pi Din, there was no evidence they did anything wrong and it would be Assur for our Rabbi to declare this place was not kosher.
ReplyDeleteSpira has proven many times over that once he thinks he has found a scandal he is shotty with his follow through. He has damaged the parnasa of many people unnecessarily if he only took a little more time to ask some more questions. As a result in my opinion he has lost all credibility. Until he starts getting stories right the first time, I feel obligated to assume his information is not accurate.