Nov 3, 2014
mehadrin shrimp and mehadrin shnitzel with butter
2 kashrut issues:
1.
the following images are making a sensation...
it seems to be a weird situation.. the product is under the mehadrin hechsher of Chug Chatam Sofer, as can be seen in the second picture.
In the first picture you can see the packaging states "contains: shrimp". On the importer label, there is no mention of it, along with it bearing a mehadrin hechsher (forget mehadrin - any hechsher at all is surprising).
you can see the same jar of curry paste sold on Tesco. It clearly states it has shrimp paste within
I would assume the import label with the hechsher is unauthorized.
2.
The Leonardo Plaza Hotel in Jerusalem was caught serving meat and milk, according to Kikar this past Friday night.
A non-religious family asked the waiter, an Arab, to bring butter to the table, upon which was already meat dishes. The waiter promptly brought out a few pats of butter, and they used it to eat with their shnitzel.
Other guests at the hotel who saw what was going on approached the mashgiach and informed him of the incident. He immediately removed the butter and replaced it with pareve margarine. He also had the plates removed and disposed of, and brought out new plates.
As a guest said, it was shocking how easily this happened. Within moments the waiter brought dairy to the fleishige table.
It reminds me of a relative who works in Kashrut who was at a kashrut conference of a major organization. He bet the other rabbis at the table that he would get meat and dairy. He then slipped the waiter a bit of money and asked him to bring some milk for his coffee, while eating a meat meal. Moments later the waiter brought out the milk, and he showed his peers how easy it is to have problems in a public setting.
Back to our story... Rav Boorshtein, head of the mehadrin kashrut, said the waiter was a new employee who failed to discern between the butter and the margarine, and he was immediately fired.
My point - mistakes happen everywhere. Even under the watchful eye of the best kashrut organizations. We do our best, but in our systems, it is is still not perfect.
1.
the following images are making a sensation...
it seems to be a weird situation.. the product is under the mehadrin hechsher of Chug Chatam Sofer, as can be seen in the second picture.
In the first picture you can see the packaging states "contains: shrimp". On the importer label, there is no mention of it, along with it bearing a mehadrin hechsher (forget mehadrin - any hechsher at all is surprising).
you can see the same jar of curry paste sold on Tesco. It clearly states it has shrimp paste within
I would assume the import label with the hechsher is unauthorized.
2.
The Leonardo Plaza Hotel in Jerusalem was caught serving meat and milk, according to Kikar this past Friday night.
A non-religious family asked the waiter, an Arab, to bring butter to the table, upon which was already meat dishes. The waiter promptly brought out a few pats of butter, and they used it to eat with their shnitzel.
Other guests at the hotel who saw what was going on approached the mashgiach and informed him of the incident. He immediately removed the butter and replaced it with pareve margarine. He also had the plates removed and disposed of, and brought out new plates.
As a guest said, it was shocking how easily this happened. Within moments the waiter brought dairy to the fleishige table.
It reminds me of a relative who works in Kashrut who was at a kashrut conference of a major organization. He bet the other rabbis at the table that he would get meat and dairy. He then slipped the waiter a bit of money and asked him to bring some milk for his coffee, while eating a meat meal. Moments later the waiter brought out the milk, and he showed his peers how easy it is to have problems in a public setting.
Back to our story... Rav Boorshtein, head of the mehadrin kashrut, said the waiter was a new employee who failed to discern between the butter and the margarine, and he was immediately fired.
My point - mistakes happen everywhere. Even under the watchful eye of the best kashrut organizations. We do our best, but in our systems, it is is still not perfect.
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Rafi,
ReplyDeleteYou wrote that the Inbal has a mehadrin hechsher. Are you sure about that? Last time I was there they didn't.
it was the Plaza, not the inbal. my mistake
DeleteKikar says it was the PLAZA, not the Inbal!
ReplyDeletefixed. my mistake.
DeleteThe waiter was FIRED? They said it was a new employee. Every new employee (and not-so-new employees) make mistakes. Use it as a chance to teach him the right thing to do. If someone should get fired, my vote would be with the mashgiach - kashrut is his job, not the waiters'.
ReplyDeleteThe waiter's job is to do as he's told to by the mashgiach. He didn't, he was fired.
DeleteReally? The waiter reports to the Mashgiach? Sounds weird. The Mashgiach's job is to ensure that kashrut is upheld. There's no indication from the article that anyone told the waiter not to serve butter. In fact, from the hotel's statement ("he was new") it seems that no one had told the waiter otherwise.
Deletemaybe he had been told? maybe they tell all new waiters about not taking anything from the dairy kitchen for the meat meals, and vice versa?
DeleteI am actually surprised it was so easy for this to happen. with all the safeguards and separations we have in place nowadays, still such a simple mistake can occur
i wonder if they fire (so quickly) someone caught leaving the restroom without washing his hands. secondly, no doubt firing an arab is a lot easier than firing a jew.
DeleteSame company has vegan curry paste for sale in similar container. So it might actually be kosher.
ReplyDeleteThere are many things wrong with this whole episode. Firstly, it appears that most of the hotels in Israel today cannot be relied on for 'kashrut'. Secondly, this latest shtick with mock treifus is disgusting and would think every kosher Jew feels the same. Why, oh why in the world would any Jew even want to imitate treifus. Just thinking of it, should be nauseating to the kosher Jew. We have reached the lowest point, in general, in the Jewish world; has to be a sign of Moshiach coming very soon, otherwise, we're in real trouble.
ReplyDeleteI never thought green curry paste could be so inspiring
DeleteMock tereifut is not only not disgusting - it's showing our faith to HKB"H and His Torah Lishma - and not avoiding certain foods just because we're disgusted by it. Why shouldn't we have Kosher bacon bits? Why can Jewel-brand Bacon-wrapped Jalapeno Popper not have a Chof-K Dairy on it? (I can email Rafi a picture of this if he wants.)
DeleteSee Rashi Vayikra 20:26:
רבי אלעזר בן עזריה אומר מנין שלא יאמר אדם נפשי קצה בבשר חזיר אי אפשי ללבוש כלאים אבל יאמר אפשי ומה אעשה ואבי שבשמים גזר עלי ת"ל ואבדיל אתכם מן העמים להיות לי שתהא הבדלתכם מהם לשמי פורש מן העבירה ומקבל עליו עול מלכות שמים
I agree that there are many signs that we have reached a low point and that Mashiah is coming, but IMHO, this is not one of them.