A recent Kosharot article has spurred an interesting discussion.
Kipa refers to a Kosharot article in which Rav Yitzchak Dvir posited that people cannot rely on the certificate of kashrut hanging in restaurants and other establishments. Rather, each person must do his own investigation into the reliability of the kashrut of the establishment in which he or she wants to eat.
Rabbi Dvir explains that our ability to rely on the kashrut certification comes from the halachic concept of being able to trust even a single witness regarding issues of prohibitions. That gives us the ability to trust someone when they say their food is kosher, or a mashgiach when he says the food is kosher, and even in writing such as via a kashrut certificate.
the problem, however, is that this trustworthiness only works for someone who is testifying that he saw the process of the food preparation and that it was done properly according to halacha. Unfortunately, due to the many "breaches" in kashrut supervision, this is no longer reliable.
Also, the stamps certifying kashrut and the signs posted, are all printed in advance of actually inspecting the food preparation process. Meaning, when I walk into a restaurant and see the kashrut sign that was printed months ago - how can he testify a couple of months ago that today's food is ok? How can they print a label for canned corn or tomato sauce or tuna or frozen chicken that the food is certified kosher when the food hasn't yet been processed and canned and packaged? Testifying in advance as to the kashrut of the food does not work, according to Rabbi Dvir.
Rav Yehuda Amichai from Machon Hatorah VHaaretz argues with the conclusion of Rabbi Dvir of Kosharot and says that anywhere there is a Rabbanut or other kashrut organization with mashgichim that are God-fearing and knowledgeable of the halachot - they can be relied upon and there is no need to do your own investigations, unless problems have been raised.
In my opinion:
most of us don't know how to investigate on our own, and our investigation would almost always be limited to asking the proprietor "is it kosher?". We would ask where they got the vegetables from, where the chicken is from, the meat, etc. and when the proprietor answers it would be meaningless to us.
How do we know he got it from that supplier? should each customer insist on seeing all the paperwork? Should each customer insist on being present when the meat delivery is being made? Do we even know what it means when he says he gets his cheese from Shmulik Cheeses Ltd and the other guy gets his meat from Yanky Meats Ltd.? And when they say they only buy meat that is Rabbanut, or Rubin or Eida or Mahfoud, or Beit Yosef or OU, or whatever, we can't trust that either.
And, if that is the opinion of Kosharot, than they must be of the opinion that all kashrut certification agencies are a scam and unreliable. They should go to the public and try to shut them down. this would bring prices down, and everyone will be doing their own investigations.
When a person goes to the supermarket, as he walks up and down the aisles, he will need to call factories in China and Turkey and the USA and Dimona and Bet Shemesh and Netanya, South Africa and Hong Kong for more information regarding each product. And he would not be able to trust the answers he receives anyway.
A mashgiach kashrut once told me that nowadays (and he told me this 20 some years ago) they need degrees in food sciences to be able to understand what they are looking at in many of these factories, with all the chemicals and additives going into the foods. How does Kosharot expect the general public to not rely on mashgichim but investigate on their own. Do we really have any way of understanding the food preparation process in today's day and age?
What Kosharot is suggesting is impossible.
A person should decide, with his rav's advice or via his own investigations and by finding out as much information as possible, which hechshers he will be able to rely on based on which he considers to be employing trustworthy and God-fearing mashgichim and employing good policies. How can anybody do more than that?
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