another fascinating episode..

comments below




here is what I wrote to the host:

Another fascinating episode. I particularly enjoyed listening to Rabbi Shain, even though normally I consider him a bit extreme. Yasher koach.

I was a little disappointed with the Epstein interview. He seemed to totally miss the point, or was intentionally avoiding the topic, with the question of price difference between chassidishe shechita and non chassidish. of course it is all supply and demand. so would be the difference in price bteween chassidish and non chassidish. the question is really if that is manufactured so that chassidishe will cost more or not, not if cutlets cost more than polkies.

I would request, or at least really appreciate, if you would tackle a similar subject in a future episode, but the difference between hechsherim in Eretz Yisrael. Let me explain. In Eretz Yisrael there is less transparency and most people dont know the standards of each hashgacha. They eat what is acceptable in their community or what hechsher the rav or their freidns tell them is ok, but most people dont know to say I eat this or that hechsher because of this or that chumra but avoid the other hechsher because they do or dont do this or that. There is also a lot of politics involved. It would be great if you could talk to various eretz yisrael rabbonim and mashgichim and purveyors about the difference between hechsherim and chumras and reliability. issues ot be discussed could be very similar to those discussed in this episode, but I would add topics like why some wont eat sefardi hechshers, why some wont eat OU Israel hechsher or Rav Auerbach. The issue would be less regarding chassidishe vs non chassidishe but possibly sefardi and ashkenazi or just the various hechsherim in general.