The specific product is not mentioned, nor is the specific hechsher on the product mentioned, so presumably it makes no difference and the question asked is regarding all foreign hechshers, not the specific hechsher on the specific cheese this fellow saw in the store.
I do not know why such a general question was asked. If the hechsher is one the buyer normally relies on, why would he ask now? And if the buyer was unfamiliar with this hechsher, why did he not just ask about the specific hechsher? I suspect that either the question is fabricated to get to the point in the answer, which is fine and not uncommon.
Rav Shmuel Eliyahu, Chief Rabbi of Tzfat and member of the kashrut committee for imports, responded with a psak that one should not purchase imported cheeses. Rav Eliyahu stressed that it does not matter which hechsher is on the cheese nor if it claims to be mehadrin and cholov yisrael, and even if it bears the logo of multiple hechsher companies, and even with the approval of the Chief Rabbinate, or whatever else it might be - do NOT buy imported cheeses.
Rav Eliyahu quotes his father, Rav Mordechai Eliyahu zt"l, to explain that the level of kashrut in Israel is far superior to the kashrut levels abroad. he says the best hechshers in chutz laaretz don't come to 1000th of the level of the basic hechsher level in Israel.
source: Kipa
Presumably cheese is only mentioned because of Shvuos right around the corner, but his approach is surely on all imported goods - the quote from his father makes no mention of cheese, just the levels of kashrut in Israel and abroad.
There are kashrut awareness organizations in Israel that believe the same and promote the same approach. A particular organization I am familiar with rejects the kashrut of imported products, no matter the hechsher on them with the same explanation of the best of kashrut abroad using too many kulas, leniencies, and being a far lower level than kashrut here. I myself have tested this by asking about products bearing the most widely acceptable of hechsherim and have been told not to rely on them.
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As you mentioned, generalizations like that don't make sense. And that self-satisfied sense of superiority .... no wonder we are still waiting for redemption. I actually do not believe that Israeli Kashrut authorities are any better as, for example, an OU or Star-K in the U.S., or Kedassia in the U.K., or the unified Adass Yeshurun / Agudas Achim of Switzerland, or Chief Rabbinate / CRIF of France. On the contrary, we have heard of so much rule bending and corruption that a sense of superiority like that is a mockery of kashrut laws. A little introspection and "let's clean out our own stable first" might be the most appropriate approach for just about every Kashrut supervision agency.
ReplyDeleteExactly right. Very well put.
DeleteI once heard Rav shmuel's father, Rav Mordechai Eliahu speaking about imported dairy products. He said that besides the question of whether the imported products are kosher, there is a Biayazon of Eretz Yisrael if you stand in a store with shelves filled with Israeli products, grown here by Jews building the Land of Israel, and ignore those products to buy something from Chutz L'Artetz. Plus there is benefit to the Israeli economy by buying local produce.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a psak to only eat local dairy products, rather a recommendation.
ReplyDelete