Honestly, this is not anything new, and similar is done in many countries around the world - the government pays farmers to burn crops or to destroy eggs or chicks or to leave the land fallow (why not do this for shmitta?)... but it is still upsetting when you see it in action, when you see the government approval rather than just "knowing" subconsciously that it is happening.

The Chicken Coop Council, based on approval from the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Economics with subsidies, is paying its member farmers to not raise additional chickens, in order to prevent the price of chickens from dropping for the consumer.



Additionally, the Minister of Agriculture has decided, at least for now, to keep the egg quotas exactly the same as last year - no additional eggs allowed. Remember the egg shortage around Pesach time this past year? Despite the growing population, the local egg growers are only allowed to grow the same amount as last year, ensuring that at some point we will suffer another shortage - unless other ministers open up the market for imports. That is besides for keeping the price of eggs from dropping, and probably actually causing them to increase.

So, at least with the chickens (I dont think the egg people are getting paid extra for not growing more eggs), we get to pay twice. First we are paying taxes that are being given to the chicken farmers to not raise chickens, and then we are paying artificially high prices for chicken in the supermarket and at the butcher because of all the chickens that are not being sold.

somebody posted this video to Youtube of a chicken wandering around Crown Heights..

The chicken seems so proud and daring now, but let's see him do this on Erev Yom Kippur! Let's see how daring he really is!

This is weird.

On the one hand, I commend this fellow for finding a solution to a common problem. On the other hand, it rubs me wrong, just a bit, though I am not sure why - it seems on the face of it that this is harmless.

Behadrei found a notice someone posted in Hamodia in which the writer is informing the public of a solution he has come up with.

The problem being, often with kapparos - you know, that waving of the chicken over the head ceremony done between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur - the chickens that have been used already and filled with someone's sins often get mixed back into the pack of unused chickens (or even more previously used chickens), get taken to the next location and then get used again. And maybe they get reused more than once, being taken from location to location filling up with so many people's sins that these chickens' souls must turn deep black before they ever get shechted.

So this fellow has come up with a solution to the problem. His solution is to bring along a can of black spray paint to the kapparos center. After he waves his bird and relieves himself of his sins, he then sprays a bit of black on the chicken so that the chicken will be easily identifiable as having already been used. A used chicken.

This fellow writes to the public, via Hamodia newspaper letters, that they should:
1. pay attention when you do kapparos and make sure you are picking up a chicken that does not have any black spray paint on it
2. if possible, bring your own spray paint with you when you go to do your kapparos, and give your own chicken a little shpritz as well. The more people doing this, the less likely the chickens will get reused.

I actually laughed when I first read this. I hope he doesn't bring the wrath of PETA down upon him for this...

The following 5 pages is a letter written by Rav Dovid Yechiel Verner, the rav of Hadera. This letter was distributed by the Rabbanut via its mailing list. The contents of the letter are both interesting and important, so I have decided to share it with you here.

Rav Verner has given his hechsher to a brand of chickens called Hod Chefer. The hechsher he gave to this companies chickens was a mehadrin hechsher. In this letter, Rav Verner announces his decision to remove the mehadrin status of the hechsher, and the demotion to a regular kosher hechsher instead. The first two pages of the letter are the announcement of the decision, and the approval of the new status. The next pages are a letter to the shochtim and supervisors explaining his decision (I will only translate the last pages - the letter explaining his decision).

By the way, the change is effective immediately. Rav Verner says that the company is changing the packaging to remove the word mehadrin from the label, but if you should come across such chickens that still say mehadrin, they should be treated as regular kosher and not mehadrin. People who eat this brand of chicken and want the mehadrin level should be aware that Rav Verner says these chickens are no longer mehadrin.

Rav Verner writes to the shochtim explaining:
I feel obligated to explain to you why i decided to lower the level of the hechsher of the Hod Chefer slaughterhouse from mehadrin kosher to regular kosher - not mehadrin, so that nobody should imagine that there has been a weakness in your holy work.

I testify about you that your quality of work has not changed n the slightest recently. Just the opposite, you have been more careful and more diligent in your holy work and you stand on the guard of kashrus with strength and wisdom, with fear of God and great expertise. Everybody knows that your work is a prime example of mehadrin kashrus. 

The reason for the lowering of the level of kashrus is due to recently a number of very important Badatzes have come to our place and are slaughtering many chickens in a special unit nearby us. The mehadrin chickens they package into special packages with the hechsher of those Badatzes using their own name. The chickens that they reject from being mehadrin they are passing to us for us to kasher along with the chickens that we shechted here. The administrators of the factory have asked me that these chickens should be sold with the produce of Hod Chefer under my name and with my hechsher as mehadrin.

And I ask, how is it possible to ask me to do such a thing? All the shochtim and bodkim of those Badatzes have not been appointed by me, they are not working under my authority, but under the authority of those Badatzes - and those Badatzes do not allow their name to display on this produce under any level of kashrus, yet from me they want me to approve it as mehadrin, while the Badatzes wont even give it a regular kosher status....
About 20% to 30% of the chickens shechted by those Badatzes are rejected daily by the and want to salt those chickens separately, and then I would be able to continue giving the mehadrin hechsher to the chickens shechted by us at Hod Chefer and I would give those rejected chickens the kashrus of regular kosher.

But, the administration of the factory has decided to transfer to us all those chickens slaughtered by the other Badatzes, and that we should kasher them together with our chickens - yet we know salting is like boiling - and a high percentage of our chickens are mixed up with the chickens being brought from there, and how can they demand of me to certify those as mehadrin!

This is the reason that I am forced, with great pain and distress, to lower the level of kashrus of Hod Chefer to regular kosher - not mehadrin. There are other reasons as well, but out of the ways of peace I will not state them.

The factory administration has promised to me a number of times that they would fix the situation, that the other chickens will be kashered separately, but have reneged on those promises. So, I cannot give the mehadrin hechsher to this mixed up produce when a large percentage is really not mehadrin.

I pray together with you that the factory administration will find a way to separate our produce from their produce so that we will be able to upgrade the level of our kashrus certification on our chickens back to mehadrin.

thoughts:

I imagine Rav verner must know the reason those chickens were rejected and is not suspicious of them actually being not kosher rather than just not mehadrin. He does not say what was wrong with them and why those Badatzes rejected them, but even as regular kosher he could not accept them unless he knew they were really so.

20-30% sounds like an extremely high percentage of rejects, specifically for chickens. I am very curious what they are being rejected for.

I am surprised the administration is willing to give up the mehadrin status for this and is not quick to create a method to keep the batches of chickens separate. The mehadrin chickens are sold at a higher price than regular kosher chickens, and they have sold them so for a long time until now. Suddenly dropping the price is going to be a big hit. The increased volume must be humongous to make up for it.

I commend Rav Verner for sticking to his guns despite the heavy pressure he must have been under...

There are some seasonal topics that just never get old. Every year the press, and blogs and other places of commentary, rehash the same old topics and arguments discussing why the common minhag is wrong, is bad and the like.

Some of the more common ones are:

• kitniyot on Pesach
• Tashlich
• staying up all night learning on Shavuos night
• traveling to Uman for Rosh Hashana
• upsherin

The chicken crossed the street because...he didn't realize he was a chicken.

During the pre-Pesach shechita (many more chickens are being shechted now because of the upcoming holiday), an unusual chicken has been found. A chicken with no tail. A chicken with no tail is discussed in the gemara as to how it should be considered and whether "gid ha'nashe" applies to it or not, and it is left as a question with no answer. Animals require the sinew to be removed, and they have a rounded bone. The chicken with no tail also has the same rounded bone (smaller of course), and therefore, with its physiology being different, is questionable whether it should be treated like an animal and have the sinew removed, or like a bird and not remove it.

Because the situation is one of a safek regarding a Torah law, Rav Avraham Dov Auerbach paskened that the sinew should be removed.

This situation is extremely rare, so the psak is not common.

(source: Ladaat)

How many answers do you know to the age old question "Why did the chicken cross the road?"?

There are plenty of answers, and you can find oodles of them just by typing the question into Google...

But we now have a new answer... To get away from the Shochet!

Some chicken was used for kapparot at one of these kapparot stands in Upper Nazareth. Before the shochet could whack it, the chicken made a daring escape. For three days he eluded the search parties, and wreaked havoc around the neighborhood waking local residents with his cackling.

After three days they finally caught it, and brought it to its executioner to meet its fate. This time, there was no escape.

one positive result of this incident, is a new answer to the above question..

(thanks to Jameel for pointing me to the story..)

I fired up the grill today to make bbq chicken for Shabbos. Looks and smells great and I can't wait for shabbos to get here so we can eat!!



Here we go...



Before:



During:



After:


Have a great Shabbos everybody!