Although the Kashrut situation differs in every country, I feel strongly that the words below from HaRav Shlomo Aviner shlit"a (Rosh Yeshivat Ateret Cohanim) are important for all Jews. Both articles were originally published in the weekly Parasha bulletin of Yeshivat Machon Meir.- Rabbi Shmuel Jablon

Are all hechsherim kosher?

Rav Shlomo Aviner

Question: What difference is there between all the hechsherim (Kashrut supervisions) on food products? I heard people making fun of hechsherim of the local rabbinate, claiming that the food is not kosher, and casting aspersions on the rabbis who grant the hechsher. I am a simple, naive woman, and I have been told that in order to become a rabbi you have to study Torah for many years and to take difficult tests. If there is really a difference between hechsherim, then an injustice is being committed against those people who place their faith in the kashrut certificate of a local rabbinate. Is an entire population that trusts those rabbis being deceived? Am I sinning when I purchase a chicken with the hechsher of the local rabbinate?

Answer: All of the hechsherim from a real rabbi are valid. Every simple G-d fearing Jew is presumed reputable, and one can eat his food without question, and this applies all the more so with a Torah scholar. After all, there is a standing presumption that a Torah scholar "does not allow food to leave his domain without its kashrut being ensured" (Niddah 15b). G-d forbid that a torah scholar should feed the Jewish People non-kosher food! This thought is itself the height of unkosher thinking. There could be no greater denigration of Torah scholars than this. Even if aspersions are cast against a particular hechsher, it is forbidden to believe them. Rather, they must be rejected as Lashon Hara, evil speech, of the most abominable sort. Even if the supervising rabbi himself concedes that there are problems with the hechsher that he gives, it makes no difference whatsoever. Despite his having said that there are problems, he still signed the word "kosher" on the product, signifying that he had determined that the problem had a solution. Even if that rabbi announces, "I do not eat food with my own hechsher," it means nothing. It is the way of torah scholars to be strict regarding themselves and lenient regarding others.

In a word, any food product that is marketed with the hechsher of a rabbi, whether Haredi or Zionist, whether from Eretz Yisrael or from abroad, is kosher. Obviously, however, as with everything else, one has the option of taking the strict approach. Regarding this it said, "Whoever takes the strict approach shall enjoy a blessing. Whoever takes the lenient approach has support for his action." A person is not obligated to undertake all the strictures in the world.

It is a voluntary matter. Everyone can adopt whatever strictures he wishes, in kashrut, Shabbat, guarding the tongue, or treating others with respect, in choosing to serve in an elite army unit or moving to a front line settlement, in deeds of kindness or righteousness. The possibilities are endless. It is the personal choice of each individual. Thus, if it turns out that a particular food is "just kosher" while a second one is "mehadrin" [more exacting supervision], the person who takes the stricter approach will enjoy a blessing. An example of something being "just kosher" might be where there is a disagreement among our sages and while most permit something, a minority forbid it, hence the Rabbinical decisors deemed it permissible. Certainly, if someone takes the strict approach and eats only what all the rabbis permitted, that is preferable. Even so, it is forbidden to denigrate those who do not hold to this stricture. There is nothing more disgraceful than to make fun of a hechsher and of the rabbis who gave it.

Rabbi Tarfon was once traveling, and he recited the evening Shema lying down, adopting the stricture of Bet Shammai, and bandits took advantage of this and almost killed him. When he told what happened to the other sages, they responded, "For violating the words of Bet Hillel, you really should have incurred a death penalty" (Berachot 10). In what sense was he violating the words of Bet Hillel? Surely he was just adopting a strict approach in comparison to Bet Hillel’s approach? Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato explains that there was a great disagreement between Bet Hillel and Bet Shammai that almost split the Jewish People, and after enormous efforts, the law was decided in favor of Bet Hillel. When Rabbi Tarfon went and adopted the strict approach for all to see, he was weakening the force of this decision and causing harm to the Jewish People. "In such a case, it is more saintly to hold like Bet Hillel, even with the lenient view, than to be strict like Bet Shammai" (Mesilat Yesharim, Ch. 20).

Indeed, many Torah scholars customarily keep severe strictures at home, yet when they are invited to the homes of others, they eat without hesitation any food that has a hechsher. By doing so they fulfill the great mitzvah of increasing the honor of the sages, which is a foundation that the Jewish People rely upon.

It is true that with disagreements between Torah scholars, in the heat of the argument they sometimes use harsh expressions, yet such is the way of Torah, and this does not make it permissible for us, the insignificant, to insult their honor in a similar way. The book "Keter Shem Tov" tells that the Ba’al Shem Tov, founder of the Hassidic movement, had a fierce opponent, Rabbi Nachman of Horodneko, who would constantly criticize him. One time that same rabbi heard his students speaking against the Ba’al Shem Tov, and he castigated them, saying, "How dare you speak that way against a holy man!" They responded, "But you yourself spoke out against him." He then replied with exceeding severity, "The way that is permissible for me to speak is not permissible for you." He then told a story of two craftsmen who worked together for twenty years in order to fashion the king’s crown. In the end, when the time came to set the diamonds in the crown, one said it should be one way and the other countered that it should be another. The argument grew in intensity until one craftsman called the other an idiot. A passerby who witnessed the argument injected his own words and called the man an idiot as well. The first craftsman, who had called the other an idiot, then said, "Are you aware that we are friends and that we have worked together for twenty years, making the king’s crown? Our lives depend on this last detail, and that is why we are expressing ourselves so sharply. But you! Have you lifted even a finger for the king’s crown? Have you ever in your life seen the king? YOU are the idiot!" Even when Torah scholars argue over Jewish law, we, the insignificant, must stand in fear and awe and honor them all.

All the Hechsherim are Kosher

Rabbi Shlomo Aviner

Question: Numerous times you have written that all of the hechsherim [Kashrut certifications] are kosher. I think you are naive and unaware of what is really going on. If you knew how many foul-ups occur in this regard in food production, and even more so in restaurants, you would not express yourself this way.

Answer: With bakeries and restaurants, each place must be examined on its own merits. I was talking about factories in which there is a set production process. In all modesty, I am well aware of the reality, and I still say that if a Torah scholar took responsibility and wrote "kosher," then the product is indeed kosher, and let no one dare say that rabbis are feeding the Jewish People non-kosher food.

Question: When a consumer sees a hechsher on a package, how can he know whether the person giving the hechsher is really a Torah scholar? Perhaps he is just a layman masquerading as a rabbi?

Answer: If the consumer does not know that rabbi, he should check it out. If the rabbi is the rabbi of a city, or part of a recognized kashrut organization or a city rabbinate, then he is certainly a genuine Torah scholar.

Question: I have encountered instances in which a product has a hechsher but it turns out that the factory is forging it. Is the product still kosher?

Answer: Obviously, if a counterfeiter forges a rabbi's signature, this lacks the force of a hechsher. Yet this has nothing to do with the question of whether all hechshers are kosher. Even if they forge the signature of the strictest rabbi in the world, the product will not be kosher.

Question: A rabbi was giving a hechsher to a large and prominent food production plant and it turned out that he had no idea what was going on there. In another plant a lot of bugs were found in the product.

There was a case in which a rabbi did not check whether a particular fruit was "orla" [from a tree in its first four years, hence forbidden (Leviticus 19:23-25)]. In a certain factory in which all the non-Jewish workers worked on the Sabbath, the mashgiach [kashrut supervisor] could not check out the ingredients being delivered on the Sabbath. There are known cases of rabbis who gave hechsherim until the Chief Rabbinate discovered oversights and appointed other mashgichim over the original ones.

Answer: I didn't say that mistakes never happen. My point is only that throughout the Torah we rely on the principles of "rov" [the majority factor] and "chazakah" [the presumption that a previous state continues]. Every person known to be a Torah scholar is presumed reputable until proven otherwise. If a rumor circulates that there is an oversight, that rumor must be investigated. If one has dealings with a rabbi and he behaves questionably, the situation changes. Surely a rabbi who gives a hechsher without checking out what is happening forfeits his chazakah unless he duly repents.

Question: In one factory, when the rabbi arrives they prepare him a large package of products from that factory, and then everything goes smoothly. It is likewise known that there are rabbis who have

appointed as kashrut supervisors their relatives and friends, people who lack any of the appropriate training for the job, and these people work unsupervised. There was even a case of a nonobservant person being appointed.

Answer: I do not understand these questions. Sometimes it is discovered that a particular rabbi is unethical, that he is a thief, a cheat or an adulterer. Do all rabbis forfeit their chazakah as a result? The concept of presumed good repute does not mean one hundred percent certainty like in mathematics. It only means that the Torah decreed that we can rely on certain presumptions, and even that we can put someone to death on the basis of a chazakah. Likewise, a Torah scholar has a chazakah so long as there is no proof otherwise.

Certainly, if someone writes "kosher" on a nonkosher product, he is unworthy of the title "rabbi," but as long as no such thing has been proven, the food is presumed kosher.

Question: There are even great and reputable Torah scholars who have been deceived by factory owners or who sometimes err in their rulings. In such cases, is the hechsher still kosher?

Answer: Even a real Torah scholar sometimes errs. Why did you not ask me about the case at the beginning of Tractate Horiot, where the Sanhedrin ruled that a certain food was kosher and everybody ate from it, and it ultimately turned out that it had been a mistake? In that case, the rabbis had to bring an offering. Why did you not ask if that food was kosher? When all is said and done, the Shulchan Aruch rules that we can eat in the home of any Jew who has a chazakah of observance.

Question: Is it that in order to strengthen the Chief Rabbinate of Israel it is permissible to eat food that is not so kosher?

Answer: It isn't like that. To address your point, there is certainly a mitzvah to strengthen "the judge who will be in that time" (Deuteronomy 17:9). That verse, however, is teaching that any rabbi, and not just one connected to the Chief Rabbinate, is presumed reputable.

Question: Sometimes the rabbi who gives the hechsher himself says that he is dissatisfied with the situation but that he cannot improve it due to lack of manpower.

Answer: Quite the contrary, since he is aware of the problematic situation yet still puts his stamp on the food, that is a sign that it is kosher.

Question: If someone wishes to be more strict regarding kashrut, why stop him?

Answer: G-d forbid! In every realm, the person who takes the stricter approach reaps a blessing. Obviously, this is so not just in the realm of kashrut, but also regarding Shabbat, prayer, tzitzit, business ethics, interpersonal relations, treating one's wife with respect, educating one's children, etc.

Yet there is a precondition to every stricture, namely that it not involve one's denigrating others. Could there be any worse denigration than that of a person spreading libels about rabbis, saying that they are making people eat nonkosher food? Such a thing would take unparalleled gall. Certainly we must be scrupulous regarding kashrut. Certainly the consumer must exert pressure. After all, most of the factories agree to kashrut supervision only for commercial reasons. Hence the more the public's demands increase, the more the hechsherim will improve. Yet, all this must be done with real respect shown for rabbis. Those rabbis in fact will be the first to rejoice over each additional stricture.

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