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Author: pitputim
I've enjoyed being a computer science professor in Melbourne, Australia, as well as band leader/singer for the Schnapps Band. My high schooling was in Chabad and I continued at Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh in Israel and later in life at Machon L'Hora'ah, Yeshivas Halichos Olam. View all posts by pitputim
pitputim 
Rabi’s behaviour reminds me of the yeshiva student who went swimming in a place where there was a sign saying, “No swimming allowed!”
His svara? He read the sign as saying, “No! Swimming allowed!”
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I sympathetically feel the outrage. I got a parking ticket today. The sign said “Fine for Parking”. I have no idea what I did wrong. I am going to write to the Chief Rabbi and ask him to explain it to me in plain English.
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do people still rely on Rabi?.
The letter from London Beth, clearly shows him to be questionable (edited by me)
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I’m sure there are those who do
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Yes, there are a considerable number of people who do in Sydney, Melbourne and beyond who will eat his products and who trust his “supervision” of non-Jewish eateries. They accept his argument that Kosher Australia and the Kashrut Authority attack him and his standards simply because they resent his supposed threat to their monopolistic control over kashrus in Australia.
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questionable is a euphemism
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More to the point, why has it taken Dayan Abraham so long to write this? Many people in Melbourne (and possibly other communities) have been eating questionable food which could have been prevented if the community were warned sooner.
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BS”D
I’m not sure what more can actually be done other than taking out costly secular court injunctions against Rabi.
Interesting that even full page advertisements in The Australian Jewish News alerting consumers over the rogue activities of Rabi have failed to curtail his operations.
Dayan Abraham is left with little recourse other than the Australian judicial system.
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I suspect the LBD will put him in Cherem and make sure all reputable Rabonim and kashrus agencies around the world will know. That being said it won’t affect his Melbourne business. Those who eat from it are if two kinds: lax anyway or maverick of sorts in my opinion
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BS”D
I’m not sure what more can actually be done other than taking out costly secular court injunctions against Rabi.
Interesting that even full page advertisements in The Australian Jewish News alerting consumers over the rogue activities of Rabi have failed to curtail his operations.
Dayan Abraham is left with little recourse other than the Australian judicial system which Rabi knows is an unlikely course for the London Beis Din to pursue.
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he will pick up the mavericks people who dislike the establishment etc.
However most people will stay away.
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What is the “Ben pekuah” initiative that Dayan Abraham refers to in his letter?
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It’s something he has on his website somewhere and has been asking numerous rabbis and forums about for years. He has also written to agencies such as the OU to see if they will approve it.
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Has anyone asked R Meir Rabi to comment on this? It would be good to have a clear response on the record.
I’ve seen his material on the ben pakuah initiative- ultimately, you will have to ‘trust’ him that all the originating animals are bnei pakuah, as he is the supervisor. Regardless of the halachic questions and advisability of the practice, that seems to me to be an issue at the moment.
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In fact I saw Meir (my classmate) the day after I posted, and he said nothing. I’m told that he has responded somewhere, but I don’t go to the websites he must use.
Bnei Pekuah is not his initiative. It has been mulled by many over the years. Indeed Meir has been writing about this in quite a few forums about this for 5 or so years that I have seen, and I know that he speaks to a few Rabonim Talmidei Chachomim in Melbourne privately about it (they aren’t synagogue Rabbis). I also know that he has asked for a Haskomo from quite a few people, but at the end of the day, you are right, if this does see the light of day, some people who trust his Rabonus and Shimush in Kashrus will enjoy a decent steak, and I expect for most people it won’t make any difference as they wouldn’t eat at lord of the fries et al anyway.
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I’ve had the opportunity to peruse his marketing materials on the issue. Essentially, he is claiming to have bred a small flock, which he wants to grow, from a number of bnei pakuah. Obviously, if there is even a single animal in ‘the chain’ that is not a bona fide ben pakuah, all its descendants are treif. I would be fascinated as to how he has supervised this on a working cattle farm. But even beyond this, I am concerned by the concept of ‘breeding’ up flocks which make their descendants treif.
Still, I note that the plan requires 4 years, and a multi-million dollar investment to get off the ground. Steven Bloch is a prominent investor, but beyond that, I would be curious as to the risk appetite with no pipeline for meat sales.
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It’s a shame. I’m a strong believer that kashrus income MUST be separated from those who give a hechsher. We have 3 kosher butcher shops in Melbourne. There isn’t a single reason why one agreed standard is used across all three and NO Rav or indeed organisation benefits from supervision except for a proper wage for services. This is the reform my brother in law Romy Leibler assisted with the Melbourne Beth Din. South Africa, which does not have Hungarian Charedim has the formula absolutely right and Chabad is part of it. Having a fourth interloper in Meir, will create enormous problems. He will be assiduously collecting halachic opinions saying the CONCEPT is ok and will use that as he has used others in his website. Worse, he is in a private company flogging kashrus. It will create situations where people will not eat at each other’s houses if they use his Pekuah meat. His model will aim at the export market and he will be able to undercut the Beis Yosef Shechita where they do Nikur on the backside. He may also market this as more ‘humane’ and thereby endanger traditional Shechita locally and elsewhere. I pray to God he doesn’t use that marketing line. He will export to countries where Shechita is banned and in my opinion that is Assur completely as he effectively is performing לא תחנם and EMPOWERING נכרים to feel they can succeed to dictate the basic ways of the Torah. That scares me as well. As I wrote in another post, it’s akin to a gene based solution to Bris Mila where all males are engineered to be born with a Bris. There is no difference except that עולם כמנהגו נוהג doesn’t get in the way of ‘altruistic’ money making. As to the alleged investor, I will make no comment.
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What exactly are bnei pakuah? What does the concept mean?
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http://lifeinisrael.blogspot.com.au/2008/05/pictures-of-rare-ben-pakua.html
(warning pictures there are gross … at least to me)
Also here is an example of Meir liaising with people on this issue from 2006
http://osdir.com/ml/culture.religion.jewish.avodah/2006-01/msg00282.html
Nadav maybe able to give you a link to his spiel, but I’m not giving it airtime.
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