Someone sent me a link about web surveillance of milk. On that link is a picture of Mori V’Rabbi R’ Hershel Schachter, Posek of the OU.
Rav Schachter told me personally after meeting Meir Gershon the day before that he told Meir Gershon explicitly NOT to put his picture on Meir Gershon’s websites or the internet. I also have pictures with Rav Schachter. I just follow his instructions.
Meir Gershon refuses to remove the pictures. Shades of the Dayan Abraham fiasco? The difference is that Rav Schachter is too big and respected to take any action against halachic ants, by comparison.
What a disgrace and d’var sheker.
pitputim 
As someone from The United States, not really into local politics in small communities, not really knowing, the players etc, I must comment that you seem to be an apologist for some of the stranger Lubavitchers views and actions, yet here you seem to have a personal vendetta against an individual.I imagine that you know him personally, since the “frum” community is relatively small and you both attended the Chabad Yeshiva College.I don’t personal attacks against an individual strengthen your hand.You could objectively state your opinions about the subject, but it seems that you’ve made this man into the “subject”
Try and discuss issues that people from the rest of the Jewish world can find interesting
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a) Love to know which strange Lubavitch views I have defended. If you care to spend some time reading my blog, you will also find that I am critical of many Lubavitch views. Since you don’t engage in politics, please be explicit.
b) I am attacking BEHAVIOUR which is beyond gall. In my first article, I ask what the business case could be, in my second article, I am grossly offended that Mori V’Rabbi is misused to further his kashrut business. It makes no difference to me if the person was green white or yellow.
c) The man is a subject at present. A subject of ridicule across the frum community, but I’ve not mentioned that until you pointed it out.
d) It is Ellul. I am carefully choosing the issues. That being said, the Hashgocho is from the man. Here is one for you, where in the world will you find red bee colouring in a so called chalav yisrael ice cream. Only in Melbourne, and only under the auspices of one person who effectively fights the “OU” of Melbourne, with dubious methodology. I’m sorry, but he ‘aint got the shoulders for these psokim, which is why he travels the world garnering support for his business practices.
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I could have written MUCH more.
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Isaac,
I find your personal honesty refreshing.You sign your name to the opinions you believe in and you have an internal magnet that attracts you to the truth (most of the time)
Having said that, you’ve made this fellow and not the issues involved into the “topic”.It feels very much like you have a personal grudge.
Btw, by bee coloring you are referring to cochineal?
Why not discuss it’s halachik status in a short post instead of just a general villification.It’s tasteless , which would make it much less of a Kashrus problem.
Regarding cholov yisroel, I see Lubavitchs approach as being much more problematic regarding the way they view what is called “cholov stam” and R’Moshe Feinsteins psak regarding the issue.R’Moshe who was one the the foremost poskim in the world, especially outside of Israel was relied upon regarding literal life and death issues, mamzeirus etc, here suddenly his psak, which is not groundbreaking at all cannot be relied upon??They have turned it into worse than an issur deoraysa!In fact I saw a respected Israeli Lubavitcher rov, somehow inferring that an issur derabonnon is more severe than an issur deoraysa, because iirc chachamim made their issurim on the “gavra” (this was used to reinforce the position regarding cholov akum which even according to the poskim that hold it’s applicable even “ke’shein tamei be’edro like the Pri Chodosh assumes,(leheter)hold its mederabonon)I”m not telling Lubavitch what to do all im asking for is that they allow others to follow pesakim from a foremost posek, without giving them mumbo jumbo guilt trips.
Off course there is a problem with ALL milk today, because the animals may be tereifa due to very common veterinarian procedures, something which is discussed lately in halachik circles
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Rav Ovadya is Mattir that red colour. His opinion though weighty is simply not accepted by Rov Minyan and Rov Binyan of Poskim and kashrut agencies.
On CHABAD and human supervised chalav Yisrael, they have kabbalistic reasons which were passed down via their Rebbes. I wasn’t brought up to follow that approach to Halacha. I Know though that there is a Ramoh brought down by the Chafetz Chaim and others in respect to timtum halev which I can only understand in mystical terms where he is displeased with the idea of nursing from a non Jew.
Other Chassidim, over Lubavitch share this view of the Jew based hashgocho of milk. It isn’t at all a Lubavitch phenomenon although if my memory serves me correctly the Alter Rebbe requires a higher temperature when koshering metal utensils which had previously been used by regular milk.
I also wrote a post for which I’ve yet to merit an answer about the lost and then found issue of peeled eggs overnight. Chabad hold it given the Alter Rebbe included it in his Shulchan Aruch. I’ve asked many about this and don’t understand their chumra.
I happen to know more about CHABAD because I was brought up surrounded by its hanhogos, so you are likely to find me answering on what I do observe and being in disagreement or critical of other things.
On the Kashrus issue I’m motivated by the belief that NO agency should run as a private business with closed books and that the Religious aspect should be completely separate from the financial side. Indeed, I have also written against Kosher Australia in this regard. I don’t believe it should be an activity of any one Shule. Unfortunately, the Melbourne Beth Din in its former days ran private Kashrus businesses overseen and profited by the Dayonim including the one MGR claimed beseeched him to ‘take over’. That Beth Din was riddled with scandal and almost nobody who was shomer shabbos touched their catering. I’ve seen it all in over 30 years of working in the music industry. For at least twenty of those years I ate nothing at those functions except bread, if I could tell what brand it was. I remember the comical scenes of functions with four hundred people and where the mashgiach was dancing to the music (and he wasn’t a guest). I probably will never write the book describing the irregularities I witnessed over the years.
When Kosher Australia moved and continued to move to worlds best standards,and where the clergy and affiliates are on set wages, I became a staunch supporter. It is a small community and seeing what I see from MGR doesn’t excite me to put it mildly. Melbourne indeed Australia should have the Johannesburg model
It also puts less people off when there is a united respected authority with mehadrin status for various such as traditional chalav Yisrael.
Lubavitchers and Chassidim are also kabbalisticaly influenced on the matter of untouched beards. I stopped shaving on the night of my wedding but have my beard trimmed and depending on the shaver, don’t have an issue with beards. Cf the kabbalist Chalban in Israel and others before him who were clean shaven
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What is a red bee coloring? Do you mean cochineal? It does come from an insect, but it’s not a bee.
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Sorry whatever sheketz
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Given the time of year, I have a little vort on this:
Both honey and cochineal (carmine) come from insects, but the first is kosher and the second is generally regarded as treif. What accounts for this difference? Bees collect nectar offered by flowers, and thereby fertilise them. The bees have no personal interest in the nectar they collect: they entrust it to others and go off to get more.
In contrast, cochineal comes from certain scale insects that suck the sap from plants. They produce and retain the cochineal within their bodies to deter predators, and it can only be extracted by drying the dead insects and grinding them up.
From this we can learn several lessons in avodas hashem. Are our transactions fair to both parties, or are we seeking to benefit at others’ expense? Are we building a community, or creating barriers? And after 120 years, will we be remembered as people who have benefited others with our life, or, heaven forfend, only with our deaths.
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Some are quite happy to crush and say it’s kosher. They don’t like it when they are crushed however. They literally RANT AT Gedolim who want nothing to do with their Business. To be revealed.
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“I Know though that there is a Ramoh brought down by the Chafetz Chaim and others in respect to timtum halev which I can only understand in mystical terms where he is displeased with the idea of nursing from a non Jew”
There is a machloikes rishoinim( in yevomos) iirc, Ritvo, Rashbo and others that I don’t recall, about what the problem with a wet nurse is.Is the problem that she eats non kosher and that can affect the child or is her cheftza,even if she eats kosher, what effects the child.The Ramo is machmir for both shittos,Which means that even a yiddishe mother that eats neveilos because of pikuach nefesh should not feed her baby (the neveilos can affect him) and even a nochris, who eats only kosher , such as an in house maid, should also not feed.The Netziv i believe, argues on this pak
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The reason I raised this was because it is perhaps the only Ramoh? where Timtum Halev resulting from EATING is mentioned LeHalocho? If I am right, and I don’t remotely claim to have learned let alone remembered all Ramoh’s (if it was the Beis Yosef I would not be surprised) then this is really a Yotzeh Dofen, that takes a bit to understand. Is it a pure inyan of Kashrus. I don’t think so. Is the Milk of a JEW who happens to eat treyf also Treyf? Could be, but I need to Chazer that. What precisely is the issur? It seems there is a mystical element OR perhaps they were worried Mitaam Gezero that it would become pervasive that Jewish mothers would deposit their children to non Jewish wet nurses and this was a practice that superseded pure Kashrus, and the timyum halev was a result of a constancy in an undesirable surrounding. OR, it’s something we learn mimetically from Moshe Rabbeinu. Either way, it seems clear to me that Litvaks (the old fashioned ones, not the new cum chassidic style ones) would have looked at this in pure Kashrus terms and (although I haven’t seen the Netziv) might explain why a Navardoker wasn’t concerned about this form of halachic influence in decision making?
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I should add that there is a Yerushalmi that is specifically at odds with the Rishonim that R’ Moshe paskens like and appears to take the view rationalist view that if the Milk is Kosher, it won’t affect a Kid’s Neshoma. Then again, I don’t understand the world of Neshamos and their metaphysics. If it’s the Ramoh, though, and we passken that way, that’s the Din, so we follow it. At least to me it is curious because there are many other examples where the effect on a Neshoma isn’t translated into Halocho, and the parameters are beyond me.
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It might be relevant that in previous generations, before baby foods, formula, and safe water, children were breastfed for far longer than most are today. Three years was common, well after most children learn to speak. Also, the wet nurse wouldn’t necessarily board with the family: I understand that non-Jewish children typically stayed with the wet nurse, although I don’t know what was done in Jewish circles.
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As an aside, during the war years in Siberia, my Booba Leah Micmacher (nee Gechter from the Gershensohn family) was blessed with ample milk supply. She had too much, and was a wet nurse for Jewish babies whose mothers were not as fortunate. Baruch Hashem for that.
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