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I want to preface this by saying that I would like avoid any lashon harah or rechilus so please be careful in commenting.
Whenever a kashrus scare happens many people appear to comment that a good chassideshe shchita or mashgiach is the best way to go. I was just wondering why this would be the case. Are there added chumras? Better gedarim? Better systematized standards? More comprehensive coverage of the food supplY?
b/c people don’t know what they’re talking about
Def. a tendency towards chumros. Not necessarily a good thing, and nothing to do with actual competency in Kashrus field
They are more machmir in one way at least that is helpful and that can benefit the overall attitude of the restaurant workers to be more careful, that is in the list of products that are permitted. I know one hechsher that does not use any company even with a national certification if it also produces nonkosher in the same plant. This results in many major brands being asor to them and automatically the employees get trained that not every product is good and the mashgiach has to check everything that comes in.
Its no general rule that chassidish hashgachas are more on top of the food producers, or known to have more mashgiach temidi’s, in fact some of the private run chassidic hashagchos are not worth too much at all.
But, most chassidish hashgachos have much more chumros and restrictions, and in many cases more of a zero tolerance standard, especially when you’re talking about the big national kashrus org’s, dealing with huge non Jewish companies, that officially have to lower their standards to be able to survive with those “big boys”, versus the frum smaller companies (not necessarily chassidish) have the open option to choose which manufacturer plant to use and with which food processor they would have less kashrus issues, so they can meet a much higher standard.
The chassidic hashgachos are usually also subject to much more scrutiny and challenge by their clientele than the national ones, and the term “chassidish” does not necessarily mean chassidish, it includes a big part of the yeshivish world, its a general term for more strict standards, which it obviously is.
I don’t know about American hechsherim.
In E”Y there is a huge disagreement over this. Everyone has their own hechsher….
* Edah HaChareidis: Yerushalayim, accepted by pretty much everyone except a few isolated political types. Personally I have never met anyone who didn’t use Edah for kashrus reasons.
* Rav Landau: Bnei Brak, seen as highly reliable, but many Litvaks refrain from using it because he is affiliated with Chabad. Aside from that, everyone I know uses Rav Landau’s hechsher.
* Sheeris Yisroel: Bnei Brak, Litvishe hechsher. Many chassidim won’t rely on it – while the Litvishe will….
* Belz: accepted by many, but absolutely not accepted by anyone affiliated with the Edah.
* Agudah: per above, affiliated with Gur, generally seen as ‘less’ reliable.
Then there’s a couple of smaller hechsherim like Chasam Sofer Bnei Brak, Chug Chasam Sofer P”T, Rav Rubin, Beit Yosef…
Personally, having been previously affiliated with the Edah, I used to prefer their hechsher and, outside of Yerushalayim, Rav Landau (which the Edah-affiliated rabbonim generally allow for those affiliated with the Edah, but only outside of Yerushalayim).
But later, as I became a bit more open (like it or not), I came to realize that the ONLY issue involved is politics and ‘fake’ kashrus issues (ie, politicized semi-halachic issues), of the type of “we have a new chumrah and THEY don’t follow it as well, so THEY are a bad hechsher!”.
Thus, I used most of them. (Keeping in mind I don’t eat meat and fish – eliminating one major kashrus issue for me.) I really don’t believe the Belzer cheese (the blue one) or the Agudah cheese (the orange one) are somehow less kosher than the Edah cheese (the red one).
Life in Europe is great. Almost no hechsherim to choose from. Things are either kosher or not. Much better than this hechsherim-nonsense.
All the big scandals come from the more “frum” hashgochos. The Monsey thing a few years ago, the store in Brooklyn, they all had the hechsherim that were “better”.
There is a rule of trolling, that you cannot preface a post by saying it is not intended to be lashon hara.
I have heard that virtually every hashgocha organization has to work with others due to resource limitations. For example, a small chassidishe community may work with the OU and then add their specific community standards such as Cholov Yisrael. I am always energized when I hear of such cooperation between communities.
Feif un, I hope you’re just misinformed, and not deliberately twisting the well known facts, this major scandal in Monsey that rocked the whole world had a hashgacha of a ashkenazi “yekke” rav, running a congregation of “clean shaven” members, he is as far from chassidish as you are..
It’s very simple, the chassidish hasgachos (as I said before, this includes yeshivish frum hashgachos as well) have different standards, starting with cholov akkum (not going in debates whether one can be “maikel” on it or not, it’s definitely a compromise in kashrus by all means), bishul akkum, hefsed meruba’s with the large companies, way and system of koshering, bedieved’s, and the list goes on.
p.s. again, the term chassidish doesn’t automatically make a hashgacha reliable, some of the private so called chassidish hashgachos are worth no more than a full air balloon, but the strict and reliable ones are of way way higher standards than the national ones..
There is a rule of trolling that trolls don’t care about the rules of trolling.
On the subject: Can someone explain to me the rationale behind taking a product (for instance, I think I’ve seen Twizzlers) and putting a sticker over the OU with not only a different hashgacha but also a different brand name (I believe it’s Oneg in this case)? What is the point? Is that run and only that run certified by the second hashgacha? What’s the point of putting another brand on the sticker?
On the subject: Can someone explain to me the rationale behind taking a product (for instance, I think I’ve seen Twizzlers) and putting a sticker over the OU with not only a different hashgacha but also a different brand name (I believe it’s Oneg in this case)? What is the point? Is that run and only that run certified by the second hashgacha? What’s the point of putting another brand on the sticker?
I can’t speak about any particular case but unless the sticker specifies what added benifits they provide, I assume there are none.
It seems to be just an added hashgacha. What really baffles me is the second brand name thing.
writer – I would assume that the second brand came to the plant where the first brand is produced and, in cooperation with the company (in this case whoever manufacturers Twizzler) and paid for the additional hashgocho and whatever it entailed to be issued in a special run. I would think it only applies to that run. It is a shame though that they couldn’t go all the way and produce packaging with their name alone on it so as not to confuse consumers. Stickers can easily come off or be put on by people.
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