It’s a busy Friday afternoon, with just a couple of hours left until Shabbos. Not the best time, perhaps, for your husband to be unsure about the kashrus status of the chicken you are about to cook! You try contacting your Rav, but to your great dismay, he is unavailable.
Good news! No longer will you have to wing it, thanks to STAR-K Kosher Certification’s upcoming Halacha Webinar, on Wednesday, November 14, 2012, at 8 pm, ET. During this interactive presentation, which utilizes pictures, audio, chat and videos, STAR-K’s Rabbinic Administrator, Rabbi Moshe Heinemann, shlit”a, will take the guesswork out by showing you how to recognize a shayla.
The purpose of this Webinar is solely to educate the consumer; it is not meant to give an instant crash course on hilchos treifos of chickens. It will help you understand how to recognize the difference between a perfectly normal imperfection, that is a result of processing, and an imperfection that presents a true shayla that needs to be addressed by your Rav.
Even with the best of intentions and the most intensive kosher supervision, problems regarding chickens can arise on occasion and shaylos need to be addressed to a Rav, on a case by case basis. How is this possible?
Tens of thousands of chickens processed each day are inspected by mashgichim to ensure that all their required organs are present and that chicken pox is not present on the intestines. Even prior to evisceration, the internal organs are checked and the mashgiach ensures that the chickens have been shechted, soaled, salted, and washed properly. In addition, at different checkpoints, while the chicken’s organs are being eviscerated, the mashgichim inspect for broken bones, holes, punctures and bruises that would render the chicken treif. Any chickens deemed questionable are taken off the line and placed on hooks, over to the side. The on-site Rav paskens (rules) as to whether these chickens are kosher or treif. Nonetheless, due to human error, it is possible that a chicken that is not kosher gets through the process.
Although it may not be evident, there is a marked difference between a whole chicken and a whole cut-up chicken processed in the plant, with regard to kashrus shaylos. If there is a problem with a wing of a whole chicken, for example, the complete chicken is treif. Regarding cut up chickens, when processing thousands of chickens, there is a very remote chance that any suspect parts come from the same chicken. Therefore, you do not have to assume the entire tray of chicken parts will be invalidated, and only the suspect pieces should be thrown away. With regard to chicken purchased from a local butcher shop, one should inquire as to whether the cut-up is all part of the same chicken or from various pieces that make up the tray.
It is also important to know if a break in one of the chicken’s bones happened before or after the chicken was shechted; breaks that occur post-shechting are not a problem. During the webinar, HaRav Heinemann will help the kosher consumer discern when this break happened, in determining whether asking a question to a Rav is, indeed, warranted.
The STAR-K webinar is open to one and all, and will be accessible via smartphones, as well. Login details will be posted at www.star-k.org/telekosher , or you can register by emailing [email protected] . For more information, contact Rabbi Zvi Goldberg, 410-484-4110 ext. 219.
(Margie Pensak – YWN)
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6 Responses
This type of knowledge was somthing they taught girls in B’Y in the 1950s and was really important in the Alte Heim. However, today, when a typical chicken for shabbos dinner for a family of 4 may cost ten or twelve dollars, why would you even bother worrying about the kashruth. Either give it as a gift to your cleaning lady or a goiyeshe neigbor or simply trash it and run out to the Kosher Mart and buy a new one. Not too many women have the time or interest to engage in a detailed inspection of a chicken when they are rushing to get home from work, or picking up the kids at school or doing one of the gazillion thinks most yiddeshe women have to do eruv shabbos.
Unfortunately not everyone has 10$ to throw away and also not everyone has a kosher store that is open a few hours before shabbos.
The Kosher market may be closed. It takes time to defrost a chicken anc cook it. It may not take very long to determine it is kosher. Not everybody has money to throw away, especilly in these times.
Jews do not waste. The education process is teaching girls many things but they need to recognize basic to run a Jewish Kosher home. Girls should be taught how to recognize shaliahs of chickens, cooking, sewing etc. I remember a story concerning Rav Shach Z’ztal; Two girls went to him and ask a shailah on a difficult Rambam or Ramban, and he push a cake in front of them and ask can you make this. I am not pushing for uneducated girls but to include basics and go from there.
gadolhadorah: I think you are misunderstanding the article. The purpose of this class is not when you are in the butcher shop purchasing chicken, but rather when you are preparing your chicken for shabbos in your home(and it may be 2 hours to shabbos and all the stores are closed already) You may not have an option to easily obtain another chicken. Or maybe the rest of the chickens you have are frozen and can’t be easily defrosted and prepared in time. It is extremely helpful to have this information on hand. I can tell you so from personal experience.
Throwing out a chicken that is kosher is bal tashchis, a Deoraisa. Besides, $10 or $12 is a lot of money.