Vos iz Neias and Yeshiva World News both had articles this week concerning a worldwide bug infestation in raisins, it was quite funny to read it because it sounded like some sort of terror alert. Immediately the comments went from oh my we are all going to hell for eating bugs to “first it was water then it was strawberries and now its raisins” – that is what I thought – another kasharus crisis looming on the horizon and a good excuse for people to poor more money into the controversial kosher racket which seems more and more like the mob every day.
First Yeshiva World News published a letter from the KAJ, then like a scene out of some far flung newspaper rivalry Vos Iz Neias published a statement from the OU that said they saw no problem with raisins and basically had no idea what KAJ was talking about. So of course the comments reflected the readership of that site and they basically said that OU wasn’t kosher enough and that KAJ was more kosher and all that modern orthodox vs. black hat rivalry coming out.
I thought it was all over, but today Yeshiva World News had an article which states that KAJ never meant for the letter which states that raisins are infested with bugs to be made public!
Read again what I just said – the KAJ finds a supposed bug infestation in a food that everyone in the frum community uses to make kugel with and they don’t want it being made public?
Here is the published letter:
I also don’t understand why products cooked with bugs can be used?
Now is that a conspiracy or what? They claim it was for their shul members, can you imagine if the treife chicken scandal warning was just for shul members. How can a kasharus organization issue a warning just for shul members? This case is a little ridiculous and I hope Dov Bear or Wolfish Musings or Chaim Rubin who are into writing about conspiracies within the frum community will try and figure this thing out.
To me it seems like a preemptive way to market pre-checked raisins which you can bet will be produced by some frum company in the near future.
This last statement is where the KAJ proves that they publicized this to get more clients.
I believe that in the future supervision on the production of raisins will -as a matter of course- include checking for infestation by many kashrus agencies. Given the recent publicity on the matter, it is likely that raisins will become standardized as an item checked for infestation in line with strawberries and vegetables which need checking, for instance.”
its all a conspiracy
I know – maybe kasharus is like the matrix
It is definitely a moral contamination. Maybe if the bugs were kosher…
I have ALWAYS checked my raisins for bugs, because of a family minhag. All you do is soak them in water. If you see bugs, you don’t use them.
P.S.: I also check dates and figs for bugs, too. These I cut open, check for bugs, then eat.
KASHRUS ALERT: ONLY TWO BRANDS ARE INFESTED, MISHPACHA AND GEFEN.
DOLE AND SUN-MAID ARE NOT INFESTED.
http://www.kashrut.com/Alerts/?alert=A2632
First of all, before we even get to the racket of today’s kosher police deciding chumras for the public, let’s get some facts straight:
Nobody has the authority to declare a “general” infestation on any species of fruit. Only infestations coming from the same farm or farming area may be deemed as “infested” by the beth din, and only for a given season at a time. In the times of the sanhedrin, they used to have kids go through new batches of fruits and vegetables and pay them if they found any bug infestations. If excessive cases were found, they would then declare that area to be infested for that season.
Furthermore, there is a perfectly legal halachic way of making a chazaka on produce. Basically, if you open 3 fruits and they are clean, you can then deem the entire batch clean. This is what the star K does for the pre washed lettuce they put their hechsher on.
Funny enough, a guy I used to work with watched this horror video put out by rabbi Vai, according to him nothing was kosher and every Jewish kitchen needed 10x microsopes and backlit areas to check for bugs. He went as far to claim that every bean in a chulent needs to be checked, good luck to yeshivas cooking for hundreds of kids.I emailed the OU about this, knowing good and well that it is impossible for them to check every raisin in all the boxes of Raisin bran or similar cereals they certify, their answer was that I can eat anything with an OU without having to check for bugs. Beans coming from the US don’t need to be checked, they don’t even need a hechsher.
I recently received notices not to eat certain canned vegetables such as artichokes even when bearing a reliable hechsher, I put the notices straight in the garbage.
It has gone even further with the “tosh” community North of Montreal. These guys have there own town with their own rules, only eat from there own store. A while back, one of their “geniuses” decided that some eggs looked a bit rounder than the regular oval shape. He then decided that they couldn’t rely on the egg farms claims that they came from hens, and maybe they were coming from non kosher birds. Believe it or not, these idiots now pay 3 times what we do for certified chicken eggs!
This is utter B.S, and it is high time someone takes these kashrus agancies to beth din and sues them for all the monetary damages they have caused to gullable frum Jews worldwide.
I checked with a competent Rav, who assured me that I would have a valid case. He brought an example kosher meat. In general, certain parts of an ox are never checked unless we had a reason to do so, for example the brain. If I shecht an ox, find it’s lungs to be OK, by chazaka it’s kosher, and I don’t need to check the other 69 simanim. If someone then comes along and opens the head and finds a treifa in the brain, he is actually liable to refund me for the entire animal, beacuase nobody asked him to check the head, he is deemed to be a “mazik”.
Similarily, these overzealous kashrus agencies that are coming up with new stupidities every day in order to rip people off by forcing them to by “prechecked” food at outrageous prices, can very well be held liable to refund anyone that was forced to by their food, such as restaurants, hotels and caterers in order to keep the hashgacha.
Of course, I’ll never win trying to take beth din to beth din in Montreal, as the kashrus and beth din are the same agency, so I wouln’t even be able to open a case against them.
I urge anyone with some time and money to lauch a “class action” beth din lawsuit against these thieves, that use the halacha to suit their own needs and fil there pockets based on ignorance and confusion of the general public.
Maybe, if we finally put our foot down and start holding them accountable for their irresponsible actions, and make them refund some of the millions they have made us spend, they will start doing what they were put there for instead of passing blanket chumras on the public.
Phil, stop beating around the bush… tell us how you really feel about the kashrut agencies 🙂
its the jewish brands u gotta watch out 4- they store stuff 4 months at a time, so there’s more opportunity for the bugs to invade. you’re generally safe with the store and non-jewish brands
The solution is simple:
People need to eat only hyrdoponically grown vegatables, that they grow themselves. But before consumption, they must be washed in triple filtered water (each filter having a smaller pore size then the preceding filter).
If we all stick with this plan, all kashrut observing Jews will die out from malnutrition and the whole problem will be solved.
BTW, if this craziness has now infected the KAJ community we halachic Jews are all doomed.
in a gemara class one day, i was asking needle point questions about kashrus to my rabbi.
he finally stopped me and said “shmuly, you have to draw the line somewhere or you’re literally going to go crazy over this stuff. you know how to be shomer kashrus, now just do it and stop worrying.”