Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan - Laws of Kashrut

[Music] okay so the first question today is what are some kashrut leniencies when eating by less religious relatives of course first we have to be knowledgeable of the laws of kashrut in their ideal form what is lahat Fela and then when we visit whether it's a restaurant or our relatives who might not know the halacha or might not keep the halacha we have to know what can we fall back on what are the Linnaean seas that with the Avadh after the fact it's still kosher and what things are not kosher if they're not done a certain way so to begin with of course ideally the meat that we buy in a store has to be Glatt Kosher and not only Glatt Kosher it has to be bait yourself or safari that's for your own home what if you go to a restaurant and the restaurant doesn't serve bait yourself meat so then normally you cannot eat meat but you can still eat chicken if it's if it's a Glatt Kosher restaurant but they don't have bait yourself meat you can still eat chicken and you can still eat lamb and and veal because these things don't have to be bait yourself Glatt Kosher is the same but you cannot eat beef beef must be bait yourself if you visit family or friends and they also keep glut but they don't keep bay yourself similar idea you can eat in their house but you can only eat chicken veal lamb but not beef you have to be careful that sometimes the restaurant will say we're not Glatt Kosher we just kosher that is not the same as the difference between bait yourself and Glatt Kosher bait yourself is kosher for safari I'm glad kosher kosher Faustina's it so at least you have what to rely on but just kosher what they call just kosher is not kosher not for fighting and not awesome so if a restaurant or store or a relative says we keep kosher but not Glatt Kosher if the Bible by saying kosher they mean that they buy meat that is not glad kosher but just kosher that means we cannot eat they're not meat and not chicken not vo and not one and ideally shouldn't even eat fish there because if they buy such me this meat has a very strong suspicion of being not kosher at all and so their utensils and everything is not kosher so anytime you hear the words it's not Gilad kosher but it's kosher for us it means it's not kosher at all now another important thing about meat is if somebody bought meat that was not salted at the factory it's also a red flag and you should also not eat such meat because number one if meat was not salted at the factory it it most likely means that it's not Glatt Kosher because most glad kosher companies they sold meat on site because they know that a regular consumer doesn't know how to culture their meat and so they do it for them because they care that people should eat culture they don't want just to say we shafted the animal and it's kosher and the rest is your responsibility you do with the meat whatever needs to be done we did ours that's not good enough because it's basically giving people something that is right now not kosher hoping that they will culture it and most people don't know how to and when when you shack the cow for example there are three things that make it not kosher even though the show had shafted it the right way and the animal is healthy they check the lungs and other parts that need to be checked and everything is perfect still right now the animal is not kosher why because number one it has blood that needs to be removed number two it has forbidden fats there are certain forbidden fats that we have to remove before we cook the meat and there is sciatic nerve that's called get on a shell that's also not kosher also needs to be removed now if whoever provides meat for you just gives you a piece of meat and says here you make it kosher yourself we SH acted it the animal is healthy basically it means that they are feeding you not kosher because you don't know how to extract the blood you don't know how to remove the forbidden fats and you don't know how to remove that sciatic nerve however if you buy in a place that is Glatt Kosher they will do all these steps before and they will remove the sciatic nerve they will remove the forbidden fats and they will remove the blood so you can just take it from the package and put it in your pot directly this is a more of a problem even if the the animal is kosher and you cannot blame anybody if you go to a place where they shaft the live animal for you there they for sure dog salt and they they don't remove any of these forbidden things they give you the animal they chop it up and they give you the animal and you do whatever you want with it so with blood one potential way is to grill it and if you roast it over fire like shish kebab so even though you don't know how to salt them in but just roasting it over cisco over the coals will extract the blood the blood will drip down and the meat will be good but that's only if you happen to take the part of the animal that doesn't contain forbidden fats and the sciatic nerve but since they give you the whole animal chopped up it's all mixed even if you want to you don't know which part is what and not only that let's say you are an expert and you know this parts come from the the side of the animal that is clean but still you lose the other half because the forbidden fats and the sciatic nerve are in the back part of the animal from the second rib down the animal has to be processed further anything from the second rib up the only concern is the blood so let's say you go to a college point and you say III know the show head I trust him and let's say that it happens to be that he's reliable so it will still be not worth it for you because you can only use the the front half of the animal as it is it's expensive and plus you have to throw out the back part which is the more meaty and more tasty part you throw it out and you only get the the skinny part from the front so it's just not worth it you pay two three hundred dollars for an animal and you only get less than half of usable meat so therefore it's not practical and for holic reasons it's not recommended to to have a private show head who only sheds but doesn't do anything else if you have a private show head that share it and then he only separates the me that's kosher and he himself salts it and gives it to you that's good but usually that's not the case so therefore for us personally it's recommended to buy meat that is Glatt Kosher and preferably bait yourself and that was salted at the factory now we already mentioned that if you happen to be in a place where the meat is bait yourself but it was insulted so then without going and learning the laws of salting the meat you can just roast the meat over fire and for that you cannot salt it in a vessel because once you salt it then you have to follow the rules of salty you have to first cut it up wash it put it on the stick or if it's a whole slice put it on the grill and only then can you add salt and spices because if you add salt and spices before the blood will already start coming out from the salt and spices and if it's in a utensil utensil is going to become Nicosia and the meat is going to become Nicosia so before learning the laws of salting you can only solve the meat once it's on the steak or on the grill and then put it over the grill right away after you salty or once it's on the grill salted then another leniency that you can use let's say you're visiting friends or family on Shabbat and you know they buy Glatt Kosher meat kosher foreskin Azam but it's not bit yourself so safari may have a leniency that if it is Shabbat we are allowed to rely on Ashkenazim and we are allowed to eat Glatt Kosher even if it's not bit yourself which means since there is a doubt even in Ashkenazi meat they consider regular Glatt Kosher meat kosher and therefore they don't go further to check is it also be it yourself so therefore any Ashkenazi piece of meat you take there is a small doubt that it might really be bait yourself because it could be that it so happened that this animal was of the higher standard but since they don't care about it they just classified it together with the regular Glatt Kosher me so because of that concern we can eat regular Ashkenazi Glatt Kosher meat on Shabbat or holidays or any sueded Mitzvah any meal that is for a mitzvah for example a wedding since a wedding meal is a as a mitzvah you can rely on an Ashkenazi caterer even if the meat is only Glatt Kosher you can eat there however if you were present at the schita and they check the animal and they said specifically yes this animal is not Veit yourself it's only glad kosher so then such an animal you wouldn't be able to eat even on Shabbat because we can only rely on Ashkenazim for a mitzvah and also because there is a small doubt that it might be bait yourself yes so the first question what what does baiters have mean so there are different opinions of how healthy the animal needs to be for it to be considered kosher so safar them hold according to more strict opinion they need the animal to be perfectly healthy and the way we check the animal is according to its lungs if the lungs are smooth without any growths without any adhesions from the lungs to the surrounding tissue we see that the lungs are healthy and if the lungs are healthy we assume the animal is healthy because practice shows that if lungs are damaged then usually there are other problems in the animal so one of the things that we must check in animal our lungs however Ashkenazim accept a more lenient opinion that allow certain certain blemishes and therefore since for us it's questionable the animal is healthy but it has some blemishes on the lungs so it's enough of a reason for us to suspect that the animal might be sick and therefore we don't accept such meat Ashkenazim due since it is a valid opinion and we have one doubt could be that their opinion is valid it could be not we hold stricter opinion so under normal circumstances not shabbat not a mitzvah we have to be strict however if it is for a mitzvah and you have one doubt that maybe their opinion is valid and you have a second doubt that maybe this meat really is bit yourself because when they mark it as long as it meets their minimum standard it's good if it's higher it's also good but they mark everything as god kosher so regular meat that we buy has already two doubts Glatt Kosher me that we buy could be it is bit yourself and even if it's not bit yourself it could be the Ashkenazi opinion is valid but it's not enough to allow us to eat this meat on a regular day about if it is a mitzvah a wedding Shabbat yom tov brit milah so then we say since it's a double doubt plus it's a mitzvah so you can enjoy since your eating is a mitzvah so for mitzvah we are lenient so if you're visiting your parents grandparents relatives friends you are at a Shabbat own where food is Ashkenazi God kosher you can eat there everything because it's every meal on Shabbat is a mitzvah and and we're allowed to rely on Ashkenazim for mitzvot yes so some do allow it that if if it's going to cause a fight if it's going to cause bad feelings or embarrassment to somebody some do consider it as a mitzvah however if you know in advance so you can try to avoid it on Shabbat when you visit a family it's too late the cook the food is already cooked you cannot shop you cannot cook anymore so you eat what you have however if you if you plan this in advance or especially if you know that this is something that you will have to do on a consistent basis let's say you do go to visit that relative or that friend every week or every month so it's a topic to go up and say you know we are Safari or we accept upon ourselves a stricter standard and if you know we're coming and if you're doing shopping if you can you have this on a shelf and you have this on a shelf if you can please choose that but also keep in mind that even if you do visit your friends and relatives if there are other foods available for example I said chicken or veal or lamb which even Ashkenazim hold to the same standard as Safari that's that's that should be your first choice if it's a sueded Mitzvah you don't have to limit yourself to those you can eat even beef but if it's not sueded Mitzvah and you have other food you can choose you can say III would like today to eat chicken I would like today to eat veal now let's go to the next part of it and that is flour wheat there's something called Hashanah and hadass in addition to our wheat barley oats rice felt being produced at a kosher factory with no non kosher ingredients for safari montsum Ashkenazim were strict too to make sure that the wheat was planted before last Passover before last Pesa as long as it was planted before three days before the holiday this weed is kosher however if the the grain was planted after Passover and harvested in the summer then we need to wait until the following passer to be able to eat it so they usually dry they store it and they sell it the following spring salmon there are some Ashkenazim who are lenient and they say that outside of israel and if you don't know exactly you can rely on the leniency because they say any wheat that you any flour that you buy you don't know when it was grown so to begin with it is a doubt and plus there is this opinion that says that outside of Israel it's more lenient so we are strict and we say no you have to make sure that this wheat specifically was planted before last Pesa however if you are visiting again family that doesn't keep Yasha or a restaurant or you are at a wedding with the caterer that doesn't serve you a shot since it is a sueded mitzvah you're eating for mitzvah and you have the double doubt maybe the pinion that outside of Israel's more lenient maybe they're right and even if they're not right maybe this sweet really was grown before there is a double doubt there is an additional doubt we can be lenient just like with bait yourself meat but that is only for Shabbat yom tov and other meat-related meals normally however we should try that if we're buying foods or cookies pizza we should buy pastries that are young and it says so on a package Josh on camera Hassan either in there in English or in Hebrew but again if you're visiting relatives family Shabbat on and it's Shabbat you can you can rely on the leniency and you don't have to look into it you can eat whatever you're being served as long as it's kosher in addition to food being kosher it needs to be cooked or baked by a Jew and therefore you might come to a family member and they bought something in the bakery and the bakery you'll say it's just flour and water you look at the ingredients no problem but since it was baked or cooked by a non Jew we cannot eat it or sometimes you have a nanny in your house and she cooked the food or she baked it or a neighbor gave your your relatives this pastry or food and the food might be kosher the food might be just baked potatoes no other ingredients but because it was cooked by a non Jew you cannot eat it so now when you visit your relatives you have to look into that who was the food cooked by so if it was cooked by your grandmother your mother or a Jewish person that's less of a problem some authorities hold that food must be cooked by a Jew who keeps Shabbat because we have a rule that a Jew that doesn't keep Shabbat in some ways is like a non Jew and therefore when they cook it could be that the food is non kosher so that is the most strict opinion and if possible you should hold like that however for somebody who lives at home and it would be very hard since let's say their parents don't keep Shabbat and they cook for them if you will now consider their food not kosher it's gonna create a lot of problems so then in such a case until you get married you can rely on the more lenient opinion that as long as the person is Jewish the food is kosher even if you didn't participate however if you want to keep the most strict opinion you should try to participate in cooking process either you should turn the fire on or you should put some ingredients in or after the food is cooking you mix it this way a Jew that keeps Shabbat will participate in a cooking process and is going to be considered visually Israel yes now once the food is edible even if it's not fully cooked but once it's edible which means it's already half cooked it's too late so you have to participate in the first half of the process so whether it is a 90 you have to make sure she doesn't cook for two reasons number one she shouldn't bring her own food she shouldn't mix meat meat and milk and she should not be the one cooking because the food will be considered not kosher even if all the ingredients are kosher and the second person to keep in mind that might spoil your food is a home attendant sometimes elder grandparents have home attendant who are not Jewish and they help them and they might cook something for them so teach your grandparents that they should light the fire at least they should light the fire or they should put some food into the pot or they should stir the fire Pat the pod themselves that's true there is a rule that only food that brings people closer which means you would serve to somebody you respect an honorable person so there is a mahaki at what is considered food that would be served at an honourable dinner whether we look at that particular food or that particular ingredient for example potatoes potatoes are served at weddings but it depends how you make it it could be if they are prepared in a fancy way it's considered honorable and it has to be cooked by a Jew if if they're made in a fast-food style maybe that is not honorable but we see that at our weddings they do serve french fries and all kinds of potatoes so potato is considered a kind of a vegetable that even though is mostly junk food but it is served at a at honorable dinner and therefore it is a problem each particular each particular dish an ingredient has to be looked into separately so it's a complicated area another another hahaha that can help you is any food that is edible raw is allowed to be cooked by a non Jew for example vegetable soup where you only put vegetables that are edible raw like carrots onions and are the vegetables that are eaten raw even if a non-jew cooks it you can eat it but if they put potatoes in or other things that black beans that you cannot eat raw then the soup becomes not kosher also we go after the majority of the ingredient for example if a non makes tea or coffee for you since majority of tea or coffee is water and water is edible raw since you can drink plain water so the fact that they boiled it is fine the fact that they added coffee or tea that's only a minority ingredient even though it gives it flavor but for this the rabbi's were lenient and you're allowed to therefore to buy coffee or tea from a non-jewish store assuming is it's made in a cultural utensil which we assume it is because they have a dedicated urn for hot water or if in your house as a servant and maid nanny boils water that's fine yes so the minimum that they can do is light fire or somebody should light the fire let's say in the morning and then the whole day the the non-jew can cook here we rely on another leniency for somebody who has no other choice just lighting fire is enough and if necessary you can keep small flame forever and then as long as it originally it was started by by a Jew then and you can raise it can lower it as long as they don't turn it off he they can cook again in cases where no other option but ideal it should be not only fired should also be participating in the cooking another another area that you have to look into is the dishes like you said what if the food it was cooked correctly but did what about the dishes so assuming the dishes are kosher but they were not taken to the mikveh you have we have to take certain dishes to the mikveh and which dishes we need to take the make of a glass and metal need to go with a blessing and porcelain needs to go without a blessing because porcelain is made from earthenware with a thin layer of glass on the outside so if you visit somebody who keeps God kosher everything is kosher in the house and the Jew cooks the food but their utensils are not they were not in a mikveh so of course if you can inform them about it and help them to bring their utensils to the mikveh that's better long term but if not two things to keep in mind one after the fact if the food was cooked or served in a utensil there was not Anamika the food stays kosher you cannot use the utensils without them being in a mikveh but the food is not effective however if they serve it to you you cannot eat from the plate or with that spoon so then you should transfer it into a a disposable plate and eat with a disposable spoon the food is culture but you cannot use these utensils if it's a kind of an object that doesn't need a plate for example they gave you paste or they gave you gosh Kuja or anything else that you can hold in your hand so just pick it up into your hand and eat with your hand whether it's fish or chicken just take it with your hand and eat this way you're not using the utensil otherwise let's say something like soup you need the utensil you need the ball so then take a disposable ball this way this way you you don't have the problem of McRib if you visit a non-jewish establishment a restaurant and you want to drink tea so then it's preferable to take glass cup because glass we hold does not absorb and therefore glass always stays kosher and as long as glass is clean we don't care that they serve non kosher food in it we can use it for ourselves so to say you're visiting a hotel and they have glass cups you can use those glass cups to make for yourself coffee tea or even cook your noodle soup in it or anything else in it since it belongs to a non Jew you don't have this obligation to dip it in a mikveh and because it's glass it's kosher however will they do it's not going to work with a Jew if you have a choice glass or porcelain glass is a greater obligation we have to bring glass to the mikveh with a blessing porcelain without a blessing so if you do have to use as long as you know Baiju it's kosher the only question is mikvah so then for a Jew is preferable to use earthenware or porcelain and not glass and not metal but of course preferably disposable yes if you have a non-kosher plate temporarily you can use it for cold food yes but if it's in your house then you shouldn't keep such place around because you might forget and then warm something up on them and one more item about kosher food is bugs in vegetables certain foods even though it's seemingly kosher healthy produce like lettuce and other fruits and vegetables what can be wrong with it but since we're not allowed to eat bugs we should check and wash our vegetables certain fruits and vegetables we consider them clean they are not infested and therefore just simple washing for cleanliness is enough certain fruits and vegetables need proper washing and checking to make sure that there are no bugs so if you know how to do it and your relatives don't know and they prepared something with the ingredient that needs to be checked then you shouldn't eat that in that that dish if there are other foods available you can eat other foods but not that particular salad or dish but it's good for everyone to take a class on on how to clean vegetables properly because then you will be able to give instructions to your parents relatives and friends how to do it and there are certain general guidelines to make it quick and easy number one there are certain companies that produce green house grown produce and that is bug free and that you don't have to wash or check so if you can buy it for them or they buy it for you and you eat it that's that's perfect if you know that pretty if it's it's also important too which vegetables fruits you can trust and for those that are problematic it's important to know at least the minimum basic proper washing technique so that if somebody doesn't go on and go overboard they feel it's too much but at least let them do certain minimum to try their best and what is that minimum for certain vegetables a certain minimum would be to to wash them well than to make soapy water with a little bit soap in it and soak them for a couple minutes and then wash them well under running water after that that will solve majority of your issues of course for somebody who wants to be extra careful what they would do is afterwards rinse it pour it into a strainer with a special mesh very fine mesh and see if there are any bugs there and if there are bugs they will do the process again of of soaking in soapy water and rinsing it but at least for your grandmother or mother just on a minimum basic level whatever vegetables might be infested greenery at least tell them to wash it well then soak it in a soapy water doesn't have to be very soapy just a little bit soapy and then and the soaking can be only three minutes and then rinse it very well under running water whatever bugs are on the surface and are clinging to it that should take care of now you might have bugs that are inside the fruit hiding under parts of the vegetable those you already need close inspection but at least for the bugs that are on the surface they will be washed away not with plain water but with a little bit soapy water so again if you are at a restaurant that you don't trust that they wash their properly or by a relative you should only eat vegetables that that don't have a problem like cucumbers tomatoes and carrots and things like that not greenery okay any questions about this topic here for example lettuce cilantro parsley kale yes most most greenery most leafy vegetables have to be washed soaked in a slightly soapy water and then rinsed again so again the light box there are few uses over it one use is after you wash the vegetables you rinse them and that water that you rinsed you pour through a mesh very fine mesh and then you put it over the light box to see if there are any bugs if there are bugs then you assume there are still bugs in the vegetables so you have to do the process again that's one use of the light box another use of light box is to try to find warmth in within the leaves or within the the fruit if you don't have light box you can look at the regular light vegetables like like I mentioned cucumbers tomatoes radishes squashes apples watermelons melons these vegetables are usually clean just regular washing is fine whereas broccoli and cauliflower and various berries are very difficult to clean and you shouldn't do it unless it was grown in in a greenhouse for example there are many cultural companies that now bring weather from America from Israel vegetables grown in greenhouses they have a caliph flower they have broccoli and they have strawberries and other difficult vegetables and berries that that are bug free one more thing that if you do have to use such vegetables and fruits and there is no kosher variety available so first you have to do your best to wash it well soak it in soapy water and rinse it very well and then we still cannot rely on it because these vegetables that I mentioned cauliflower broccoli and berries the bugs can be within the the vegetable or berry so then what you can do is at that point make a smoothie out of it and that way if there are any bugs they will be mashed and smashed disintegrated and once the bug is disintegrated we use the rule of nullification and we go after the majority as long as you don't if you are not aware that there any bug is there and once you washed it and you don't see any bugs with your eyes you are not aware the bugs are there or not but since there might be bugs you put it in a food processor and that helps you to solve this issue that there shouldn't be a whole bug once the bug is divided then it becomes nullified in the majority of food [Music] yes so four bucks with cilantro again they should rinse it should soak it in soapy water it's it's very easy because you can do a whole bunch at once two bunches in a big container and then after it soaks in soapy water for a few minutes you rinse it very well under running water and at least that at that point you already solved majority of this issue most bugs were already washed away now if there are any bugs maybe hopefully by the time you chop it up or you at that point it's even better to put it in a food processor to grind it well and by time you cook and you mix it well you hope that it was disintegrated so but at least that should be done yes yes Halawa Sorrell is another concern there there is a Mac Lockett weather here in America we can rely on you for our milk because according to a rabbinic law we can only drink milk or eat milk products if the milking process was observed by a Jew for the concern that they might add milk from a non kosher animal or they might add other ingredients so here in America since there is a government law that you you are not allowed to add anything into milk without specifying it on the label and they have inspectors from the government checking on each processing plant so some feel that that's enough of a supervision that we don't have to be concerned that there are non kosher ingredients so as long as you have oh you on the package that's enough however going to some they say no we still need that a Jew should observe the milking process so ideally Safari should be strict and only get Hal of Israel especially in a Queens where it's available and almost any store and new kosher store has challah Israel products a variety of them however if a person is in a place where it's not available then one can be lenient at least four children four children one can be lenient and buy non Halawa Israel products like yogurt and cheese and and cottage cheese things that are oh you D but not Halawa Israel for an adult it's better to be strict because this is not something that is essential you still have meat you still have chicken you still have bread you still have vegetables and you can live without it for a child since it's a big part of their diet one can be lenient if Halawa sell product is not available one can be lenient and buy among Halawa sell product for children okay okay so we're going to stop today with this next week we're going to cover another question again if you have questions you can either send them to me directly or to pnina sort of you