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Kosher Nexus
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KASHRUS GETS IT WRONG, AGAIN

The current issue of KASHRUS magazine features a screaming headline concerning the constitutional challenge to that state’s kosher law raised by Rabbi Shalom Lewis in Georgia.

In breathless prose, the articles portrays Rabbi Lewis as a man intent on destroying kashruth in Georgia. As is often the case, the article misrepresents key elements of history, legal issues and the nature of kashruth. (We commented on Rabbi Lewis’s challenge in earlier columns here.)

The article seems to gloss over the fact that the New Jersey and New York laws were found to be unconstitutional because of a breach of Church/State statutes. Although we are not a lawyer, we believe that the same will hold for Georgia’s statute. Plain and simple, the State may not be the decisor of Jewish law.

While we may not accept Rabbi Lewis’s interpretation of any specific kashruth law, we understand his dismay at having to maintain a standard that the State accepts while denying him his rabbinic rights to make his own determination. As far as that goes, we also do not accept a certain NY hashgacha that allows places to not change their dishes for Pesach, but we recognize that Orthodox rabbi’s right to rule that way.

As we said in one of our columns, the State may not decide how to treibur (devein) a tongue, for example. As for the standard that calls for “Orthodox Hebrew law,” we can only counter that within “Orthodox Hebrew law” there are often a multitude of standards.

The EIC of KASHRUS published a letter he sent to the Attorney General of Georgia in which he called Rabbi Lewis’s lawsuit “frivolous.” How tragic and sad!

No one wants to see kosher laws fall, but neither do we want unconstitutional laws that throw total control to a small cabal of self appointed kashruth “czars.”

Like it or not, kosher laws must be consumer protective laws and not protective of a phony and unconstitutional standard. We can think of at least a few so called “orthodox Hebrew” agencies whose hashgacha is worthless for any number of reasons. Yet, they meet the (unconstitutional) standard, so they pass. The new kosher laws in NY and NJ allow the consumer to decide if they accept the level of supervision, the rabbi and his standards as published on a prominent sign in the store.

Here is a question for people who think the lawsuit is silly:
None of the kosher agencies in the USA allow kitniyot derivatives on Pesach (ie, corn oil, soy oil, etc). Yet, the shulchan aruch is abundantly clear that we may use those derivatives. Here is our question: does the fact that none of the agencies allow those products mean that they have now defined “orthodox Hebrew law?” Would a rabbi who gives hashgacha who allows kitniyot derivatives be found to be operating outside the (unconstitutional) standard, and therefore subject to fines?

No, Rabbi Lewis’s law suit is not silly. Any time we expect our laws to conform to Constitutional standards, we can’t be called frivolous.

It seems to us that those people who decry Rabbi Lewis’s challenge are looking to protect their turf and certainly not much else.

The article in KASHRUS points to the fact that in the past, everyone had one standard upon which they could depend (which was defined by the State). That was never true. If that had been true, there would have been no quiet list of non acceptable so-called Orthodox hechshers that pulpit rabbis would give to their congregants (often verbally so as to avoid legal confrontations).

Like it or not, the Constitution is the determining factor as to what we can do or not do. We do not believe that Rabbi Lewis is looking to destroy kashruth in Georgia. On the contrary, he just wants the law to be properly written and enforced.