I WA WA WA WA WONDER………

This past shabbat, our local community Jewish newspaper had an ad from a whole lot of rabbis who wanted to assure us that glatt shechita is kosher shechita one hundred percent the way it’s supposed to be. This was the second ad we have seen in response to the PETA video.

We realized from the get-go that PETA had an agenda, and it was essentially to attack shechita. That agenda has only now started to become obvious to the public at large. But let’s look at the story from a different point of view. Let’s forget PETA and their lurid, doctored video.

What if all of those rabbis and agencies who have been so busy signing ads had a meeting and decided that they had to protect the reputation of kosher shechita? What if they decided that the needs of the community and protecting the community from attacks against shechita warranted a massive collusion? Maybe we are really being paranoid. Then again, maybe we are not!

There obviously was a problem at the Postville plant. As much as the OU insists that all was copacetic, they have hastened to add an extra person to the plant to make sure that all is done k’dat uchdin. Huh? If everything was so okay, why add another person?

They have assured us that occasionally an animal does not die right away from shechita. We can accept that. What is the statistical rate of incidence? How many cows, say out of a hundred, will get up and walk after shechita? Granted the PETA video is stilted, but it seems to show a fairly large number of animals that didn’t die quickly.

Many of us grew up in homes where there was no notion of glatt. Suddenly, we were told that the only truly kosher meat was glatt. As the cost of glatt got ever more expensive, the quality of the meat consistently went down. Today, outside of a few really good restaurants, it is almost impossible to get kosher prime beef. Nine dollars a pound for rib steak at the butcher store is an obscene amount of money. Roasts that regularly cost over $35 for a family of four for one meal are the rule and not the exception. But we paid, because how can you put a price tag on a mitzvah, ie, eating kosher?

When the Triangle K took over supervision of Hebrew National, they upgraded the shechita facilities and established all sorts of new rules for the shechita house as well as the deli plant. There were those in the Orthodox community who still pooh-pooh’ed HN. They looked down their nose at meat that was not glatt. We would do well to note that that non glatt meat has no scent of scandal attached to it. How ironic! If you want to buy meat that is kosher without a doubt, maybe you should buy HN meat. Sure, it’s not glatt, but, then again, it IS kosher!

What a strange world, indeed!
(RJR)