A GAZILLION KOSHER SYMBOLS

Well, ok, not a gazillion. But close to a thousand is a real number! Kashrus Magazine just published its annual list of kosher symbols. This year, they published it in a separate volume- a real nice touch.

The book is a wonderful resource. It is also very helpful: it tells you which rabbis/v’adim are Conservative and which are Traditional. And it stopped publishing the brief bios of Orthodox rabbis because some of those bios make certain O rabbis whose hashgachot are worthless/suspect/useless/not at all rigorous and/or not dependable look much better than they really are. Who are those rabbis? Hey, they’ll never tell!

We quibble with one small point. They suggest that you check with your LORA (local Orthodox Rabbinic Authority) to find out which hashgachot are the ones to worry about (our words, not theirs). Why do we quibble with that?

Simple: Very few rabbis have an up to date knowledge of the rabbis/v’adim that give hashgacha. Rabbis trade in outdated, no longer valid information. One rabbi we recently met said that he can only recommend a vaad or agency whose rabbis he personally knows. A great idea, but totally useless today!

Rabbis are generally not good sources for the sort of info the magazine suggests you seek. Yeshiva rabbis are totally in the dark by and large because they do not have to deal with this most of the time. Pulpit rabbis are way too busy, it would seem, to keep up with all the latest changes. We are very tired of hearing rabbis spout information that was wrong years ago, but some how they missed that train! Yet, every rabbi KNOWS, he absolutely KNOWS of what he speaks. Never mind the facts on the ground. We pulpit rabbis are on the front lines- most of us don’t get to see the memos the top brass passes around behind the scenes. Pulpit rabbis mean well, but, frankly, most of them don’t know enough to be sources of good, up to date, reliable information.

Not to toot our own horn, but that is why this blog and other blogs exist. The national agencies won’t give out any info at all on other agencies. Local v’adim can be very helpful. As the Kashrus guide points out, ask a local vaad if they will allow a product with the X hashgacha mark on it. If they say no, find out why. Not a perfect solution as we recently discovered with one vaad, but it is a good start. Mostly, we suggest you check with your good friends right here.