Kosher Supervision: How Much is Politics?
My D.H. just sent me an article about the kashrut questions on Hebrew National hot dogs and salami. They themselves say they're kosher, but the hechsher, Triangle-K (Rabbi Aryeh Ralbag is Rav Hamachshir) is not accepted in the Haredi or Hassidic community and as a result, we don't use it.
Granted, the meat from Hebrew National is not glatt. But read this, and tell me why it should not be considered kosher? Non-glatt meat is still kosher, although some would say, not to the highest standards, which they consider that glatt, is. "Non Glatt" means that there was some question about the meat, a mark on the lungs, and the lungs are blown up and inspected even more thoroughly. "Glatt" means smooth (in Hebrew, halak), or, no marks on it, so the meat passes through without the extra inspection of the blown-up lungs. It seems to me, that the doubly-inspected meat--if it is not rejected because a moom, or blemish, was found on it which would disqualify it as kosher food--should be as accepted as glatt meat, because it was scrutinized even more.
The article is titled:
Granted, the meat from Hebrew National is not glatt. But read this, and tell me why it should not be considered kosher? Non-glatt meat is still kosher, although some would say, not to the highest standards, which they consider that glatt, is. "Non Glatt" means that there was some question about the meat, a mark on the lungs, and the lungs are blown up and inspected even more thoroughly. "Glatt" means smooth (in Hebrew, halak), or, no marks on it, so the meat passes through without the extra inspection of the blown-up lungs. It seems to me, that the doubly-inspected meat--if it is not rejected because a moom, or blemish, was found on it which would disqualify it as kosher food--should be as accepted as glatt meat, because it was scrutinized even more.
The article is titled:
Major New Acceptance for Triangle- K/Hebrew National as Kosher
The legitimacy and trustworthiness of the Triangle-K kosher supervision agency are often maligned in the kosher-keeping community, for reasons that are most often not clear at all (1, 2, 3, 4). One thing that’s been pushing a re-evaluation of Triangle-K, particularly in liberal Orthodox areas, is the fact that it’s been certifying Hebrew National’s meat for a few years now, with Hebrew National using particularly-humane methods of slaughter — something the liberal Orthodox are especially eager to find, in light of the Agriprocessors situation.It was seen on TJC . Read it here. What do you think?
And now Rabbi Asher Lopatin — a leading liberal-Orthodox rabbi, member of the RCA, and often known these days as Rahm Emanuel’s rabbi — has changed his position on Hebrew National:
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