Does it really need a hechsher? Rav Yechezkel Auerbach on Kashrus Pesach and Year round

the client's all for client's all the other urine is a cool with the fans I would have done this so far from English that you don't understand. I've the cover the Kashrus administrator of the KSA who always comes to you and tell you all over the world to be covered for us to speak about I appreciate the way that Sonia the Kahila here of Stone and the mishpacha of the Bold mishpacha which are they they they are mishpacha in a way which is beyond what one could possibly even expect to be marbitz Torah in a hustle and bustle way and the Kodesh Baruch Hu should keep that in mind. Um, there's an interesting possuk in this week's parsha where it's talking about the carbonus. It says the whole the whole chatus asher yovo domo el ohel moed l'chaper b'kodesh l'sayr say ohel. There is a halacha every every type of carbon has its own place and if you go out of that place you possel the carbon. And it says with the dom of the chatus, if you bring it inside closer in than it was supposed to be, the whole carbon is possel. So, my father asked a simple question. He says, "Why should this be? You would think that okay is it aggression or something? Is it wouldn't you wouldn't you get closer? The Torah is telling us that every person has their own ma'amad. Every person has their own shlav of how they're supposed to grow, where they're supposed to grow, what they're supposed to do. So, spring in of hecher richtig for a person to go where he's not supposed to be, for a person to try to to wrap themselves in layers that are not b'cheyn and they don't shteem zich with this whole avoda it it's a possel of carbon. You think [clears throat] it's a carbon, but it's a possel of carbon. And I just wanted to start by laying out a posheter two posheter nekudus. And one is that just like every person understands that when you ask a shaila and a rov is machria l'kula a kula has to have a well-founded and a ishkichacha understanding in halacha and it has to be based in mamashus before you can have a kula. A chumra needs the same amount of thought. A person stam to go and shlacht as you know, let's be machmir. Let's it it feels so much better to say this is assur. It feels so frum to go say that we can't do this, we can't do that. That also has no basis, that also has no Torah. That also has no basis in halacha. And just before if we don't get to it at the end, I I am the sh'teim aim that I just wanted to bring it up again. I I mentioned it last year that it comes after Pesach. There are people that don't sell chametz. This isn't Torah. This is a wonderful thing. Biur chametz, we we know that that that that chametz and se'or and the se'or she b'isa and everything that it's it it's it's everything that it represents, the s'vas am everybody knows that. And a person should sell all the chametz all the chametz he possibly can. But you have erliche ba'alei batim, people that have grocery stores. The single biggest purchase that Yidden make is when they go shopping after Pesach and you have erliche Yidden, they went to their rabbonim and they sold their chametz as every shita in the halacha and they're doing the right thing. And so, for three or four weeks after Pesach, people go running to give their business and the chametz that you're buying by the were probably by a frei Yid not being sold on Pesach anyways. And my house of grace and that you've accomplished something that you're not buying chametz that was sold. So, instead of the mitzvah d'oraisa of chiyuv eemach of giving another Yid parnassa you go to a and you buy his chametz that was probably by a Yid. It doesn't make any sense. But ask your own rov. Um the first thing that I I just follow orders here and Rabbi Bold had a list of things he wanted me to discuss. The first he has here is wines from all over the world. I just want to give you just a snapshot. People when it comes to when it comes to flesh and a person is supposed to be careful. A person is supposed to know what his minig is. There are different minhagim side by side, the shchita side by side, the nikur. There are different types of of hanhagas that people have in their heads. And people they they farshai every last detail about the shochtim and the macham, the butchers and that uh when it comes to wine you walk into stores and there is wine from all over the world that since sheishes may be reishes, they haven't had a minyan there. And truth be told, wine is the single most difficult hashgacha to give, much more than shchita. And if the Gemara says that rov masni shchita mumchim heim and rov b'heim kashrus, that means that the Torah and the the klolum of rov, you can assume that if somebody is giving you a piece of flesh and he says this is kosher, al pi halacha you're allowed to believe it's kosher. Not saying you need it, but this is what you can do. It doesn't say that by wine. And yet by wine they have places from South America, South Africa, all over Azerbaijan, places that you can't even pronounce the words. And who is doing the hashgacha there? Because in a blink when you have the wine before it's before it's made, we'll talk about bishul shortly, but certainly before it's mevushal, if the mashgiach hat zich eingedrimmelt for a moment and the in the winery he's going about his business because 364 days a year he makes not kosher wine and he goes and he knows that this is the valve when it comes to this part of the process he has to turn this valve and when it comes into the silo and he has to take a sample like this and he turns such a valve and such a valve even according to the Shach who is more meikel with negias d'var acher if a person if a if a turns a spigot to take a sample when he closes that spigot it's called ne'emad. It's called kashrus. So, it's negia, not only negias d'var acher, it's negia b'koach and everything in that vat becomes not kosher. And people take they just take it from anywhere and everywhere. They never heard of the hashgacha, they don't know how well the hashgacha is doing there. They have no they have no idea who the mashgichim are. They have no idea, they don't farshai. How many mashgichim I've seen I've seen crushes that people think they can just get away. They have one mashgiach, they don't spend money on a lot of them. They have one mashgiach, you know, he'll do the kashrus, he'll make sure everything's running. It's absolutely impossible. And it's a very and it's very very simple to for things to go wrong and it's a a chiyuv. It's not a suggestion, it's a chiyuv on every person to farshai is um from the rabbonim machshirim that [snorts] they have to know that people are watching and people aren't just going to walk into a wine store and take something off the shelf because it has a hechsher on it. And b'chlall in this nice uh b'frat that rabbonim hamachshirim have to be trained that they can expect phone calls from people to ask questions about what they do. To ask if not from people individually, from rabbonim, you should go to your rov. The rov should ask the rov machsher. A rov machsher who will not answer questions about what they do to another rov has no business being in business. There is no such thing as a kabbal da'as. There's no such thing as a rov machsher who has a blank check and he can say, "I'm giving hashgacha, everybody has to use their goods. You have to eat now." He can't be expected, he doesn't have to say the same drosha 400 times everybody's calling him every day. But certainly certainly rabbonim have responsibility to hold rabbonim hamachshirim responsible. Used to be, even in k'mas in our living lifetime, that there were real kehilas in Europe where the rov was the rov, the best in was the best in and what they said went, that's what it was. But now it's it's it's a gesheft like any other gesheft and you have to hold them responsible for what they're doing. Which wines does the rov recommend? There are wines from There are wines from Eretz Yisrael with the Badatz. And that's a wines from Eretz Yisrael b'frat are very slippery because people say, "Oh, why should I spend a lot of money on something like Teperberg or Zimora? I know which which it comes from. I know that they go and they harvest in such and such a vineyard and I know the other guy does it, he uses the same vineyard, so it must be okay." That's a big mistake because in Eretz Yisrael b'frat they do a lot of the the the people that are that take care of the vines know that if they keep on grafting, they do ha'kava on the vines because whenever you do a ha'kava, you give it new life and it's it it it blasts it up again and again it lives back more. So, there's constantly a concern that they're going to be grafting the the vineyards and the vines into one another. The Aida has a spreadsheet where they have numbers Mendy, right? Thank you. Um they have a spreadsheet where they have literally numbers on each of the vineyard on each of the vines, and they have a hashman. And the mashgiach doesn't just sit and watch what are they crushing the grapes. He's out in the fields making sure that the vintners did not go and do any asic with the vines that would have possibly for another 4 years that you cannot use the 3 years of orlah and the 4th year of neta revai. And this is something that has to be kept on top of. From coming from Eretz Yisrael, there are wines and baruch Hashem there's more of them that have the Aida that are very careful, and Rav Avraham Rubin's Kedem Badatz Mehadrin. These are two very very good He used to be actually used to be the OU. He used to be the OU. I don't think I don't know if he was ever with the Aida, but he is He was? Okay. Um From Europe, there is there are two very good hashgachas. One is Rav Moshe Chaim Zeckbach. He was He arshan the gesheft from his father. Somebody's disagreeing. Um that In my experience with Rabbi Zeckbach, he is a baki nifla. He's rosh kol of stuff that they're learning they're putting out an encyclopedia on hilchos yayin. And uh is very very careful with what he does. There's another hashgacha from Rav Mordechai Rottenberg from Paris. These two are the also as of last year the um the Hisachdus started working together with Rabbi Zeckbach also, and they have other wines that they bring their own crew their own mashgiach gichumin to do oversight on their wines. But before we get any further, the there's an important nice about wine that is often overlooked because people assume that it's mevushal. And it is true that Rav Moshe has a very lengthy tshuvas about bishul that 165 is enough even pasteurization. The uh Tzel HaMarov also has a um a tshuvas like that. However, people should be aware that the loshon the loshon of the Chacham Tzvi, we've spoken about it before. In his introduction to hilchos yayin, this is the loshon of the Chacham Tzvi. I do not believe that the Chacham Tzvi uses that loshon anywhere ever else in the entire sefer. And in yayin nesach, you would think that after after a phrase that chos v'shalom a person's neshama is ne'ekar from its shoresh of kedusha, a person would look for extra chumras rather than kulos. And here's here's the concern. There is a there's a machlokes. It's brought down if it's the the there there is a what's called mevushal. What does mevushal do? Why is it mutar for a to touch wine or you at least you lose the concern of maga akum from a after bishul. So, there is a Rosh that says that the reason is because it is a milse d'lo shchicha to have yayin mevushal, and since it's milse d'lo shchicha it goes d'rabbanan. There is Now that we get to what what bishul accomplish and what it what has to do to be considered mevushal, there are a number of shitos brought down. One is that it has mala d'avois, which is the general rule if you don't know you know that's why. In halacha, there are very very few technical guidelines. Most of halacha are guidelines that a person can do without without instruments without thermometers and things like that. So, if it's mala mala d'avois, it has to be boiling. Another criterion that's used for bishul is it has to be nismat machmas chimai, which means that it loses some of its volume and that means it's nikrash. It it's it's fatzom. It gets it gets somewhat diminished. And the third shita is The third shiur is that the shiur is nishtana l'grayusa. It does not taste as as fulsome and as well as it did before. Um Rav Zalman, Rav Elyashiv, and Rav Ovadia Yosef all say that pasteurization does not meet any of those criteria. Uh first of all the the Rosh that it's milse d'lo shchicha since most wines are pasteurized, so they say b'chol it is out calling it mevushal does not help in order to shield it from maga akum. And the way that pasteurization works, especially flash pasteurization, it loses nothing. And since it's a closed system under pressure, it's never mala d'avois. And unless you open the valve to release some of the essence and the steam, it's not going to be nismat machmas chimai. You're not going to lose any volume, and they're careful that it shouldn't change the taste either. So, um a person that is wants to be not crazy machmir, but to check most of the boxes and not all the boxes, it should be concerned that even something that's called mevushal are you they foster or by pasteurization, it's not clear that that is considered mevushal. Speak to your Rav about that. Um the next one the about There's been a rush that even national kashrus organizations have limited the beer. Here here's pashut and this will go down together with the whiskeys and vodkas. Uh Yidden baruch Hashem are very very upgehitn in kashrus, and they're very concerned to make sure that not only the the major ingredients but even minor ingredients. And with the visual of things that's And baruch Hashem things are are are picking up and and more more upgehitn hashgachas are are getting more and more gesheft. But for some reason one area of simchas that has been totally overlooked is alcoholic beverages. It's schnapps and beer and things like that. Which is Everybody always assumes that beer What what is beer? Beer's made of barley and it's made of hops and you cook it up and you let it sit and that's what it is. The truth is that it used to be like that, but the there's new meshugasim with these craft breweries where they have I tell you I went into a brewery outside Lakewood. A friend of mine asked me he wanted to make special run of beer of it's called coffee stout. He wanted to give his l'chaim. So, I went to a brewery to go meet with the guy. So, the guy says, you know, it's very funny. He says, "I just finished cleaning up my lines." He says it was right after Thanksgiving. He says, "There's a family over here locally. They bring every year" and this is a craft brewery where they they they will brew whatever you'd like. He says, "They bring a tub of turkey schmaltz every year, and they make a run of turkey schmaltz beer for their Thanksgiving meal for the family." And the kailim the kailim balua was mamash this is mamash treif. That means that anything downstream of that till you kasher it is mamash treif. It's not just that it's not mehaber. It's mamash treif. And and when I looked over the records, many many and this was another place also. Many of this the the way that it works is you need sugars to start the fermentation. And the cheapest most fermentable sugars that they have on the market today is something called lactose. Lactose is very cheap. It's a it's the milk sugar that you separate out of whey. And many of these craft breweries are using lactose as a starter sugar for their fermentation. And it's milkig. It's worse than that. It's gvinas akum. You have There's there's no heter. Nobody's matir gvinas akum. Is it many ruchim about whey? May mechalel but d'maisa d'maisa there's there's nobody that's matir something like that. So, certainly beers are something. And they found a couple years ago that Budweiser me'irev [clears throat] chachamim suddenly realized that there's a lot of Mexicans in United States. And in the heim, in the heim, they used to drink a beer that had clam juice. It it's it's mamash a sheretz mayim and it's it's it's an issur d'oraisa. And they started making beer with this clam juice in it. Baruch Hashem there was they worked that out. But l'maisa l'maisa, you see that it's not Everybody assumes what can be the problem? The problem The only reason you think there's no problem is you haven't seen the problem yet. But there's always a problem lurking. And certainly that And for instance, everybody used to know that the only um schnapps that you had to be concerned with wine barrels aging in wine barrels scotch. For years, for generations, everybody knows that yeah, that's scotch is so you didn't drink scotch or or you relied on whatever you wanted to rely on. But l'maisa l'maisa, but right now because it's so scotch is sold so much wine, so bourbon they started um aging it in wine barrels. Certain feinschmecker beers they started aging in wine barrels. And there are other things also. So, all these things all the major organizations have gotten together over the last couple of years to move towards this of saying this stuff that we will not allow something that does not have hashgacha. And it makes sense. You wouldn't allow If somebody If somebody came in If somebody came in and we're going to get to the other part about about party planners. There's a clause in Shulchan Aruch Even HaEzer which is called party planners. Party planners get paid to make the baal simcha happy. They don't care. They don't care how they do that. And if they have a new meshugas that they'll bring in, or they found somebody that makes these kitchy type of candies, or they bake a fleishig was, and they'll so they'll get it and they'll bring it and they'll charge him the person will be mesameach, and then they'll go to they'll and that's there is no concern of kashrus. And that's why that's why a person is thinking that they're doing everybody a favor by being mesameach to them by having all these these these fancy little things to the party planners. It's a barbarous shisur rabim because many many many michsholim come out of these type of things. Now, when people come along and just as you would not allow a party planner to bring in stuff without a hashgacha, so you shouldn't be bringing in any schnapps without a hashgacha. Now, it took this long very simply because there previously it was a tikun olam and it didn't seem to be enough but but because it wasn't enough there. But baruch Hashem now there is plenty. The CRC in Chicago and the Star-K have voluminous lists of approved schnappses and things like that. If a person needs more than that's on the list, they really need to see a therapist anyways. >> [clears throat] >> Um uh shchitas. Party planners? >> [sighs] >> There's nothing good to say. I mean there's there's you can have a debate if there's some good and there's some bad. They are unless the unless the party planner has an eingeshlossener hashgacha, not just some guy yeah yeah yeah you have to have a mashgiach on the floor to do whatever you want. I can tell you in the it used to be it it used to be that if a person didn't have if a person didn't come to the rav with a shaila at least once in 2 weeks, the rav would come say well you don't keep kosher anymore. Like well we don't have shailos. I can tell you what what happens is in the Yiddishe home where I have baruch Hashem have children, they raise their children like a Yiddishe stub, and their little kids since they're four or five help them in the kitchen. And at least twice a week my daughter calls me and says this is what happened what I do now. I say that's what happened that's what happens when you're dealing with people in a live situation where things can happen. So these party planners, many of them get these these these shmunchiks from somebody who's doing it in their own kitchen with their own keilim, with their own ingredients, and when they run out of something they go to their neighbor to borrow it. The rav hamachshir has no idea what's going on there. And I I spoke to one of these guys once. I said do you even go? He said "Vos ich zol tun a ganze Zeit a kochen a froh?" No. So why do you give a hashgacha? So I said you have a camera? "Vos ich zol tun a camera?" And so that's it's very difficult. So yeah, and so I'm not sure what there is to talk about party planners. If a party planner doesn't have an eingeshlossener hashgacha that actually knows where they're going, when they're going, what they're bringing there, then this is not a hashgacha. But to use one without a hashgacha is is absolutely impossible. There's a lady who makes at home cookies for these dinners. Yeah. She didn't really have to call at a certain point. Yeah. That's that's that's the problem. There there are many problems because if if the hashgacha is not on top of each of these details, you can have the best intentions in the world you just simply you know you never make it home. Um the chicken shchitas baruch Hashem baruch Hashem there there is a Mesorah Farms. Mesorah Farms is uh and and because it happens to be that uh the the meats counter at Bingo is serviced by Birdsboro {slash} Mesorah Farms. Mesorah Farms is an excellent chicken shchita. Um and since it is uh their outlet is an outlet for their own secheira, you can be very assured that that's what they're selling besides the fact that you need a hashgacha on the packing just to make sure, but there's an extra level of comfort in that. >> [clears throat] >> The beheima fleish that they're selling there is coming from most of it comes from South America where almost everything's coming this it's very difficult to find domestic domestic expensive. Um there are the the shortages the shortages are are uh are choking they're choking the market and people are paying should pay them back but people are being charged incredible amounts of money. I go into a butcher shop in Lakewood I saw I saw a roast for 200 and something dollars. I said when I bought my first car my first car cost me 100 dollars. I have a difficult time in dealing with a roast that cost twice as much as my car. But you know it's whatever it is. But if you go to Bingo, they have a lot of their imported meat is is cheaper and their shchita in South America is a very good quality very high quality shchita. So they're certainly fine. Everybody has their own I don't I have no personal knowledge of this this the fleish kashrus and things like that. I have no personal knowledge of that. I just assume much as I know that's that for the all the years that I was involved with the KJ shchita um the Monroe rebbe was very very much on top of it and very very concerned that every time if there was every problem was brought to his attention, he immediately not yeah I'll get to it I'll get to it, immediately responded to it. So just simply based on on experiences, I'm going to assume that the KJ both in the chicken well chicken has its its its kashrus maybe it's so, but even their beheima fleish is perfectly fine. Um I'm not going to talk about sardines because I simply the well one of the big differences is that supposedly I I would hope I would hope that sardines um sardines are fish. Al pi halacha al pi halacha there's this isn't just like a a chumra meshugas. There's a shitas Shammai the Raavad and the Ramban that says that lehakir simanei dagim is the matter on the fish. That just like you take a beheima a beheima is an ein shchuta. That means if you go to a farm and you see a cow, this is not a kosher animal. It is a kosher min that if you perform shchita, you transform it into a kosher piece of meat. A chicken according to the Ramban and according to the Raavad, a fish has the same status. That means that until a Yid was looked at this fish and lehakir simanei was makir that yes this fish has has snapir and kaskeses, you you're not allowed to eat it. Now, there are a couple of nuances. That means that the the Mechaber says that if you have a person who's a mumcheh and he can tell by the fish even without the simanim that it's kosher, then that's acceptable. And therefore Rav Belsky said that salmon for instance, salmon the pink salmon with the white fat lines is something that's particular to salmon. So even if it's not if it doesn't have the skin on, you can be someech on that. Sardines generally school that means they they swim around with other kinds of fish including dog fish and and baby sharks which are not kosher. And since there's a treifus, you need somebody that was made on the hafrasha of the treifus. Um and hopefully that's what the heimische hashgachas do when they go to the sardines. It could be that the it's incredibly difficult tedious work and it could be that the reason that there was a shortage I know there was a shortage in the market like lately of sardines because you have to send a team of mashgichim who are going to as they come up the the ships come in from from fishing and they dump these piles as a great big goyles and you have to go through them. You have to go you have to stand on the line and as they're packing them you a frum Yid has to see them one one by one by one by one. And you know they can't shlug again. And it could be could be that they couldn't find mashgichim and that's why they couldn't send them. It could be that the secheirim in order to get as many mashgichim they need will have to pay and so secheirim don't like that. The heimische food secheirim are in the business of making money. And if they have an item that's not making them money, they're going to stop making it. It's as simple as that. And it could be that they did. Now the OU has a different shita whatever and they they have sardines that don't have mashgichim there. So that's why they were able to have it and I would you'll have to find out from the heimische why they didn't. Uh we see that in European countries there are many lists that that's relied on without a hashgacha. This is not because they do better work it's because they have no ability they have no leverage. You come to a company and you tell them that you want them to do kosher. Now, if the company comes to you because they see a market for their product, so then you sit down you tell them I'm glad you came in here's what you have to do and you're in the driver's seat. You're telling them what they have to do in order to be kosher. In Europe, the the kosher market is so negligible as a guy told me he says so a few it's not even worth changing the wrapping. It's not even just just to advertise what it says how much am I going to pick up another couple hundred customers. So what they do there what the rabbonim do there is they try to find out are there any guys of what is going on in the place, what kind of stuff they use, are there any are there any major shailos, minor shailos, how they can deal with the shailos, and they compose lists, they write letters to the companies asking them for information, and based on those responses, the written responses, they will put together the list of what they believe to be a reliable food. It is certainly something that they have to live with because they have no other way they have no other way of doing it. They simply cannot they cannot go into companies demand that they take a hechsher. Um is it is it appropriate for somebody that has the option here in America that there are literally millions of people literally millions of people that look for a kosher symbol not only Yidden that are looking to keep kosher but l'havdil even other people that think that they think that a kosher symbol means it's cleaner or that some there's more oversight or they are vegetarians, whatever it should be. But there are people you come to a company and you the companies know that there is this huge market that they have access to if they have a hashgacha. And therefore they come along and they almost I've been doing this for 36 years. I could count them less than the fingers of one hand how many companies went b'dafka behind our back to try to cheat. You see companies have left. Companies have said, "You know what? It's too it's too restrictive. You know, when the when the contract expires, forget about it. It's just it's l'chatchila. Fine. That's good." But somebody here in America to say, "Listen, this is considered kosher in Europe. That's good enough for me." is a very very difficult thing because it's certainly a step down in the hanhaga of what Klal Yisrael should be doing. Next question is about China. There's nothing to discuss about China. Chinese are all thieves and liars, every one of them. If you talk to anybody that does g'sheft with them, you know that you can't trust the word that they do. Anybody that that that handles them I've seen interviews with businessmen. They say that they go there because America unfortunately they've they've killed the the the manufacturing sector, so they have no choice. And they said that he knows when I make a new a new invention new product he said I have 6 months to make a g'sheft because after that the people that I went to and they signed all these you know they're going to steal it and remake it and sell it cheaper somewhere else. And they said that's it [clears throat] always happens. They have no sense of integrity. So you know, mashgichim they the hashgachas go there and I believe it is the kashlon because no mashgiach is as smart as the is crooked. They're born they're born crooked and they think crooked and all they do is think how to cheat you and zey who. Now, if you have a mashgiach who thinks he's smarter than that, okay, maybe he will be once or twice or three times, but not every time. And sooner or later sooner or later they're going to win and they're going to get something. It's happened and you speak to any mashgiach that's been there and they they sit around they they talk about, "Ha, I caught him this." They say, "Yeah, but you caught him that but how many times didn't get?" And and that's it's a friend of mine came here he had a certain g'sheft. He found by mistake he went to he went down to the docks. They were getting a a container of product and there was a second container. He says, "What that's can't be." He says, "I only made one container." They opened it up. Had the same markings, the same labels, the same date, the same lot number, same everything. It was totally it was totally fraudulent. So it's it's there's very little talk about China. Well, one thing is clear. A person who buys food from China l'havdil when it comes to the machshava will not be able to say what do you mean I had a hechsher because a person that's it's personally eats from China it brings his downfall Russia. And the hashgachas that go there will have to give them machshava. Uh so many things can go wrong with matzah baking at kosher l'Pesach. Um that's absolutely true. That's absolutely true and and the the fields of harvesting at every at every step there is something that absolutely shocking. I've been working I've been working in matzah bakeries for over 65 years. I used to run away from yeshiva in those some sayfer. I used to run away when I was 10 years old. I used I used to run away from the yeshiva to go work in the Peltz matzah bakery down in the in the basement Reb Chaim Wasserman z'l used to bake used to bake matzos. And for the first time in my life this year I heard that there was a shortage of workers, so the Heimisha matzah bakeries are using to work in they have a Yiddishe tanemer, you know, the guy that does the lisha, and you have a a Yiddishe shiber. But you know, they say that that's enough to do with shmalis because long as you start the melacha and you finish the melacha with shma. Um this I couldn't believe it. I asked two or three different people and they said that it's actually true. And I asked one matzah baker and he said, "Yeah, what should we do? If you want you pay more we'll get other workers get Yiddishe workers." So make sure that your matzos are coming from places that are being worked on by Yidden. But with things that can go wrong starting from the field we have here an aid neman and a person first person testimony somebody that if you're really serious about what you're doing and you want to do it then combines first of all the the k'tzira itself the k'tzira itself which has to be done l'shma. You is it machkiv is not machkiv? Would you like to have a Yiddishe combine driver so that at least he knows he's doing it l'shma? Yeah. An opgehitene hashgacha will make sure that the person that's driving the combine and working the levers and working the controls to make sure that the k'tzira is done l'shma because according to some shitos the l'shma aspect of matzah starts right away at every aspect including the k'tzira. The k'tzira and the t'china and the glisha and the baking all of that is one long process. So there is there are those that are machkiv nafka to have that. Um but even before you get there you have to make sure that the wheat in the field there if there is a misera there is a misera or when you go out to the field until you have to you have to know whether or not it's been rained on. You have to know whether or not it's damp, whether or not it's because once it is nistakel karka once you have the sheaves of wheat which are not and they're drawing unique anymore if it rains on that a significant amount not a significant amount it can be nachmas in the field on the stalk. And if you're not keeping where it rained when it rained and you're not going to see that right away. So that's something you have to you have to be careful about. Obviously the cleaning because you'll have other stuff you have to make sure the stuff is clean so that the wheat the wheat kernels are only kernels. The grinding the t'china has to be done l'shma whether it's going to be a a recha'im shel yad or even a recha'im shel milchan. All these things are all you have to make sure it's clean and that's all you're getting. And the baking is very important. There is there are details at every one about having the lisha about making sure that there's separation between the water the mayim shelana. I know of a bakery that they repiped the water the mayim shelana system and the rav machshir didn't realize it and for years the water that they were using to make each lisha was being drawn directly from the city water. There was no mayim shelana for years and the guy didn't wasn't day in on it. Um and then you have other things about how long it takes, how long it sits on the table, what's considered asik, what's considered that it's it's it's just sitting there what's considered piyutaner. There are millions of details and obviously each person has to ask their rav what for direction what they're going to do with that. Um kosher l'Pesach has flooded the markets. I think people should be machkiv that they should the the the kosher l'Pesach pizza and pretzels and waffles that they buy should be mamish like their grandmother was machkiv on buying in the heim because then there's no problem. Other than that you shouldn't be doing it. Shamefully people eat all types of cakes and cookies crusts and pretzel pieces and noodles. Um it it it's it's very difficult for a person to say they're opgehitn when they buy all this stuff. I'm not saying you have to grow your own vegetables and grind your own and bake your own matzos. But for a person to go out and buy anything on the shelf that says kosher l'Pesach they make a hechsher. There are a couple of thousands kosher l'Pesach products. Every product because they're not simple. If I get Pesach is worse because since you're not using wheat flour, you need something else that's going to give it body that's going to give it chaimer. So you have xanthan gum, you have sargo gum, you have you have other types of things, you have guar gum, you have you have mamish all kinds of things you don't even know what they are and they need it because they have to make you have to make something of it or else it's going to to break them. If you don't put this stuff in, it falls apart as soon as you put it in the in the package. And so if you have a couple of thousand products and each of them have a number of ingredients may have thousands. Now, >> [cough] >> a person in their lifetime the Tanya talks about being a bainoni. What a what a incredible ma'ala it is to be a bainoni. A bainoni is someone who only makes mistakes 40% of the time. He's a bainoni. Right? So let's say you think that you're doing you're eating food where they only make mistakes about the kosher l'Pesach status of the products only 40% of the time. Right? They're a bainoni. They're not bad. Right? This the more you have it's it's just incremental. There's an algorithm that's working against you. You're going to have to end up with something that you shouldn't have had because you're not you're the gatekeeper in your house. And to teach our children when I was growing up there was nothing. You had potatoes and you had eggs and you had matzah. And then you know, if you didn't like that then you can have eggs and then potatoes and matzah. But that was the end of the story. Didn't have all these things. And matzos is durchgelebt and without the pizza and without the waffles. So there's very little to talk about here. And there people think that because they have it's coming from from gluten-free places. Gluten-free places have all sorts of other things going on there that is it's just to clarify would take another couple days about why have these things work out. Basic stuff like sugar, salt, spices, and cocoa are acceptable for Shabbos. What other sugar, salt, single spices with the exception of paprika and cinnamon because paprika and cinnamon they frequently will have to spray something on it as they grinding it to keep down the uh the the dust. Interestingly enough not black pepper, but those are but a single spices except for those things that are as um kidney is. There for instance coriander, there's certain things that were always known by Israel to be considered kidney is and the reason for that is not that There are There are three There are three different criterion for something being called kidney is. And first of all first of all the list of kidney is not something that's written in magic marker and you can go you can rub it out and put it on. If something is kidney is then it's kidney is. If it's not kidney is you can't stop go scribbling it on the end of the list because it makes you feel happy. So you have you have things that are for instance I just saw somebody just got a video this morning. They have in Israel they have rice that is used because they they use it and there's a a video of a a mashgiach the fifth time the fifth time they go through it the the other ones that they saw special place they just take it off the shelf and use it. The goes through it. The fifth time he went out he was showing the kernels of wheat that he found in there in the wheat. Now this is a is the rice of chametz. You cook that and it's not bottled for Pesach. And if you get to the leg with it's it's it's a whole berry it's a whole berry of wheat berry that's sitting there waiting to eat it. Um so you certainly it's a very chancy thing and what some people do they they there are certain spices that they say even though it was always that it's kidney is but they have a triple spiral and air they blow it up and it goes separates out. Okay, but it's not a simple thing to ignore the state of when something is considered a kidney is. I remember many many years ago my parents and lived in Netanya when they retired. And when I came to so they the goes and was still was still alive and but he wasn't well enough to speak anymore. So they used to put out Shabbos for Shabbos they would put out papers of the the that he used to say the on his room. And I saw in there that he said that he was told by his the Chaim. He says that before he fears sounds I'm not sure is the number was well over 100. I think it was like 120. He says before he finds his a sounds he has over 100 reasons why he's doing it. So you don't mess with a cloud. If there's a minute that something is considered kidney is and it's not your minute to eat kidney is so you don't just go say well I'll clean it up and it'll be fine. I'm not sure where it fits into that but the sushi part is we have to have it's that's a problem. >> [clears throat] >> What about the oil So oil from kidney is actually he mentions it in the he just mentions it in passing. He's not saying you should use it. He says that that in the there was always the minute goes to use the oil from like peanut oil and things like that. It was the minute to use it because it was not there's no concern of having because of the three things you have kidney is you have to have many to that means that you have to you store it in the silo and harvest it and use it as you would grain or if it's it's ground and you end up with flour and use that the way you use flour or they have to or the third thing is where it's grown together consecutively with wheat and it can end up in the same harvest because you end up with the same thing. So but in none of those apply to to oil so that's why they were it's drifted away from there. Nobody nobody that I know is not to using oils. Um Yeah um There are questions here what can be used on Pesach >> [clears throat] >> with or without it. Parchment paper is a problem all year. Parchment paper and the cooking paper cups that you use to make cupcakes. The reason for that is and this slops over into this rash about about paper goods. Paper Paper good is made but they're made of wood fibers cellulose. And these fibers need something to stick them together and there is frequently starches are you it is almost unknown less than 1% anywhere in the world of that they use wheat starch in the process of making paper. That 1% [clears throat] by the way is in China. Um it's almost unknown to use wheat starch. They do use kidney is starches because the purpose of those starches is that it chemically bonds itself to the the wood fibers and the cellulose fibers. That's called the wet end of the of the the process. Now when they want to make it waterproof they have to add certain fatty acids is called the ketone dimer that they add to the slurry and that bonds itself and it's an oil so it makes like an oil proof surface when they finally press it out. Now the ketone dimers can be coming from non-kosher non-kosher oil. So that is why it's not reasonable to use a person who's would be very difficult justifying using a baking paper that has any percentage of non-kosher in it. Now the good news is that it's always used in such small quantities that even if it had been used it'll be bottled. You're never going to get a situation where it will it will the food. But certainly in a kitchen where people that they try to be as careful as possible they should make sure that the paper goods that they're using for baking should have a a the stuff that oven proof papers. Um and for the same reason the starch was tumble that you that that you can't use paper you can't use paper towels you can use paper cups paper plates. One guy came along and he said He remembers when he was in eighth grade they said that if you put on something if it turns blue that means it has starch in it so he took a paper plate and he put on it. Says yeah it's very nice but it's any kind of starch that means that even the wood wood also has starch. And what it's showing a blue is that there's there's wood starch in there it doesn't make anything. And the the starch is first of all it's because they they blend it with an alkaline and the slurry itself is not it's going to be bottled first of all numerically. said come of the come of the come of times that the idea the concept of is only food. If it's not a food item you go back if you go back to the it's bottled. This is incredibly important about medicines about products that you have that are not food items. If something is not a food item and it's something to be bottled before Pesach before Pesach certainly kidney is which you can't go but it's certainly if kidney is ends up in your product it's bottled not bottled. I know there's certain told me no they're not that they're making up their own said that the reason that the same the the Easter of adding and subtracting from the same said it's because it's the same thing. You think you're smarter than you're smarter than you I'm not going to I'm not going to take it away. I'll be from being from her is by definition making a mistake in what the wants you to do. So to make up that you can be kidney is before Pesach is not but it's certainly in the in the paper making industry the starch bonds itself chemically to the fibers that are locked into the paper. It's very difficult to assume that anything will escape. Wax paper is because the wax is just paraffin. Foil sheets and aluminum foil is the same that even though they're going to be using an oil it's a stamping oil that they use to grind it with and that's it's a petrochemical. Plastic bags of the only we have is that sometimes you have plastic bags which will have starch inside. Usually that that that happens when you have what's called the cryovac. When you when you buy frozen fish or frozen meat they come in a in a vacuum pack and those in order to slide it in the company in order to slide it into the bags when they're packing it they have starch inside so that you open up and it slides right in. Now it's not going to be wheat starch. So what you end up doing if you buy before before Pesach if something like let's say you go to if you have a let's say you and the prices around Hanukkah is about half of what it's going to be erev Pesach, and you buy your meat and your chicken then, and you keep it in the freezer. So, when you take it out, take it out before Pesach and wash it off. Just in case there was any starch there before, you wash it off and there's no more of a problem with that. Regular plastic bags that you buy the these storage bags, the baggies, these things have no starch in them. Disposable gloves have to be marked starch free in the on on the packaging. Aluminum pans are fine. The stamp and oil is not a problem. Uh if you use it more than once or twice, you might want to consider toiveling it. Because um I was working with an acquaintance of mine, and he did a wealth of work on the those who say in its free from tevilah, and uh it's very difficult to find even something that's b'dieved in its free from tevilah. What about plates from China with designs on it that you couldn't have? With what ink? Yeah. It's nice plates from China and designs and things. Does it come off in the food? So, why would you want to use it in the first place? Like It's probably a hashgacha. Oh, okay. So, it must be kosher. Um but the uh the the aluminum plates, it's interesting this is a machlokes. It's a machlokes b'challah whether you have to toivel it, but if you have to if you hold you have to toivel it, you should consider toiveling without a bracha. Because interestingly enough, obviously uh if the one of one of the bigger teros that the hashgachas use is they say that the meat the the metal belongs to a yid, so it's just the doing it. So, there are a number of problems with that. There's something called um kind of a shvach uh kli. That means that when an um makes the kli, he owns it automatically until he's paid off, and then you're buying it from the guy. Um also, you have to make a kinyan. It's not poshut that you can make a kinyan on a toiveling with moments from the guy. And uh certainly you have to pay dollar value. And then, in China, there's a law that um there is a specific list of lawyers that are authorized to draw up contracts, and the contracts have to be in Chinese. And if not, the the sale is bottle. And even though it's machlokes b'rishonim what's called din malkhus dina, everybody agrees that commercial law is certainly something that's under the gather of din malkhus dina. And if they say that you're not following these rules, the mechira is not a mechira, so the whole thing is bottle. There you go. Balloons, um I I understand I've never turned a balloon inside out, but if somebody has told that they do have starch, and maybe you'll be careful not to blow up balloons on Pesach. Kitchen gloves are the same thing. The ones with the felt inside are not a problem, but the ones that have starch are. Um corrugated bakeware, corrugated bakeware interestingly enough has um corrugated bakeware is in case you're not aware, when you buy you can buy these forms that come to like a heavy paper, and in order to give it strength, it has like zigzags on the outside that are glued to the to the inner filler. That glue has starch. So, if you're not using paper because you think it has starch, that so does the glue that's made for there. It also has starch. Uh disposable aprons was always a good idea. Um new pots, I would assume that you are talking about the there [clears throat] were there there were some rishonim um that they used chelev, they used aliyah to shine uh the fiber wear pots. They would they they just talk about it. Nobody ever found out that it's true. There's no reason to assume it. So, if you want to be machmir, you make a hagalah on it. You don't certainly don't need more than that. Since even if it got hot, the glue was not al yedei aish, it's it's not so poshut. Probably even do with an irui klishon. Meat and fish stores put absorbent materials in foam trays. Those are nothing except that they are glued with se'er, which is just me'us. So, get rid of it. Um Cast iron pots, baruch Hashem, klal Yisrael discovered sourdough challah for $25 a loaf, the hadrei Torah l'adira. And um the the problem is the way that you make cast iron is that it is made in with a it is not made like stainless steel. Stainless steel is an alloy which contains within it in its finished product something that wards off it does not allow for it to get rusty and to get as what's called stainless. Cast iron is a very poshut the metal, and in fact, if it's left exposed to the air, it's going to oxidize. It's going to rust. So, what they do is that when they make and it's also by the way, it's very porous, which is a great thing because companies go crazy when you try to tell them you have to kosher. They say, "What do you mean you have to kosher? This is metal. Metal does not It's not wood. It's not going to absorb anything." And but l'maaseh, they realize and if you talk after you talk it over, you see that cast iron does absorb. And the in order to make sure that it doesn't rust, as soon as the cast iron um pots uh griddle, whatever it is that you're having, a Dutch oven, any of those things, as soon as it's finished, they what's called do something called seasoning. That means they take oil, they schmear it on the oil, then they heat it up again, and it gets absorbed into thing, and it makes like a finish on the surface of the oil so that it does not get rusty. Um most cast iron products today are coming from China, and the oils in China are certainly nechshed to be made from uh shemen shemen ben achai, or certainly even if it's not, even if they say using vegetable oil, it's made in keilim that are also used for non-kosher oils. So, therefore you have to make a full libun chamor. The good news is that's relatively easy because you put it in an oven with self-cleaning cycle, and you burn it out, but then you have to season it again. Um there is one company called Lodge. It's the the old one of the oldest cast iron companies in the United States, and they it it has been checked out numerous times, and they use vegetable oil and linseed kosher oil to season their stuff. So, if you have to buy any of it, you buy a Lodge uh pot, and then you can make as much uh sourdough challah as you like. Um Lipstick. Lipstick is a and lip balms. >> [clears throat] >> I I'll tell you, people call me all the time about that, and I tell them very simply, the original Chapstick, the original Chapstick, the unflavored original Chapstick, is kosher. There's nothing in there that's not kosher. And if you want something flavored, forget about it because it's impossible to actually find out. I mean, people people call they they call rabbonim, they call agencies, they call to ask questions because they want to have shalom al Yisrael. I I checked it out. I I asked about it. It is actually the only thing you can get is an educated guess. You'll never get a real answer because no company is going to tell you what the flavors are that they're using. The flavors, the fragrance The fragrance people, the people that that compound fragrances are flavor chemists who flunked out of school and never became flavorists uh hashgacha. So, they make fragrances, and they stuck for a flavor fragrance. They'll have 80, 90 different chaimrim of who knows what they what they can put in there. Um so, if you're using it for a for soap, it's only the head. But if you're putting it on your lips, there are heterim. I'm not disagreeing that there are people that are machmir, and they say that usually for instance, um I'm not going to get to the flavors, but let's say the colors. The color The only color problem you can have is something called carmine, which is made from squished up bugs. And why somebody who's a fancy fine schmecker wants to put pieces of squished up bugs on their lips, I have no idea. But this is this is nice to have by them for some reason. But l'maaseh, the only thing and they never have that alone. You're going to have zeh v'zeh gorem. You're going to have that it's it's it's not a it's not a a psak raya because or else in 5 minutes then you'd have nothing left on your on on the lipstick. And it's not it's not a psak raya. It's not nifsal and it's not so you Is there a heter for using it? Yes, there is a heter for using it. But I just don't understand why somebody There are baruch Hashem There are baruch Hashem uh plenty of cosmetics that are made of kosher products. Hakadosh Baruch Hu aside from the klal of giving us vegans and vegetarians, the good thing about it is that klal Yisrael because there is a demand for vegan cosmetics, you can look for something that is vegan, and you'll know that it's going to be kosher. And because that will be the only problem you can run into. On Pesach, it's very difficult to assume that something like that is is to to use to use lipstick on Pesach that doesn't have a hashgacha is is is something that I don't I don't even bother wasting time for because, you know, for a couple days you can make do. You don't have to It's not exactly kosher. No, stay home. Um lotion on hands. There has to be It's an It's a something that's off because there is a halacha called tefach min as la'asiyah. In order for something to have some sort of mamashus, it we're not dealing here with with you you mekabel a maga tumah by being in the same room like with your hands. So, if you put on lotion and you rub it into your hands, there's mamash nothing there. You know, so it doesn't transfer. There has to be enough to transfer. If you were If it If there's enough to transfer from your hands to the food, you need to use too much lotion anyways, but it's not There's no reason to be concerned. Over the Over the counter um Tylenol, Motrin, there is somebody in Los Angeles, his name is Rabbi Gershon Bess, friend of mine, who does a wealth of work for Pesach checking out things. And some of the things that he keeps an eye on, when he he deals with regularly with Tylenol and Motrin um to make sure that they are kosher. Now, I know that somebody came out with kosher um make-believe Tylenol, the acetaminophen. Now, acetaminophen is just the name of the medicine that's in there. The main problem is glycerin. If the glycerin is not treif, it is just as good as anything else. So, there is a there is a if a person has in their home, they have the Tylenol or the Motrin, the name brands, that is certainly kosher and certainly you can use it. Vitamins, interestingly, is a is is a a machlokes in the Mishna Berurah and if about vitamins. Um I believe I I always thought it was Reb Henkin. Somebody told me it was actually Reb Moshe that would hold this shita. He said that because it sounds so much like Reb Henkin that he said that the reason you take vitamins was not as a is because food has been so diminished by the all the they don't grow it right, they don't pack it right, they pick it when it's when it's not yet ripe in order to get it to the market and a lot of the benefit that the Ribono shel Olam wants the people to get from these fruits and vegetables are actually diminished by the processing, so we take vitamins to make up for what we took out of it. You know, you first you you you destroy the the food, then you take vitamins. So, he said in kein, the vitamins are a type of food. So, if it's food, it is subject to all the halachos of food. That means there's no bitul b'rov. That means you have to eat it as b'koshi k'dein and the benefit is you can take it on Shabbos. Cuz if it's a food, you can take it on Shabbos. The the other man the other held it no. He says it's like any other thing that people are more they're more lachash, they're more what's the word? Drained and I so they take these vitamins as a sort of medication. It's not a prescription medication, but it's medication. And since it's a medication, it's bottle b'rov b'trei. You don't have to come with the shishin, but you're not allowed to take it on Shabbos. So, there's ups and downs in both of these. Um most vitamins most vitamins are going to it's very it's too big a You can't just say vitamins. There are some vitamins that have the muscle chondroitin or other things like that that are are seriously non-kosher. Now, the question is can you take it anyways because for instance, on Yom Tov, um Pesach, medications there's no shum pesak in the world that says you cannot take medications on Pesach because it's treif if it's a a medication that your doctor has prescribed. Now, what that means is like this. If you're going to take pills or capsules, you're taking something that is not a meeded the achila and you're consuming it in a way which is not a derech achila. So, every pesak that we consulted with said that without a question, you're allowed to do that. You run into a problem with soft gels, which is a problem with vitamin D3. D3, by the way, happens to be very important nutritional aspect of a muscle and bone stuff like that and elderly people are frequently given D3. Now, they're given it in soft gels. The reason they're given it in soft gels because D3 is an oil soluble vitamin and in oil you it's very difficult to put oil into a capsule. So, that's how they developed this whole technology of soft gels. The problem is like this. The soft gels are made out of gelatin. If you have gelatin that is baked into a hard capsule, every pesak we spoke to said it's absolute The only pesak I know that says it's usser Reb Henkin. Reb Henkin said it has to be mevutalei, which is astonishing and difficult to understand how it's achila. It's you're not taking it derech achila. You're only But my sir, other than Reb [clears throat] Henkin, every other pesak holds that once you make it into a hard capsule, you're allowed to take it without a question. Now, the problem is that soft gels are are kishmei kahu. It's a soft thing. It's meeded achila. You can chew it, you can eat it and it's it's difficult to give that the same status as the hard gelatin capsules. So, with the D3 you have one of two aces. You can either buy the addition drugstores have empty vegetarian capsules and you take a a triple O, you'll put it in You can take the Cuz the D3s are usually very small. You can slip it in there and you do it as a dinner sieve. The Gemara says that it like by a by a an ice tummy, it's not metamei. It's only metamei in the bais abliya. So, if you wrap it in a sieve and you swallow it, you're not tummy. So, they should hold it suit tanas that if you it's like inside another capsule, so it's not something so I I heard just yesterday one of the pesakim holds not like that, but the most of that's the general consensus is that if you put it inside another capsule, that is perfectly fine. Uh liquids Liquids are a problem. Liquids are a problem because it has a flavor and it's very difficult to say it's not achila if it tastes good. It tastes sweet, it tastes good and and with with liquids you have to check up that the product is going to be acceptable. Um if it's a medicine, if it's a medicine, even a medicine with a flavor is not going to be a problem because you go b'rov and um in my career I've probably reviewed between 30 and 40,000 different flavor formulas and I doubt if there were five that were treif after the tarvis in the food in in the food at the end. I mean, it's always going to be bottle. You don't give a hechsher on food that way, but certainly for a medication that's certainly enough and it's certainly difficult to say achila in them. Um coffee Coffee, um I'm sorry. Uh that's a real problem. I I I I Well, the the the reason for that The reason for that is that the the decaff The decaffeinating process takes place in one of two ways, either with something called the Swiss water process where they wash it out, they dissolve out the caffeine, or they dissolve it in a much harsher way. We use something called ethyl acetate. Ethyl acetate is a compound which has both ethanol, which is an alcohol, and acetic acid, which is a fermentation product made using starches. And so, if it as ethyl acetate, even if it's not chometz, it's absolutely going to end up being kitniyos. And if you are going to soak your coffee beans in the kitniyos before Pesach, it's not something that you would do. So, No. If you have decaf that uses the Swiss water method with a good hechsher, then you know that you can use it. We I know at the KSA we have one or two companies that actually do what they They're they're I can't give you the the commercial name. You're not going to find that. But hopefully there are people that that do The only one that I know of that's on the market right now is the decaf from Taster's Choice, which is done by a very poor hechsher. Praying, not going. That's your problem. Yeah. So, you go to a frum liquor store who buys his stuff before Pesach and he sells it with his rov and then you can That's exactly what we started off. Thank you. I'm sorry? I've never seen it. I don't know. I've never been in a self-Pesach, but I The only The only one that I saw is the the Taster's Choice decaf from Korea with the square chug. Yeah, it's a very poor hechsher. Very poor hechsher. I'm sorry? Okay. If you can get something like that, that's Again, I don't I I I think I'm I've never I don't drink decaf coffee. I drink a lot of coffee, but none of it is decaf. Okay. Um I just wanted to get to before before we wrap up, I just wanted to get to one thing that people coffee because this thing I get calls about all the time. Um coffee, if coffee is made in a professional fashion, that means that let's say you go to a Starbucks or uh probably even Dunkin Donuts where you have these huge carafes. The The problem with the coffee The problem you can run into a coffee is one of kaylim, not of kashrus in the item itself. Coffee is just coffee and water is just water. What you can run into is if you you I we have these like these fancy French make coffees, lattes, platties. I don't even know what they're called. The way they use these little zachin, they cook up the milk and they then they schmear it around. Then you these kaylim share a dishwasher with all the other treif stuff they sell there. That could be a problem. The large the the the the the urns that they make the coffee in does not fit in a dishwasher and even if it did, it wouldn't wash the inside. They do say they they do a clean in place. So, plain black coffee is not going to be a problem in these things. Now, if you go to a corner you you're stuck in Harlem with your son and you see a like a little bodega in the corner and the guy sitting there making coffee and yesterday he cooked the tuna fish in there, you don't even know what else he used that that that carafe for. That would be a problem. Um hotels Hotels making coffee in your room in a hotel, um I just read an article about how actually dangerous it is because they never clean them The things There are two places they say are incredibly dangerous to make coffee. One is a smallish coffee makers in your room in the hotel or motel. The other is on an airplane because they never clean out. They just keep on adding water to the reservoir and any bacteria and any anything that's there just grows and stays and stays. If you do have to have a coffee, there is one way to make it. In an airplane, you can ask the the the attendants that they have in the galley, not during lunchtime. In the galley, they have a spigot with hot water and you can take a paper cup, ask them to make instant coffee. That you can use. The other stuff because they have these carafes, those goes into a dishwasher. It could be a it could be a real belly gun. So, that's the new as far as that. There is another There is another thing that Klal Yisrael has been very, very confused about. Somebody decided that flour is chametz gamur. And not only is it chametz gamur, not only is it not allowed to have in your shoes, but it it used to be that when you wanted to make sure something was was kosher after Pesach, they said "Giback enough Pesach." By the way, make sure you know which year it is because last year it's not so funny. Last year somebody was sticking on Giback enough Pesach and he meant last year's Pesach. And the but the the problem is the problem is that flour now they want gamur enough Pesach. It is absolutely not true, not in the mitzius and not in the halacha that tempering wheat turns it into chametz vadai chametz. It absolutely is not true. The Gemara says it is clear in the Gemara from common mishnayos that they used to do what's called timdon where they would they would temper the wheat before they ground it. And the Gemara says that it's not kosher for matzas mitzvos, but stam kemach shuk if you have nothing else to do, you can make matza on Pesach. Clearly, kemach is not chametz chametz gamur. It's worse worse maybe a safek, not even that because if you temper wheat kernels and you leave them, they show no signs of chimitz. So, somebody told me "Yeah, but maybe in 6 months it'll show signs of chimitz." That's not the halacha. You can't make up You know, I forget who said it. I don't want to mention him by name. He says "Everybody's entitled to their own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts." And the fact is that it's it's simply not chametz. So, there is a a couple of other last things. We did tuna fish fresh fish. Okay, here's the halacha. The fresh fish from the kosher store is a simple halacha that if you if you walk into a store and they have a number of And by the way, this is one of the one of the reasons that for instance there's a place called Aldi's. I don't know if they have any here. I'm sorry? So, in in Aldi's they sell fresh vacuum packed fish salmon. Now, this comes from a salmon farm. Farmed salmon avoids the problems of anisakis if there were any. And then also since they're only working on their own stuff, you don't have to worry about the the knives that they're doing is cutting other stuff. You walk into ShopRite and on the counter there they have different types of fish and the with the same knife that the guy is cutting a catfish, he's also going to cut this. Well, well, unless there's a hashgacha. Sorry? If there's a if there's a separate if there's a separate Most Most ShopRites do not have a separate kosher department. I'm saying you go into stam in the fish store and the guy has the fish there, but but the halacha makes an allowance for that. The halacha says that you ask the guy to scrape off the rub off his the knife. And if you shaim zich, so you buy the piece of fish and it says that you meshamesh it. You can take a paper towel and with water you just rub the ends whatever is not is knife touched and then you're ready to go. Um sushi seaweed is this is something I don't understand. I mean this it's clearly so that if you buy inferior grade sushi, you're going to end end up having pressed into the sushi you're going to end up with with sheretz mayim. It's it's there. It's always It's always there. You have I've seen whole seahorses squashed up into that that thing, little ones. So, certainly that that's the bad news. The good news is that it's durchsichtig. It's it's transparent. And you hold it up to the light, you can see something there. You take the point of a knife, you flick it out, you're done. So, it's a דבר מוסר. You don't have to worry about the בליעות and things like that. Now, any hashgacha worth its salt is not going to make sushi no matter what the hashgacha is on the on the the nori until they check the the the nori the nori sheets. I mean it takes a second. If you make 100 things that are 500, they'll take it an hour. You sit there with the mashgiach with a light. You can So, I would I would hope that hashgachas are careful about that and they're checking it. If I were you, I would If you do feel I don't know why, maybe you feel the need to have sushi, you go into the ask If there's no Yid there, so you have no business being in the same store as a place that's selling kosher food without a Yid. But if the Yid is there, you ask him "Does anybody check the nori sheets?" If he says "That's ridiculous." I wouldn't believe. If or if he says that he checks them, then it's it's it's a very simple thing to do. Um lox salmon There are It is very simple because since lox is cold smoked but there are probably very, very little shailos that can come up with lox. You take one look at the meat at the at the fish and you see that it's that it's salmon and since it's cold smoked, it's never going to be a problem with bishul akum. However, there are other ones that say they're cold smoked such as trout or sable or these things which are hot smoked and cold smoked. So, it's so that that will that will then become ready. If there is a The Ramah says that if you cook something till it's ראוי לאכילה that it's no longer subject to bishul akum, so then you can change the means of cooking it and continue. So, what some of the agencies do, which is absolutely legitimate and nice got in halacha, they will cold smoke the fish until it's ראוי לאכילה and then they will hot smoke it so that it gets the ta'am of the of the smoke. That's perfectly legitimate. Um there is at least one hashgacha that feels that because it says kavush she'raui l'eichila u'mivushal. If you if you do kavush on fish in the in the in the brine then it's enough. Then then then even if you hot smoke it later, it's it's mutar. You have to know whether or not when you find something and it looks funny because for instance if you have hot smoked salmon coming from Norway and you know that there aren't enough mashgichim there to hot smoke, you check out with the hashgacha how they are making sure there's no problem with bishul akum. There's [music] an easy way out and I know for instance the Kof-K and with KSA we had a place in Alaska that we did this. It was a veg shul done in such a way that they did it was cold smoked and then the hot smoke was added just to give it a little taste of the kemach. I just want to be mesayem this class again and thank the world mishpacha should be a zechus for the refuah shleima of all cholei Yisrael, especially those that need it. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu should give them more koachus to be mezakeh Klal Yisrael. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Shame on you. I'd like to thank our Rabbanim going to class shlita the kashrus administrator of the KSA for the wonderful important shiur of kashrus that's going all over the world with machazik Klal Yisrael. It's got to have It's got to have