Unnecessary
Agreed. And so was your initial response.
Just because he says a Baal nefesh should be machmir does not mean he thought it was assur. He would have not been matir if he thought so.
Of course if Reb Moshe was Mattir, then he trusted his Psak. At the same time, let us put this Hetter in the context that Reb Moshe puts it in:
• “For a Bal Nefesh, it is
certainly appropriate to be stringent” (YD 1:48 and 1:49).
• “Nevertheless, it is fitting to be stringent” (YD 2:31; no mention of Bal Nefesh).
• Yeshivos should only serve Cholov Yisroel, despite the heavy financial burden (YD 2:35).
• This leniency should only be relied on Bishas Hadchak, and not merely due to a small additional expense (YD 4:5).
• If one's Minhag is to not rely on the Hetter, or he chose not to rely on the Hetter, he may not subsequently be lenient.
In any case, my point is
not that Reb Moshe can’t be relied upon –
CH”V to suggest such a thing. It is up to the individual, under the guidance of his LOR, to determine how he should conduct himself.
My point
is that a vast segment of the Frum community does not rely on Reb Moshe’s Psak. And, no orthodox rabbi worth his salt would suggest that someone completely disregard his stringent Minhag, due to Reb Moshe’s Psak. This would be going againt Reb Moshe himself.
That being the case, it is unfair for the OU to disregard a large segment of the community, which are required – by Reb Moshe himself – to be stringent. Remember, on an airplane you can’t just pick yourself up and go to the local caterer of your choice. I think we can all agree he was the posek hador.
...which didn’t stop most of his contemporary poskim from disagreeing with him.
The chasam sofer is mechadesh that an umdenah dmuchach does not suffice forChalav yisroel,, nothing short of yisroel roeh is ok. That to me is the best reason to be machmir but a big chiddush. Other earlier poskim being machmir doesn't necessarily prove anything as there was no umdanah demuchach based on government supervision.
The Chasam Sofer does not mention a word about Umdenah DeMuchach. The gist of his words is that Cholov Yisroel is a Dovor Shebminyan; a decree which remains completely in force even when the time and circumstances changes. He explains that this is the opinion of most Ashkenazi Rishonim and Achronim, and is binding for an Ashkenazi. [The Chasam Sofer adds that some Sefardi Rishonim disagree with the above, and that some Sfardi communities are therefore lenient. However, the Sdei Chemed writes that, in our time, the Sfardim have also adopted the position that Cholov Yisroel is a Dovor Shebminyan.] Therefore, a Yid must actually
see the milking process. [Of course, what constitutes “seeing” is not so simple, see Shulchan Oruch for details.] Otherwise, it is forbidden.
As I stated before, the Chasam Sofer's Teshuvah is pretty much status quo, and Reb Moshe himself agrees with it. Which is why he forbids buying milk directly from a farmer, (or any other situation which does not involve government oversight,) even when circumstantial evidence completely indicates that the milk is Tahor (YD 1:46). This is because the milking process was not
seen .
If there is any Chiddush over here, it is the opinion of Reb Moshe, not the Chasam Sofer. Reb Moshe posits that one can rely on government oversight - a situation that the earlier Poskim did not speak about,
and neither did the Chasam Sofer! Reb Moshe's reasoning is that government oversight not only constitutes a “Birur” (clarification), but actual R’Iyah (seeing) by a Yid. His reasons for this is way beyond the scope of a post on DDF, (you can check it up in YD 1:47 and 1:48,) but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to perceive that there is a big Chiddush here. And it is this Chiddush that most other Poskim disagree with, both from a Halachic perspective as well as a practical one. I could list some of their concerns briefly, but that would add at least another 50 lines to this post.
And yet sofek drabanan lekula and poskim are always more mekil about derabanans than d'oraisahs. Go figure. Anything else you want to quote out of context?
I didn’t quote anything out of context. One must be as careful – if not more careful – with a D’rabanan than with a D’Orayso.
The concept of Sofek D’Orayos L’Chumra and Sofek D’rabanan L’kula does not indicate that a Drabanan is "less important" than a D'Orayso. This is a common misconception. The reason that "Sofek D’rabanan L’kula" is because of "Hem Omru V’hem Omru".
True. But this depends on how much you ate and how big of an appetite you have
Yup. That is what Kdei Sviah means.
Even without R' Moshe; it was a din dirabonen when an Akum couldn't be trusted; R' Moshe was "michadesh" that an Akum could now be trusted again.
Nonsense, nonsense, nonsense; absolute and complete nonsense.
I challenge you to find even one Posek who ever said such a thing. And don’t just throw out a name; please include a quote or reference.
As for the American OU, they are an organization in America, and IMHO, they have a right to follow the posek of America, without coming under fire.
As I said above, it is unfair for the OU to disregard a large segment of the community, which are required – by Reb Moshe himself – to be stringent. Remember, on an airplane you can’t just pick yourself up and go to the local caterer of your choice.
Mods: I realize that this discussion has spiralled onto a tangent. Feel free to extract this discussion into a new thread.