Kosher, Kashrus and Hechsherim Master thread

[aygart]

that is one of the reasons .
You can call everything politics but if in IL it is a Mizrachi organization and in America  the Kashrus branch is run by charedim that means something to many people. (and that "affiliation " difference will definitely  cause things to be done differently at times)

And Rabbi Genack?

[imayid2]

Who’s more involved in the operations, Rabbi Genack or Rabbi Elephant?

[rbs-g1.5]

I am not up to date as to how things work now but he was one out of three. The rabbinical coordinators ,etc. are charedi afaik.
Most importantly their business  caters heavily to a chareidi clientele .

[TheAsh]

that is one of the reasons .
You can call everything politics but if in IL it is a Mizrachi organization and in America  the Kashrus branch is run by charedim that means something to many people. (and that "affiliation " difference will definitely  cause things to be done differently at times)

AFAIK the head of OU Israel Kosher division is Chareidi. I posted a speech he gave about kashrus standards alongside Rabbi Senter upthread. The individual mashgichim are often dati.

[TheAsh]

Here is Rabbi Weiners (ZNT) list: (this may be out of date)

[yfr bachur]

Great! This (out of date ZNT) just proves the general accuracy of the unsigned list .
Lets compare ZNT vs USL
ZNT level one: eida, rubin, landua, sheiris, znt, something from tzfas - all are USL levels one or two aside from ZNT (affiliation - USL Level Three), and possibly the tzfas hechsher (not sure which is its new logo on the USL list - its prob level two in any case).
ZNT Level two: Machfud, CCSBB - USL level four. Kehilos - USL Level five.
ZNT Level Three: Belz, Aguda - USL Level five.  R JLM Mehadrin - USL Level Six. CCSPT- USL Level Seven.
ZNT Level Four: Beit Yosef - USL Level six. Rabbanut - USL Level Seven.

USL - anything below level 3 ask a shayla...
ZNT anything below two ask ask a shayla...

As you can see - It matches up...

[imayid2]

I’m told that oils are sometimes refined in facilities also used for treif. Apparently it’s not common in the US but does occur more often in other countries. So while a specific bottle of canola/vegetable/olive oil without a hechsher is unlikely to be treif, there is a realistic possibility that an unsupervised machine  had thoroughly treifa oil used at some point (got a bargain on some overstock oil made in Europe etc).

Assuming we would need to be choshesh for this (why wouldn’t we, unless rov tells us not to? Not sure how this works) there would be a real issue with buying popcorn from concession stands unless you can verify exclusively kosher use until the last 24 hours (or Linas Layla) of disuse.

OTOH some say we don’t say חנ״ן at all when there is no איסור ידוע. This would definitely qualify. Accordingly the last 24 is all that counts.

[TheAsh]

Great! This (out of date ZNT) just proves the general accuracy of the unsigned list .
Lets compare ZNT vs USL
ZNT level one: eida, rubin, landua, sheiris, znt, something from tzfas - all are USL levels one or two aside from ZNT (affiliation - USL Level Three), and possibly the tzfas hechsher (not sure which is its new logo on the USL list - its prob level two in any case).
ZNT Level two: Machfud, CCSBB - USL level four. Kehilos - USL Level five.
ZNT Level Three: Belz, Aguda - USL Level five.  R JLM Mehadrin - USL Level Six. CCSPT- USL Level Seven.
ZNT Level Four: Beit Yosef - USL Level six. Rabbanut - USL Level Seven.

USL - anything below level 3 ask a shayla...
ZNT anything below two ask ask a shayla...

As you can see - It matches up...

Do you have the up to date version? I know the OU was on some versions, and it has bounced around, and Belz has also bounced around levels based on the various versions I've seen, with everything else consistent.

[TheAsh]

Great! This (out of date ZNT) just proves the general accuracy of the unsigned list .
Lets compare ZNT vs USL
ZNT level one: eida, rubin, landua, sheiris, znt, something from tzfas - all are USL levels one or two aside from ZNT (affiliation - USL Level Three), and possibly the tzfas hechsher (not sure which is its new logo on the USL list - its prob level two in any case).
ZNT Level two: Machfud, CCSBB - USL level four. Kehilos - USL Level five.
ZNT Level Three: Belz, Aguda - USL Level five.  R JLM Mehadrin - USL Level Six. CCSPT- USL Level Seven.
ZNT Level Four: Beit Yosef - USL Level six. Rabbanut - USL Level Seven.

USL - anything below level 3 ask a shayla...
ZNT anything below two ask ask a shayla...

As you can see - It matches up...

Rabbi Weiner told me Tzfas Mehadrin was fine, as long as one can verify the shechita - its less makpid than badatz tzfas but still the same level of oversight.

[Ver hut gazugt]

Are OU crackers bishul Yisrael ?

[yungermanchik]

Are OU crackers bishul Yisrael ?

Do you mean pas yisrael? check this list.

[Ver hut gazugt]

Do you mean pas yisrael? check this list.

thank you for the list.
I was asking more as a policy. If I see crackers with an Ou do I need to call and see if it’s bishul Yisrael. ( I see on their site they make a distinction between pas Yisrael vs bishul Yisrael, and they don’t require pas Yisrael )

[aygart]

thank you for the list.
I was asking more as a policy. If I see crackers with an Ou do I need to call and see if it’s bishul Yisrael. ( I see on their site they make a distinction between pas Yisrael vs bishul Yisrael, and they don’t require pas Yisrael )

If it is something that requires bishul yisroel in halacha that would be akin to asking if the OU requires it be mutar to eat.

[yungermanchik]

It's not their distinction. There are 2 different simanim in Sh"A 112 & 113 with different sets of criteria.

[Ver hut gazugt]

It's not their distinction. There are 2 different simanim in Sh"A 112 & 113 with different sets of criteria.

I know, just in my head I put them together.

[yungermanchik]

If it is something that requires bishul yisroel in halacha that would be akin to asking if the OU requires it be mutar to eat.

True but there are things that the OU holds do not require bishul yisroel and other poskim (especially chassidishe) hold do need to be.

[imayid2]

The OU does not require steamed items in factories to be BY. This is pertinent for some baby jars, for example sweet potato purée.

[yfr bachur]

Do you have the up to date version? I know the OU was on some versions, and it has bounced around, and Belz has also bounced around levels based on the various versions I've seen, with everything else consistent.

The most upto date version AFAIK is the google sheet mantained by Rabbi Farkash.
There's a way to request access on the ZNT website https://zntkosher.wixsite.com/mysite

Honestly, I really don't think the list lives up to the hype given to it.
It's more or less the big four, plus local hechsherim in Ashdod, Tzfas, Chaifa, Ashdod plus a place in TA, ZY, Herzeliya- oh and IKEA Netanya

[S209]

The OU does not require steamed items in factories to be BY. This is pertinent for some baby jars, for example sweet potato purée.

Isn’t that based on R’ Moshe? I seem to remember a shiur from Harav @aygart on this subject.

[imayid2]

Isn’t that based on R’ Moshe? I seem to remember a shiur from Harav @aygart on this subject.

Yes Rav Moshe is meikal on all bishul in factories. The OU is meikal btziruf steaming.