Different Standards
Rabbi Shay Tahan
After the holiday of Purim, many of us are faced with Halachic dilemmas concerning the Kashrut status of the many Mishlochei Manot we have received, as well as those we give others. Let us start with the food items we have received and aren’t sure whether we are permitted to eat them. Are we permitted to eat all those cakes and cookies received which are home baked, or do we have to be concerned with the Kashrut of the ingredients and the Kashrut of the oven etc.? Another example is if we’ve received a salad that we aren’t sure was properly inspected/ cleaned for infestation; is it Halachically fit for consumption? Food from people we trust and don’t trust.
The rule of thumb on this Halacha יו״ד ראה קיט סימן ((is that we need to assess the level of trust of the person who delivered the food to us. If there is room for suspicion on his observance of the various dietary laws of the Torah (Kashrut), his keeping of the many basic laws of the Torah, and surely if with regards to Shabbat observance, we aren’t allowed to eat anything he sent to us unless it’s packed bearing the seal of a reliable Kashrut supervision. The reason given is that such a person wouldn’t mind giving others non-Kosher items, since we see that he himself isn’t careful. On the contrast, if he is known to us as a person who keeps Kosher, learns Torah and is generally scrupulous with Mitzvot, we can eat the food delivered to us without a worry.
Food from people we aren’t sure The doubts would be in the event we aren’t sure, i.e., we don’t know him well enough. This can translate into several different concerns: first and foremost is this basic tenet of how trustworthy he is. Furthermore, even if we know that he is very “religious”, but maybe he isn’t very knowledgeable in Jewish law which would then manifest itself into many Halachic concerns, such as whether his kitchen is Kosher–his oven, utensils etc.–or maybe something may have inadvertently become treif. Moreover, even if we trust that he used a reliable Hechsher for the ingredients and he maintains a Kosher kitchen; it is still possible that we ourselves try to hold to higher standards of Kashrut and therefore normally wouldn’t eat food at his lower standards.
Not to mention the fact that we may adhere to a different set of Halachot altogether, for example the difference between Sefaradim and Ashkenazim in Halacha. So, what must be done? There is a machloket Rishonim concerning the first question, receiving food from someone who we aren’t familiar with his Kashrut level. The Tur (siman 119) writes that normally every Jew is reliable unless we know he isn’t. Based on that, one would be permitted to eat the food he received, The Rambam however argued, and wrote that we aren’t allowed to rely on people unless they are known to us as reliable. The Rema ruled like the Rambam and forbids eating the food unless we know the person who gave it to us trustworthy.
But the Shulchan Aruch, who the Sefaradim follow, wrote that one can rely on anyone who we don’t have suspicion on. Le’maase today, even Sefaradim are strict, especially after the later Poskim made a decree not to eat from anyone we don’t fully trust. .(סה ס״ס הלל בית (וכן ערה״ש קיט ס״ט Giving others food that you don’t eat. Can I give others the Mishlochei Manot I received which I don’t eat myself due to Kashrut issues? Sometimes we receive food items that we wouldn’t eat because we follow higher Kashrut standards. For example, some don’t eat dairy products which aren’t Chalav Yisrael. If one received such products, can they be given over to a friend who does eat non-Chalav Yisrael? There is a dispute amongst the poskim over this issue.
The argument is based on the question of whether the prohibition of not to cause others to cause to not means“ לפני עיור לא תתן מכשול“ sin others to do what I’m not allowed to do, even though their rabbis do permit eating it, thus, in the example we brought before, if I don’t eat non-Chalav Yisrael products, I wouldn’t be permitted to serve it to those who do eat non Chalav Yisrael המלך שער .((Or conversely, some poskim say otherwise, the above prohibition only applies to that which would be a sin to the other person, and therefore, since they are permitted to eat those items, even though I’m not, it’s not considered bringing them to sin. כתב סופר יו״ד סי‘ עז. מבי״ט ח״א סי‘ כא Lema’ase, Rabbi Aurbach ruled that there is a difference between Torah prohibitions and those of a Rabbinic origin; as normally on a doubt of Biblical law we take the more stringent approach, as by Rabbinical laws we lean more towards the leniency.
Thus, when the food item raises a question of Torah prohibition, one should be strict not to give others what he wouldn’t eat himself (for example non-Bet-Yosef meat according to Sefaradim), but he can be lenient giving over Rabbinically prohibited foods (for example the non-Chalav Yisrael mentioned above). מנחת שלמה ח״א סי‘ מד
Originally published in The Jewish Vues.
