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Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff, a renowned Talmid Chacham and prolific author, was a special guest at the LINK Kollel on Monday night, May 5th. Rabbi Kaganoff spent many years in Rabbanus in Buffalo and Baltimore before moving to Eretz Yisroel. He has published 11 Seforim mostly on Halachic topics and has written hundreds of articles on a wide panoply of halachic issues. He has also served as the founding director of the Vaad of Kashrus of Buffalo and was a member of the Beis Din of Baltimore.
His topic, whimsically titled "Why I Don't Eat From That Hechsher," addressed the various issues of concern in kashrus supervision. He first delineated many issues that an individual Rav or a kashrus organization might be confronted with in supervising hotels, bakeries, wineries, and factories. Besides deciding which halachic opinions they will follow in areas of dispute (including how much to rely upon on "Bedieved" leniencies and lone opinions), the mashgiach/Rav Hamachshir must be aware of many esoteric halachic issues that come up in the supervision.
When evaluating a hashgacha, one needs to investigate how knowledgeable the mashgiach/Rav Hamachshir is, how "on top" of the situation they really are (i.e., how often do they visit the plant, how thorough is there inspection, are they aware of everything that is officially under their hashgacha). In addition, one needs to ascertain how well-trained are the mashgichim and how accessible is the Rav Hamachshir when shailos come up. Finally, one needs to ascertain who the final Poseik is for this hashgacha when complications arise.
He then regaled the packed Beis Medrash with humorous yet tragic stories of gross malfeasance and incompetence in various “kosher” facilities that he was personally aware of in his many years in kashrus. These included cheese factories where the observance of Gevinas Yisroel was completely absent, wineries where non-Jews handled the grapes and their extracts, bakeries where raisins were soaked and turned into raisin wine by non-Jewish personnel, hotels where the meat was traiborred by non-Jews and non-observant Jews, tour groups where the food was supervised by an intermarried Jew, and Pesach hotels that had too few mashgichim, and non-Jewish cooks that added Chametz into some of the recipes. He concluded by saying the question is not whether an individual Rav is better or worse than a kashrus organization, but what standards do they employ and what is their level of competence in both halacha and in practical management of their operation.
Rebbetzin Malka Kaganoff spoke the women at LINK the previous evening. First addressing the young single women and then later addressing the married women, she spoke in each session about how one can develop spiritual self-esteem from Sefer Tehilim, and how that in turn can properly prepare us for Kabbalas HaTorah on Shavuos. Mrs. Kaganoff is a popular author and beloved mechaneches, and has been teaching at Shearim Seminary in Yerushalayim for many years. A number of her talmidos are part of the LINK tzibur and her words were inspiring to all.
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