"Kashrus is a matter of Policy. Not Halacha"



Oh... I have SO much to say about it
God Willing, it will come soon
Here is the Story.

Short Stories

Aren't we supposed to protect the Kashrus from the Chef,
in oppose to protecting the Chef from the Kashrus???

"...these mushrooms are l'chol hadeios, Muchzak B'tola'im with a capital M.
It therefore seems to me that they cannot be used in a kosher facility"

Each Organization & Rabbi that gives Hashgacha, MUST have a policy, of which they follow. Without policy, in the Kashrus business, we are doomed. Everyone in this field MUST be persistence with their policies. Otherwise, The level of Kashrus loses ground, and deteriorate rapidly. Another important note: Not always the Kashrus organization will actually keep the same level of Kashrus that they publish for their costumers. Not always they will be as strict as they may be assumed to be.

The worse case was when The Executive Chef realized, long time ago, that we were/are the underdog, and took as much advantage as she could. I don’t blame her. She basically took advantage of us. I almost wanted to say: She abuses her power.

The kashrus agency I work for demanded that Food from outside will Not be Brought into the Kosher area. It was suppose to be easy, because the Kosher area is separated from the other parts of the building. But, as usual, the Rav in charge, surrendered to the chef's demands, and backed off from his demands. Food from out side was constantly brought up by people (that usually didn’t know they are not suppose to do this). As stubborn as she was, the Chef refused to put a sign saying "No OutSide Food & Beverage allowed". So, I was not only the MashgiAch, I was also a police officer & sometimes even A detective. It was SO ridiculous.

Being an underdog is great. You take no responsibility. You just need to do what you are told. You don’t need to think. You don’t need to foresee what the outcome might be. And the best of all, you are policy free. You can be as flexible as possible. And in the Kashrus business, as long as you get enough money to shut up, almost everything will work. Sadly I can say, and you probably won’t believe me, that you may find well known Kashrus agencies continuing to do business with corrupted people, just because of prestige & amount of money the agency gets.

If the Rav HaMachshir) say: (the name of the place I worked at came afterwards), that in response to my claims and demands to stand by me. It is amazing to see how far He went to Protect the chef, other than to back me up, on countless events. Only one time, I recall him saying (months after the event): I should have backed you up. One Time.
I am still looking for the original Email, so I can scan & bring the original text, when the Rav wrote me, in respond to another miss backing me up claim of mine: We should keep the goose who lays the golden eggs. Referring to the Chef, and the establishment supervised.