RABBI GENACK'S RESPONSE IN THE FORWARD

In this past week’s Forward, Rabbi Menachem Genack, rabbinic administrator and CEO of OU Kosher, responded to the article by Prof.Shapiro.

Let’s go to the end of the rabbi’s remarks first. In his last paragraph, the rabbi wrote: “… we at the OU are proud of the sea change we have brought about in the availability of kosher products and the maintenance of kosher standards in America.” To that we say: Well put. Hear Hear! Indeed the OU should be proud of their contribution.

As in all of life, however, the total picture is more of a prism than a single piece of glass, and in this case, it is very important to look at the other facets of the total prism.

At the top of the article. Rabbi Genack writes: “The era that Shapiro laments as having passed, however, was unfortunately one frequently rife with fraud. What he terms “regular kosher” meat- in other words non glatt- is unquestionably kosher when reliably supervised and regulated. But there were ongoing problems with both the production and distribution of kosher meat. Discerning kosher consumers BEGAN TO DEMAND (emphasis ours) glatt kosher meat, which was more carefully controlled- not because they wanted glatt per se, but because they wanted to be assured that the meat was indeed kosher. Thus it was consumer demand that made glatt the dominant standard in the marketplace, not some fiat by the OU.”

Ok. let’s look at that. Does any one else out there remember the huge rallies and demontrations that were held by thousands of thronging Jews chanting “What do we want? Glatt! When do we want it? Now!?” Remember all the letters to the editors of the various Anglo Jewish media outlets demanding glatt kosher meat? How many of you remember your mom or your dad saying, “O, I really want to pay more for lower quality meat?”

No one recalls all of that? Want to know why? IT NEVER HAPPENED. There were no parades and rallies. There was no hue and cry. O sure, a few hundred folks in Buda Park, Brooklyn may have wanted glatt, but the rest of us were confused by the shift. The most dominant comment regularly heard was something along the lines of “My zeydeh was a frum Yid and he never eat trefe and he never ate glatt. If stam was good enough for him, it is good enough for me.”

CONSUMER DEMAND?? It never happened. Either Rabbi Genack is engaging in revisionist history or his view of history is about as real as that of Peabody and Sherman. No one wanted glatt. Glatt was expensive. Glatt meat somehow always seemed to be not as good as non glatt. Regular meat was Prime. Glatt was never that good. There was no real consumer demand.

There is more: Kosher meat had to be supervised by someone. Who was doing it? And much more important, why did it take only glatt to clear up all the fraud in the kosher meat industry? Could not the same agencies that told us that we had to buy glatt in order to be sure that the meat we bought was even really kosher at all, have made sure that the meat they had supervised before was kosher? If part of the problem was getting meat to NYC and other areas withing 72 hours of shechita (at which time it had to be “geesed {washed}”) then why not kahser the meat at the plant as they do with glatt? Why did it have to be glatt for that problem to go away? Aren’t we missing a sort of obvious solution here?

The law of unintended consequences comes into play in a big way in the whole glatt story. As a result of the fairly constant statistical availability of glatt meat expressed as a percentage out of every hundred cows, going glatt meant that the amount of kosher meat available decreased. And concurrently, the price increased. The second unintended consequence was that as glatt meat became more and more expensive, lower and lower quality beef began flooding the market (the good stuff was just way too expensive).

The third unintended consequence involved the “dumbing down” of the term glatt. In his article, Rabbi Genack takes great pains to explain that except for the sephardim who eat glatt meat that is really glatt (ie, the lung is totally smooth), we Ashkenasim have always accepted a lower standard for what we call glatt. We do allow a certain number of sirchot or ririn in the lung and still call the meat glatt. Whereas at one time the number of sirchot allowed was a maximum of three, today the number has slipped up to five. So, in essence, that which the OU calls glatt today, would not have been considered glatt not so many years ago.

Rabbi Genack explained that based on a non Toraitic text, the Talmud “interprets a verse in Ezekiel as saying that the prophet never ate meat concerning which a decision had been rendered as to its kosher status… .”
He goes on to say, “meat classified as glatt does not require such evaluations (ie, as compared to non glatt), as any adhesions that might be present are minor, uncomplicated and obviously kosher.”

Wow, talk about self serving statements!! Apparently when the meat is checked, there is no conscious thought process involved in those up to five sirchot on the lung. The checker just knows without having to think or to make a decision if the animal is kosher or not. Hey, anyone want to buy a bridge? You can not have it both ways, and this is clearly a case of ignore the man in the booth…. !

Recently the Star- K claimed in an article in their newsletter that more and more kosher consumers are demanding certified kosher canned goods. We will not go into that discussion right now, but we have to ask: Do you know of any group of Jews that is clamoring for hashgacha on canned veggies and fruit? What is it with these people and their claims of consumer demand?

Does anyone else out there see the elephant in the room?