Menachem Mendel

A Jerusalem cafe owner’s indictment of OU mehadrin kashrut supervision. (Hebrew)

Posted on April 18th, 2013 under Kashrut, Religion in Israel. Comments Off

Below is a very extensive and graphic video that illustrates how kosher slaughtering is done. It includes a lot of discussion about halakhic sources and laws. (Hebrew)

Posted on January 9th, 2013 under Jewish Law, Kashrut. Comments Off

In a recent issue of Ha-Ma’ayan, Rabbi Dr. Israel Meir Levinger wrote an article (Hebrew) about scientific findings relating to the absorption and expunging by vessels. This is potentially very important for issues of Kashrut. In the most recent issue there were a number of responses. The original article and the responses raise a number [...]

Posted on December 31st, 2012 under Jewish Law, Kashrut. Comments: 7

Yasir Qadhi has posted a talk that he gave at a conference sponsored by the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America on whether kosher meat is also Ḥalāl. Here are his conclusions: In light of all that has preceded, and in this author’s opinion: – While the Qurʿān explicitly allows us to offer (and therefore [...]

Posted on June 22nd, 2012 under Jewish Law, Jewish-Gentile Relations, Kashrut. Comments: 1

H-Judaica has a review of David M. Freidenreich’s Foreigners and Their Food: Constructing Otherness in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Law. Freidenreich’s book, a revision of his doctoral dissertation, argues that just as sharing food is an expression of hospitality and acknowledges a common humanity, a refusal to accept or share food is a sign of [...]

Posted on May 10th, 2012 under Jewish Law, Jewish-Gentile Relations, Kashrut, New Books. Comments Off

The Israeli organization for national-religious women, Emunah, has begun the process of establishing a course for women who want to be Mashgiḥot Kashrut, kashrut supervisors. They have approached the Chief Rabbinate with a proposal that includes a curriculum. Apparently much is dependent on the local Rabbinic Council, and in Efrat this has already been implemented. [...]

Posted on May 3rd, 2012 under Jewish Law, Kashrut, Religion in Israel, Religious Authority, Religious Zionism. Comments: 1

Some interesting tables from Ira M. Sheskin’s, The Jewish Demography of Florida. The study contains numerous other informative graphs and tables. And what about Jews and Christmas trees?

Posted on February 13th, 2012 under American Judaism, Kashrut, Religion. Comments: 1

On H-Judaic there is a discussion about Kosher and Halal meat. The following comment by Yona Sabar was interesting. The word kasher/kosher is not “universal”. Among the Neo-Aramaic speaking Jews of northern Iraq, the Arabic word, Halal with an Aramaic suffix, Halala, was used for “kasher”;and Harama for “unkasher”. Very “Kasher” meat was Halala ‘ikh [...]

Posted on January 18th, 2012 under Aramaic, Kashrut. Comments: 9

My wife recently saw an episode of the HGTV program Property Brothers that featured a couple and their kosher kitchen. The religious couple was having their kitchen remodeled, and the show explained all of the ins and outs of a kosher kitchen. She said that it was a very well done program, and that they [...]

Posted on January 3rd, 2012 under Kashrut, Popular Culture. Comments Off