Dear Everyone,
Hello again.
Today we completed our discussion about chickens. We saw that over the centuries the kashrut of chickens was taken for granted. However over the past 40 years or so many questions about the kashrut of poultry have arisen, Due to the changes in way chickens are raised anatomical changes in chickens have begun to appear, and if in the past it was assumed that chickens do not suffer from a significant percentage of treifot this assumption may no longer be valid.
Some authorities endorse the checking of every chicken for treifot, and some recommend examining a sample of chickens as they are delivered from each poultry farm. We saw that the question of relying on a sample to determine the kashrut of a “whole” has been debated about 150 years ago. The Halacha is that wheat grains which become wet and then swell and split are chametz. So what’s to be done when it rains on an attic-full of wheat? Ideally a person would sift through the entire pile of wheat, grain-by-grain , and remove all the tainted grains. This is obviously extremely tedious. The Aruch Hashulchan writes the “common custom” is that the local rabbi examines “a few” handfuls of wheat and if the tainted grains are less than 1/60 of the sample then the entire attic-full of wheat may be used on Pesach.
The Chatm Sofer [1] says that this method of examining the wheat is totally wrong. As the Chatam Sofer puts it, there basically two types of “problems” which require examination, problems whch are “dynamic” and problems which are “static.” A “dynamic” problem is insect infestation of fruit. Insects multiply, so when a collection of fruit is suspected of being infested I need to examine each piece of fruit, a clean sample of fruit tells me nothing about the other pieces of fruit. Grains of wheat are “static.” If I find a few pieces of grain in a pot of soup on Pesach I do not need to assume that there are more pieces of grain waiting to be found inside the pot. The Chatam Sofer writes that when it rains on a pile of wheat , its status is analogous to infested fruit. Just as it is impossible to know the extent of insect-infestation in a pile of fruit, it is impossible to know how much wheat was dampened by the rain. Therefore sampling the wheat does not prove the kashrut of the entire pile.
It may be that the various attitudes of kashrut supervisors towards poultry reflects the attitudes of the Aruch Hashulchan and Chatam Sofer. Some authorities view treifot in chickens as totally unpredictable, and since there are instances of 70% treifot we always need to fear such occurrences. Others concede that the incidence of treifot is unpredictable , but by examining the first 1000 (for example) chickens from a 20,000 chicken delivery we get an accurate picture of the entire delivery.
We concluded with an essay by Rav Dessler zt”l from Michtav Me’Eliyahu. We saw many disagreements among the poskim in questions about treifot. It is amazing to encounter such strongly opposing views (kosher or treif) when one side (e.g. the Mechaber and Rashba) say that the opposing side (Ashkenazic Jewry) is eating treif. Even Rabbeinu Tam said that anyone who follows the ruling of his grandfather (Rashi!) is eating treif. How can this be? Why on Earth wouldn’t Rabbeinu Tam accept the ruling of his grandfather?
Rav Dessler explains that our use of the word “Halacha” (to define the set of rules that guide our behavior) is not precise. A rule can be called “Halacha” only if it is known with great precision and exactitude . For example[2] the Halacha says that the ink used to write tefillin must be black. This rule is not questioned by anyone, and nobody will ever question it.[3] However, most rules of Jewish life are not known with such clarity. Over the centuries laws have been forgotten, errors have crept in to the chain of tradition. Disagreements have arisen over details of observance[4].We still follow these laws but they no longer have the authority of “halacha” which cannot be questioned. These rules have the status of “minhag” (custom). Rav Dessler writes that it is the duty of a scholar to examine the minhagim in order to restore them to their original , precise, and accurate state. For this reason Rabbeinu Tam felt that it was within his authority to say that the rules of his grandfather (Rashi) for assembling the parshiyot of tefillin were wrong. Similarly we saw that Rabbeinu Tam said that Rashi and Rashi’s teacher erred in their ruling on treifot of the lungs.
We of course are taken aback when we see Rabbeinu Tam reject the opinion of his legendary grandfather. So Rav Dessler explains that Rabbeinu Tam was only fulfilling the mitzvah of learning Torah when he examined the issues of tefillin and treifot. Torah must be studied which all of a person’s intellectual ability, and the person must study honestly , objectively and impartially. If his conclusions are different from those of his predecessors, then so be it.[5]
[1] Who was writing about 50 years to the Aruch Hashulchan
[2] This my own example
[3] This may be an exception to the “never say never” rule.
[4] While nobody claims that fires can be lit on Shabbat, there are disagreements about opening bottles on Shabbat
[5] It should go without saying that this freedom to disagree needs to be earned