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    25 Apr KASHRUS QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK WITH RABBI MOSHE ELEFANT

    Posted at 19:02h in by
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    I am a frequent traveler and sometimes I find
    myself in a motel with a kitchenette. Am I able to
    go to the local fish store and purchase kosher fish?
    You certainly cannot buy fish that is cooked or fried. You also
    may not buy fish that doesn’t have any skin on it, because
    once the skin is removed, aside from salmon, there is no way of knowing
    exactly which type of fish it is and it could possibly be a non-kosher fish.
    But if the fish is raw with skin on it, you need to make sure that the cutting
    board on which they are cutting the fish is clean and has no residue from
    other fish. Also, you need to make sure that they do not use the knife they
    always use because that knife is used to cut non-kosher fish as well. You
    would have to bring your own knife that’s only used for kosher purposes.
    There are certain types of dried fruit that are susceptible to
    bug infestation and require checking. Do they still need to
    be checked if the package has a hechsher on them?
    When we give a hashgacha on a product that has fruits and vegetables,
    part of giving the supervision is making sure there’s no infestation issues.
    Kosher law is very strict on infestation so there is no way we could label

    a product “kosher” if the
    issue of infestation has not
    been properly addressed.
    Many years ago, there was
    a brand of romaine lettuce
    that was being sold with a
    certain supervision. We all
    know that romaine lettuce
    is typically very infested
    and really needs to be
    washed and checked very
    wel. When I became aware
    that this product was being sold in our community. I called a rabbi to ask
    him what his system was for cleaning the romaine lettuce. He answered
    as follows: “Rabbi, I’m not certifying the bugs, I’m only certifying the
    vegetables.’’ I was not very impressed to say the least, but that is the story. In
    my mind, one of the ways in identifying a reliable supervision is by making
    sure the vegetables that they are certifying are one hundred percent edible.
    If there is infestation, a reliable kashrus agency would not be certifying it.