Have Questions or Comments?
Leave us some feedback and we'll reply back!

    Your Name (required)

    Your Email (required)

    Phone Number)

    In Reference to

    Your Message


    02 May KASHRUS QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK WITH RABBI MOSHE ELEFANT

    Posted at 21:33h in by
    0 Likes

    Please explain the
    word “GLATT”-is it
    still shayach today?
    Very, very much! Not
    only is it relevant today,
    but it probably has
    more applications today than it originally
    did. Glatt is a Yiddish word for “smooth”
    which means that whenever you slaughter
    an animal in a Kosher way, part of the
    process is that the lungs are examined to
    determine that they’re healthy. Certainly,
    if the lungs have a perforation or a hole,
    then it isn’t kosher. Sometimes when the
    lung is examined, there is not necessarily
    a hole, but it’ll have lesions attached to the
    lung. So it’s not clear what those lesions
    represent.
    Do they have a hole under them or not?
    Is it healthy? Glatt requires that the lung
    be completely smooth, without any
    lesions. And that’s why, typically in beef
    that’s slaughtered in the United States, the
    percentage of Glatt meat is so low. Te
    reason it’s so low is because the animal
    is checked, and by the time we fnish all
    this checking, they’re going to get a very
    low percentage of Glatt animals. A very
    interesting piece of information is that
    Glatt for Ashkenazi Jews is a custom. As
    far as Halacha is concerned, Ashkenazim
    don’t require meat that is Glatt; it’s more
    of a custom that we keep nowadays. For
    Sephardim, it’s not a question of custom,
    it’s a question of law.
    Tat’s why very ofen you’ll see Bet
    Yoseph. It requires that the lung be very
    smooth, without any lesions. So that’s
    what Glatt means and that’s why Glatt is
    as relevant today as it ever was.
    However glatt actually now has a wider
    connotation. It also has a connotation
    of a concept in Halacha called “Basar
    Shehora Bachacham,” which means
    Meat on which there was a Shaila, and a
    Chacham Paskened. Glatt now means,
    there was no shaila from the animal.
    Tere was no need for a loophole to say
    this animal was Kosher. Tat’s what Glatt

    has come to mean, and that’s why you’ll
    see Glatt sometimes even on non-meat
    products or chicken. We don’t check the
    lungs of a chicken so how do you have
    Glatt chicken? Te answer is we’re not

    checking the lungs, but we’re making
    sure that the meat has no Shailos and is
    completely Kosher. And that’s why Glatt
    has greater, wider connotations nowadays

    in the world of Kashrut than it ever did.