Herzfeld v. Lewin, Round 2
Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld (he of NYTimes Op-Ed fame) and his congregant Nat Lewin (famed attorney and Agriprocessors defender) are having a little intra-shul spat over the ethics of kosher slaughter. Lewin called Herzfeld a "vigilante" in his response to Herzfeld's Times article and described his reasoning there as "fallacious."
Now Herzfeld is back for another round, though with the stipulation that he won't "engage in a back and forth." Oh, well maybe just one more time.
Herzfeld's response after the jump.
CORRECTION: This post originally referred to Herzfeld as Lewin's "rabbi." Though Lewin is a member of Herzfeld's shul, he regularly attends a different congregation near his Potomac, Md. home.
Response to Nat Lewin by Shmuel HerzfeldNat Lewin is one of our finest congregants and has always been a terrific advocate for the Jewish people. Obviously, our entire community is struggling with this difficult issue which asks us to balance the requirement of due process while not turning our backs on heart wrenching allegations that strike at the core of our identity.
I will not engage in a back and forth argument in this forum, but it is important to address the argument about the legitimacy of the position cited in the name of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter.
Many sources on this topic are cited in an article by Rabbi Avi Gisser, Chief Rabbi of Ofra, Israel in his article for Ma'aglei Tzedek, an organization in Israel that seeks to unite laws of kashrut with concerns for how workers are treated. The article is available on line at http://www.edah.org/mtzenglish.pdf.
The story about Rav Salanter was one story from a genre of Rav Salanter stories that might have been cited. Here is a small portion of Rav Gisser's article:
According to Rav Kook, what our generation needs, especially now, is to add fuel to the great flame of social justice that stems from a deep awe of G-d. Three anecdotes from the life of Rabbi Salanter demonstrate this. Once, Rabbi Salanter visited a new matzah bakery in order to check its work practices and level of kashrut. He reviewed all the manufacturing procedures extensively and observed the intense labor and toil of the employees. At the end of Rabbi Salanter's visit, the bakery owner proudly asked him, "What does the rabbi say?" He answered, "The Gentiles accuse us, G-d forbid, of using the blood of Christian children in matzah. While this is not the case, from what I have seen here, there is indeed a violation of the prohibition on blood in food. The blood of the workers is mixed with the matzah! I will not certify this bakery as kosher." In another case, Rabbi Salanter was asked what demands particular attention when baking matzah. He answered: "One must be scrupulous not to yell at the woman kneading the dough." He was also quoted as saying, "It is prohibited to enhance your mitzvot at the expense of others." One day Rabbi Salanter was hosted by a rich man. When he performed the ritual hand-washing before the meal, he used a sparing amount of water. He was asked, "Doesn't the Torah say it is praiseworthy to wash with a lot of water?" He answered,
"I can only do that in my own home. Here, however, I must consider the needs of the servant who must carry the buckets of water." When attending large dinners, Rabbi Salanter also hurried to finish eating quickly in consideration of the waiters and other workers, who had to wait until the end of the meal to go home. "Justice, justice you shall pursue in order that you may live in and inherit the land."
Rav Gisser's article is published with a powerful statement immediately following it. Here is a portion of that statement:
Out of concern for Israel's moral and humane character as a Jewish State, respecting all its citizens, in which justice is one of its basic principles, we wish to announce a social seal, committing all who believe in justice and morality. We hereby request all business proprietors to respect the dignity of their workers and visitors, both regarding to conditions of employment, and also assuring accessibility to people with disabilites. We ask all for whom the Jewish humane character of Israel is important to be aware of just consumerism, and to buy only in places holding the social seal.
It is signed by many of our greatest rabbis including, Rabbi Ya'akov Ariel, Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, Rabbi Yo'el Bin-Nun, Rabbi Chaim Drukman Rabbi Mordechay Elon, Rabbi Benni Lau and Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein.
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Nat Lewin Esq.
We beg to differ with your conclusions re: the Kashus status of AGRI / RUBASHKIN. In the area of Law all Court appearances by lawyers subscribe to the common"if the law is in your favor, harp on the law..If the facts are in your favor, harp on the facts..If neither is in your favor, confuse the issues..
Re: Agri / Rubashkin kashrus status not the facts nor the Kashrus Halacha is in your faver…
The ones in the know have claimed for years that the kashrus at Agri / Rubashkins leaves much to be desired. Is is on a very low standard from a kashrus point of view. It’s alledged that labels are under the control of the plant & their workers, not under the tight exclusive control of the kosher certifiers.
It’s also alledged that Agri Rubashkin commonly switches labels as they need, even from non-kosher to kosher which includes relabeling labeling non-bet-Yosef as bet yosef.
Rabbi Weismandel is aware of the labeling issue that Rubashkin is in control of the labels. Trucks operated by non-Jews carry labels to affix to Agri Rubashkin products. I picked up one of those boxes.
The Non-Jew making the additional cut for bleeding and the ripping of the Trachea & yanking the lung with a hook would declare the animal as a TREIFA.
Using an electric prod on the head of the animal may make it a TREIFA.
Shooting the animal after Shchita & then using it as a kosher animal is unacceptable ” I have seen it myself”.
Don’t try to defend their Kashrus standards, They are operating a 70% non-kosher operation & they should never be permitted to operate a kosher operation due to all of their kashrus violations.
Kosher Consumers Union, Inc.
Rabbi Yehuda Shain, President
There are many other serious kashrus issues at the plant.
Rabbi Billet,
You claim that the you and the RCA believe that the Social Justice goes hand in hand with Kosher Supervision.
Surely then you can point out a platform from the RCA/ OU which states that as a criteria for Kosher certification, memos between the OU and Agriprocessors which insist on safe work environment as a precondition for a hechser or one example of where the OU threatened to remove or to give a Hashgachah based on social justice reasons. I doubt you can. I would be impressed if you could.
Second of all, I think your real problem with Rabbi Herzfeld is that he is right, that everyone is agreeing with him, and as a result making the RCA/OU’s long time silence look bad. Now the RCA/OU is put in a position of damned if they do and damned if they don’t. If they don’t respond it looks like they don’t care and if they do it looks like that they responded to public pressure. Nobody likes being backed into a corner. Rabbi there is no escape, Nat Lewin cannot get you out of this mess.
My advice, is bite the bullet. Pull the hashgacha and set up a criteria of proper behavior for OU certification. You will look bad now but in the long run OU certification will have much more meaning.
Additionally Rabbi Herzfeld was told off by the head of the RCA for writing on this subject in the RCA’s private member’s only web site weeks before he wrote this op-ed. That was a private forum. Did you support him then?
Rabbi Billet,
This has become a joke. see the onion.
http://www.theonion.com/content/amvo/kosher_plant_cited_for_child_labor?utm_source=slate_rss_1
How will the OU/RCA paint itself out of this corner? This is not Rabbi Herzfeld’s fault, it is the fault of Rubashkin. It is the OU’s job just to make sure this shandeh does not happen again.
From what I have seen and read about this issue, it is not the issue described. The Union Activists, who sought and seek to organize this slaughterhouse have generated a great deal of misinformation.
Rubashkin has certainly made mistakes but the Organizers have blown them all out of proportion. After they have destroyed the plant entirely who wins?
What ever became of sitting down and settling differences?
Rabbi Hershel Billet,
I am less concerned about what you said then the tone in how you said it. You start out your first post by accusing him of being self-serving and move on from there. But by then its to late. Its no longer reasoned discourse. No longer an expression of anger. Rather, a declaration of contempt.
This from the former head of the RCA.
I don’t agree with the article. I also don’t think it should have been in the Times (indeed its the first thing I posted on this article in Gil’s blog).
But still you should treat a colleague with public respect. You did not.
Keep your anger in line.
I agree with Montana Fats and it’s too bad that more of you reading these blogs don’t see beyond these pages. You haven’t bothered investigating the background of this entire smear campaign, and instead choose to believe every lie and misconception out there.
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor”.
That is commandment number nine, for those reading this who seem to have forgotten.
To Rabbi Billet and his colleagues who are bullying Rabbi Herzfeld,
The OU and presumably the leaders of it’s RCA division as well are fully aware of all the kashrus shenanigans & other outrages at Rubashkin. Covering up chilul Hashem only leads to greater chilul Hashem. What a shame that when it comes to the OU’s lucrative licensing fees, cover up is all the rage. If only you went after characters who sin with food with the same zeal as you did the weirdo in Monsey who was expelled from the RCA.
You may be able to fool much of the population in this world but in shamayim they know everything.
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/345/story/436085.html
Concern about the ethics of kosher production is not new. Around 1949, Rabbi Yosef Breuer argued in an essay that being kosher also requires “strict application of the tenets of justice and righteousness,” including honesty in business and concern for the welfare of others.
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Richard Schwartz
08/12/08 04:08 PM
I hope the increased interest re Agriprocessors will lead to a consideration of the many moral issues related to our diets, including that the production and consumption of meat and other animal products:
1. arguably violate basic Jewish mandates to preserve human health, treat animals with compassion, protect the environment, conserve natural resources and help hungry people;
* contribute to heart disease, several forms of cancer and other degenerative diseases;
* contribute to global warming and other environmental problems that threaten all of humanity.
Further info at JewushVeg.com/schwartz. Our documentary at ASacredDuty.com.