Being of Sephardi descent from the Mediterranean, dairy is an important part of my diet. I love good cheese, and since the Sephardi diet is mainly fish, we can eat cheese almost whenever we want.
But the subject of cheese and dairy often brings up a specific kashrut questions: chalav yisrael or no?
It’s not one of the more common kosher laws, and there are quite a few people who are kosher but don’t observe it. But what is chalav yisrael, you may ask?
It’s actually quite simple: Although milk that comes from a kosher animal is inherently kosher, the Shulchan Aruch ruled that Jews could only drink milk that was handled by Torah-observant Jews. That way, people wouldn’t be tricked into possibly drinking non-kosher milk. Unlike with kosher wine, where it undergoes a specific process due to its use in religious rituals, milk has no religious purposes in Judaism.
According to the site OK.org (the site for the O-K certification), the majority of farms do not produce milk from unkosher animals. While cow and goat milk are available on the market, you won’t find a lot of varieties In addition, the USDA prohibits production of these types of milk for commercial sale, and there are major consequences if you do try to sell it. So even though chefs are obsessed with pork, I doubt any of them are reaching for pig milk.
In addition, there are plenty of ways that we already observe that milk is kosher. If you have a product that is certified kosher, you have to have rabbinical supervision. If there is a milk product in it, it is usually identified as such with a D (the most famous, the Orthodox Union’s, or OU’s, D symbol can be found on a lot of common food products).
So, with the kashrut observation of many different rabbis and the fact that the USDA prohibits the sale of many unkosher milk products, should we really be concerned about chalav yisrael in America?
Personally, I am not chalav yisrael. It is a very difficult lifestyle to maintain, and as far as I’m concerned, if it’s good enough for OU-D, it’s good enough for me. I feel that, with the regulations our government has on food, that the law is antiquated. It comes from a time where you couldn’t trust your neighbors and there were no regulations like this.
My whole philosophy towards my religion (and my kashrut) is thinking of modern times: If it doesn’t have a part of the modern world, there is no reason for me to partake. I feel that being kosher has a place in the modern world, as being humane is a timeless value. But distrust of others is not, and I feel that that USDA is keeping my cheese unkosher-animal-free. So, bring on the cheese, people!
What is your take? Are you chalav or not?
The Rabbi we worked with framed it this way: Because of the way all dairies in the US are run, you either consider all cheese to be kosher, or none of it.
ReplyDeleteWe just make sure there is no rennet and that's the end of the story for us.
We heard a rumor that, because of the stringency in that country, ALL cheeses produced in Switzerland was by it's nature kosher. But I can't find an online reference to that so remember our important catchphrase: CYLOR (Consult Your Local Orthodox Rabbi).
Nice post!