[Avodah] [Areivim] Chicken Scandal

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, September 18, 2006 8:22 pm, R Harry Maryles wrote tp Areivim:
:>> "Everyone else eats there," should not be good enough,

:> Maybe the reason that they didn't publish this is that "everyone eats
:> there" is halachically good enough--it is based on a chezkas kashrus.

: In order for something to have a Chaezkas Kashrus, it first has to be
: established that it was ever Kosher in the first place. A Chazaka
: L'Mafreah. That everyone eats there does not confer such an
: presumption. All it shows it aht one person is copying another. If
: there was no Chazaka L'Mafreah, There can be no Chazaka D' Hashta.

There are two uses of the phrase "chezqas kashrus":
1- The chazaqah demei'iqarah (ch' lemfrei'ah, as RHM puts it) of the food
itself. Agreed that that's not applicable here.

2- The chazaqah disvara (rule of thumb) that observant Jews are trustworthy.
Stam a person off the street is assumed to be kasher le'eidus. That DOES apply
here.

However, as RnCL (RnCS?) pointed out, we seem to follow the Rambam in not
using the person's chezqas kashrus when he has financial negi'us. So, we have
machshirim. Now the rav hamachshir and the mashgi'ach are trusted because of
their chezqas kashrus. (Trust doesn't mean "hold like" or even "assume they
know what they're doing". Just that we shouldn't assume they're willfully
dishonest.)

-mi
http://www.aishdas.org/asp