[Avodah] [Areivim] Chicken Scandal

[Chana Luntz]

RZS writes:

> The Raavad/Mechaber position is that all we need to know 
> about someone is that he is a Jew, and that we *not* know 
> anything negative about him. If his name is Cohen and we've 
> never heard of him before, and he tells us the food he's 
> selling is kosher, we can believe that he's telling the truth 
> to the best of his knowledge.  (We still have to worry about 
> how far his knowledge extends; but if he says he bought 
> everything as raw ingredients, or with a good hechsher, that 
> he bought his kelim new and has never used them for anything 
> else, etc, we don't need to worry that he's lying.)

On what basis do you understand the Raavad in this manner?  The Raavad's
language is that we can eat by him even if he is an am ha'aretz.  I
would have thought that one of the potential issues with an am ha'aretz
has to be that he is not knowledgeable.  Once you have to start
investigating his level of knowledge, then surely whole idea that simply
knowing his name is Cohen is enough falls by the wayside? 

And isn't this precisely the contrast discussed at length vis a vis
shechita?  One of the reasons specifically given eg by the Shach that we
do not automatically trust a butcher who himself shechts is because the
laws of shechita are so complex.  The implication of that surely is that
in relation to  areas of kashrus other than shechita we do not worry
about how far his knowledge extends.  Hence the argument today ie that
"because of all the additives and the industrialisation of the food
industry kashrus has become so complex that you need haschgacha" seems
to me in effect to be an argument that what once applied vis a vis
shechita only is now to be applied more generally, or in other words, we
should no longer posken like the Shulchan Aruch.

> -- 
> Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with 

Regards

Chana