[Avodah] re Halachic guidlines for kashrut

[martin brody]

> When I lived in Northern California, where getting kosher food was a
> challenge (it was an hour and a quarter each way to Molly Stone's in
> Palo Alto, where we could get kosher cheese), we were told that we could
> rely on Triangle-K. When we moved to Chicago, where you trip over
> kosher marts, we were told that Triangle-K isn't up to community standards.

> There are basic standards of kashrut, which are community based, and
> there are kulot and chumrot....

>That's frustrating for a lot of people, particularly people in the
>modern world, where personal empowerment is such a high value....

I'm sorry, Lisa, but I disagree with you. "Community" standards may be
relevant to a shteitel in Poland, but in a city like Los Angeles with
hundreds of thousands of Jews, which community standards? Whose community
standards?

In fact we all have an obligation to learn halacha and not rely on a
Rabbi's pronouncements what is kosher or not. The fact that many have spent
years studying Talmud and can't figure out whether something is kosher or
not does not speak well.

Plus we have a mimetic tradition, or should have!

Are you aware that gelatine from pig was considered kosher by many a Posek
until a what if question was sent to Rav Moshe Feinstein some 50 years ago
or so?