[Avodah] Brussel Sprouts

[Chana Luntz]

RMB wrote (on Areivim, but the discussion has moved to Avodah, and I think
this post belongs there):

> I do too. If you recall, I put my money on a different horse -- that we
> changed the insect ecosystem in a way that makes borderline-visible
> bugs more numerous.

Well I have now done some hunting around in the Achronim, and I think it is
fair to say based on what I have seen, that this position is untenable.

While the achronim do divide into machmirim and makilim, both sides
acknowledge that it is a huge problem - and they were writing in Europe
before the advent of pesticides.

I am going to quote the Aruch HaShulchan here, as he articulates the reality
very clearly:
ערוך השולחן יורה דעה הלכות תערובות סימן ק סעיף יג
ודע דבכל המדינות הידועים לנו בימות הקיץ הרחש מצוי בכל מיני מאכל וביחוד אלו
הנמלים הנקראים מילבי"ן מצויים הרבה בכל מיני קמח ובכל מיני גרויפי"ן וכמעט
שא"א להמלט מזה ובודאי הזריזים מדקדקים בכל האפשר להמלט מזה ועדיין כולי האי
ואולי וק"ו כל המון בית ישראל שאינם מדקדקים ואוכלים מכל הבא בידם כשאינם רואים
להדיא המילבין וחלילה לומר שכלל ישראל יכשלו באיסור גדול כזה...


Aruch HaShulchan Yoreh Deah hilchot ta’aroves siman 100 Si’if 13
"And know that in all the countries that are known to us in the days of the
summer the creeping things are common in all types of food and especially
these ants which are called Milbin which are found in many species of flour
and all species of growing things(?), and it is almost that it is not
possible to escape from this and indeed there are those who are careful and
strict in all that it is possible to escape from this and still all these
are, and perhaps kol v’chomer all the regular people of the house of Israel
are not strict and eat all that comes to their hand when they do not see
explicitly the Milbin and chalila to say that all of Israel stumbles in a
great issur like this..."

Now the Aruch HaShulchan is among the mekilim in relation to this, and goes
on to bring a number of limudei zechut, but the machmirim also acknowledge
it as a huge problem.

For example, the Pri Chadash (Yoreh Deah siman 84 si'if katan 53) says that
even the Chachamim and Yechidim are not careful as is fitting .. and the
issur is very commonly found in fruit, in vegetables, in small things and in
the majority of types of foodstuff and it is not possible to be prevented
from stumbling in them without great care.  And thus every man shall be
careful to prevent himself from stumbling in this issur, and also to doresh
b'rabim on the severity of this issur in order to separate them from issur.

And the Chatam Sofer writes in relation to maror on pesach (Orech Chaim
simin 132) that I regularly give my drosha on shabbas hagadol about the need
to check well and clean the lettuce from the creeping little teloyim which
are found in it very very much *which are not recognisable to those with
weak eyesight* - and better one should take maror from that which is called
chrein ..

And I could now cite at least half a dozen more (thanks to the Yalkut Yosef
who has so nicely gathered them in his Issur V'Heter Krach 2 daf 182-184 in
my edition, under the heading of Azheros HaAchronim m'issur teloyim).

So I don't think it is possible to say that there has been some change in
the insect ecosystem in a way that makes borderline-visible bugs more
numerous.

However, it seems to me on reading these various sources that there are two
schools of thought here.  While everybody agrees and holds by the gemora in
Makkos 16b that one who ate a small water creature (putisa) he is chayav
four sets of lashes from the Torah, if he ate an n'mala (ie small land
creature) he is chayav five sets and a small airborne creature (tzira) he is
chayav six sets.  Where I think they differ is in relation what is going on
when one eats lettuce and the like which happens to have bugs in it.
According to the machmir school of thought, it seems clear they read the
gemora there that one is still liable min HaTorah for each bug that is eaten
- eg the Chatam Sofer says how can you be over on lavin from the Torah in
order to perform the mitzvah of maror which is today d'rabanan.

However the makilim, it seems to me, understand things differently.  I think
they are understanding the issur min HaTorah as being when you eat eg
chocolate covered ants, or witchety grubbs [Aboriginal delicacy] or snails
or the like, even if these are small.  But in the case of eating lettuce,
you are not eating "bugs" you are eating a mixture, a tarovos, with the vast
majority of the tarovos being lettuce, but with some bugs mixed in.  On this
basis they understand that *min HaTorah* there is no issur, the bugs being
batel.  Therefore the issur, to the extent it exists, is d'rabbanan, and is
based on the gezera of the Chachamim that a beriya [whole creature] is not
batel - at least according to the straight language of the Shulchan Aruch
afilu b'elef.  That means that the whole checking for bugs is, at most,
d'rabbanan.

Now this answers the question I asked on here last week, at least if you
follow the makilim.  Because that means checking vegetables for bugs is very
much like bedikas chometz, the obligation is d'rabbanan (because bittel
works) and hence something that can more reasonably be left to the hamon am.

And it is on this basis, ie that eating lettuce with a tarovos of bugs is
only d'rabbanan, that the Aruch HaShulchan learns out his various heterim
(this is a summary of Yoreh Deah siman 100 si'ifim 14-18):

a) According to the Cresy u'Plecy, the Rashba, the Or Zarua, the Rif, the
Ra'avid, Rabbi Shimshon baal HaTosphos and possibly also Rashi hold, not
that a beriya is not nullified even in a thousand, but that a beriya is
nullified in around a thousand (slightly different shiurim between the
different rishonim, but around there).  This, according to the Cresy u'Plecy
and the Aruch haShulchan is thus enough to deal with the tiny wheeny bugs
(presumably these Milbin, whatever they are), since the are sufficiently
small to be nullified in 1000.

b) the Mishkanot Ya'akov learns out an additional heter, being that this din
of beriya is compared to a chaticha haruiya l'hitchaved (both being rabbinic
dinim in which something that would d'orisa be batel is decreed not batel by
the Chachamim) and he says that therefore the kind of beriya in question has
to be such that one would consider it chashuv, and it has a status and
independent identity, but that these bugs which are so small that they
really just get lost in the edible substance are not within this definition.
[The Aruch HaShulchan doesn't like this one so much, because he says that
min HaTorah, if one eats one of these very small creatures, there is lashes,
and the Chachamim modelled their definition of what is a beriya on what the
Torah gave lashes for, and he quotes the reference in Makos to eating a
n'mala and being lashed five times.  But I confess I don't understand the
Aruch HaShulchan's objection, because how does he know that the n'mala
referred to in Makos was as small as these Milbin.  Maybe it was the size of
one of our ants today - that would indeed make it a lot smaller that the
k'zayis which is generally the shiur for malkos, except for these kinds of
creatures, but way bigger than the Milbin, or aphids or the like, that you
can only just see.  People (and by this I mean non Jewish people) do eat
things like chocolate covered ants (or at least I assume so, as otherwise
how to explain this little book of my mother's when I was growing up that,
in order to help her lose weight, listed out the calorific content of
numerous foods, and which us little girls found hilarious because it listed
such items as chocolate covered ants).  Nobody sets out to eat tiny weenie
creatures like aphids or these Milbin, nobody would dream of including them
in a calorie counter, and that, it seems to me, is the Mishkanot Ya'akov's
distinction between a kind of insect that can be considered chashuv and one
that is not].

c) that the concept of beriya does not apply to things that are disgusting
to a person.  The Aruch HaShulchan he bases this on a Beis Yosef at the end
of siman 104 and the Rema in siman 103:1 - and holds that even though one
would get lashes from the Torah if one ate them as independent items, in
terms of the gezera of the Chachamim regarding beriya, that it not be batel,
they were never gozer on ants and flies and the like that people
instinctively find repulsive, and that therefore regular bittel applies with
such creatures, so in fact you do not need to go to a thousand, but sixty or
the usual rules apply.

This whole discussion takes place without going anywhere near the question
of the mutar types of shratzim found in fruit which is talush, or certain
types of mutar shratzim in flour.  Maybe that is because these Milbin flew
or moved around sufficiently much which would clearly rule them out. Or
perhaps precisely because the problem was so widespread that merely allowing
mutar shratzim in fruit and vegetables would not be enough. There do seem to
be some discussion in the achronim about the mutar shratzim category, and
whether one can rely on the Shulchan Aruch saying that the shratzim inside
beans and peas are fine, or whether one needs to look out for black spots
and dig the shratzim out from beneath the surface.  And also lots and lots
of discussions about drinking from water sources that clearly have toloyim
in them and where you will get the toloyim along with your water (this one
was clearly a huge issue, and the greatest leniencies, even amongst the
people who line up as the machmirim, seem to me to come in relation to this
- although by doing so specifically in relation to this category, and saying
that these are mutar shratzim, they then are able to be more machmir
elsewhere).  There are also additional heterim such as the after 12 months
heter, which doesn't seem to get much play today (maybe all our food is
consumed before then).  But I think it safe to say that based on the
descriptions provided by the achronim as to the extent of the problem, to
the extent there has been any ecosystem change, it would have to be to
diminish the numbers of tiny bugs, rather than to cause them to increase.

> Tir'u baTov!
> -Micha

Regards

Chana