[Avodah] halachic guidelines for kashrus

[Elazar M. Teitz]

R. Zev Sero asked:

> How could non-glatt meat be *less* expensive than glatt?  The labour
> involved in checking the lungs must surely make it *more* expensive.

     On the contrary, it is the _non-glatt_ whose lungs must be checked, not the glatt ones.

     Initially, all lungs are checked while still in the animal for the presence of sirchos.  Those which have none are glatt, and no more checking is necessary.  (Indeed, that is the source of the term:   the bodek's hand moves smoothly over the surface of the lung; "glatt" is Yiddish for smooth.)  The non-glatt lungs must have the sirchos checked, to see if they can be removed -- strand by strand -- without causing a puncture in the lung.  This is tested by inflating the lung and seeing whether or not water placed on the site of the removed sircha bubbles.  The sircha removal can be a very time-consuming process -- one which should be non-existent on glatt animals.

      I  write "should be" because apparently the high demand for glatt has resulted in a redefinition of the term, and a lung with one or two sirchos is now defined as glatt.  This was necessitated by the fact that true glatt is not common.  When my father z"l supervised one of the largest abbatoirs of the time, only 25% of the animals had no sirchos.  When cattle are not raised for slaughter, so that their feed is not controlled (as was the case for pre-American Jewry), the percentage is even less.

      In Europe, a hakpada on glatt was rare.  It was a middas chassidus, based not on a higher standard of kashrus -- non-glatt was not considered less kosher -- but rather as a hiddur, not to eat from basar shehoreh bo chacham, as Yechezkeil Hanavi prided himself (Chullin 37b).   [This only applies to Ashk'nazim.  S'faradim are required to eat only true glatt, since the M'chabeir paskens not to rely on the testing of lungs by removing sirchos.  Hence the newest term in kashrus marketing, "Beis Yoseif glatt," which is today's equivalent of what "glatt" meant forty years ago.  And of course, it does not apply to veal, lamb and goat meat, which must be glatt according to all opinions.]  Today, of course, we are all tzaddikim and lower-case chassidim, for whom all hiddur chumros are mainstream requirements.

EMT   



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