[Avodah] Hashgahat Kashrut for M'halelei Shabbat

[Michael Makovi]

Rabbi Marc Angel has asked me to inform my contact list that his
website (www.jewishideas.org - The Institute for Jewish Ideas and
Ideals) has posted an essay by me, "Thoughts on Kashruth Certification
Policies".

Some of the topics I cover therein (it is more of an opinion than an
objective scholarly writing, however):

---- Why I think denying hashgahat kashrut to m'halelei shabbat is to
begrudge the non-observant of additional mitzvot they could be keeping
---- My own answer to the objection that proffering hashgaha to
m'halelei shabbat would be to implicitly condone their violation of
Shabbat
---- Kiruv and approaches towards the non-observant must take
sociology and mistaken understandings of Judaism into account; truth
must sometimes be put aside for what will be effective in bringing
others to Judaism
----  Whether Rav Hirsch's Austritt evinces a lack of concern for the
non-observant

To to throw out one random quotation, to attract interest:

"Many have been perplexed by the statement from the Gemara which we
read before every chapter of Pirkei Avot, "Kol yisrael yesh lahem
helek l'olam haba", "Every Jew has a portion in the World-to-Come...".
Do not "the righteous of all nations have a portion in the
World-to-Come"? What, then, is the hiddush (novelty) in saying that
all Jews (with the exception of certain heretics and sinners) have
such a portion, when righteous gentiles as well (with similar
exceptions) have such a portion? This difficulty is beautifully solved
by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch in his commentary on this passage: he
says that "Kol yisrael", "All of Israel" is said not in
contradistinction to non-Jews, but rather, in contradistinction to
those Jews who reject their Jewishness, and spurn the title of "Jew".
In other words, gentiles are beyond the purview of this statement;
obviously, gentiles do have a portion in the World-to-Come like and
alongside Jews, but our present concern is not with Jews versus
gentiles, but rather with self-identifying Jews versus non-identifying
Jew. I seem to recall that Rev. Abraham Cohen's Everyman's Talmud
interprets similarly. According to this, there is tremendous value in
identifying as a Jew; even if one is not observant; anything one does
to retain his identity as a proud and consciously Jewish Jew is
something to be valued. Can we possibly begrudge any Jew an extra
mitzvah, even one done for materialistic motives? How can we deny
kosher certification to Shabbat-violating restaurants?"

Michael Makovi