[Avodah] Kashrus of a Restaurant Under the Supervision of its Owner

[Michael Makovi]

Isn't everyone's own kitchen table under their own supervision? If
we're going to invalidate self-supervision from a technical formal
halakhic standpoint, where does this put hakhnasat orhim?

Now, granted, in practice, one might be wary of self-supervision by
anyone whom he doesn't know personally, especially when the
self-supervisor will make money, and has a material incentive to be
fradulent (or at least might unintentionally delude himself in
justifying himself - as R' Micha says, the brain is a wonderful tool
for justifying that which the heart has already arrived at). But this
is not a technical halakhic factor; one may or may not personally
trust someone's hashgaha, and I don't think there is a solid iron-clad
rule on when one should and should not trust.

Incidentally, my rabbi told me that he once went to a restaurant, and
the heksher was a signed letter from one of the "gedolim" (I forget
who), saying that the proprietor was a personal friend of this given
gadol. This gadol said that he had never inspected the restaurant
personally, but he said he personally knew the proprietor to G-d
fearing, plain as that. As far as I can tell, my rabbi seems have
believed this letter was authentic, and he said this letter was better
than any hekhsher the Rabbinut can proffer.

I'm reminded of another story, of Rabbi Yehuda Herzl Henkin eating at
a wedding. Some pipsqueak little yeshiva bahur (my own rabbi's
wording) came up to Rabbi Henkin and asked what the hekhsher was.
Rabbi Henkin took a bite of food and after swallowing, said he didn't
know. My rabbi, sitting next to Rabbi Henkin, asked him why he wasn't
concerned, and Rabbi Henkin, livid with anger, threw his fork down and
said that the hatan and kallah were frum Jews and were surely serving
kosher, end of discussion.

Professor Menachem Friedman, in his “The Market Model and Religious
Radicalism” and his “Life Tradition and Book Tradition”
(http://www.biu.ac.il/SOC/so/mfriedman.html), cites the case of Rabbi
Jacob Reischer facing the situation of village shokhtim; these
shokhtim were generally frum, but were not the most outstanding
scholars, and moreover, since they were also the ones to sell their
own meat, they had an incentive to declare their own shekhita to be
kosher. Could they be trusted? To quote Professor Friedman:
"A good example of this [solicitude for and accomodation of the
less-observant by traditional pre-modern communities, in contrast to
modern Haredi voluntary communities] is the incident cited by R. Jacob
Reischer (1719, Yoreh De'ah, cap. 58). In one of the communities, the
rabbis ruled that meat brought from the smaller communities of the
surrounding villages was not kosher because the slaughterers in those
places were thought not to know enough and/or not to be careful
enough, by the stricter standards of the Jewish community. R. Reischer
unequivocally rejects this approach, but not because he considered
those slaughterers to be outstanding scholars. He admits that his
position might be considered "lenient," but he defends it on the basis
of the principle of the cohesion of the traditionally religious
community, which might be adversely affected by the disqualification
of the village slaughterers. "It is fitting that all the Jewish people
be unified in the matter of eating and drinking so as not to cause in
their own midst a rift like that which separates them from the others
[the Gentiles]; we should not multiply separate groups." There is no
doubt that R. Reischer's approach represents a deeply rooted Jewish
tradition."

Now, granted that the fact that today, not all Jews are frum as they
were for Rabbi Reischer, and granted that restaurants have a financial
incentive to have their own food declared kosher. So we should be
careful with self-supervision. But I don't think we can categorically
declare it to be invalid. It might not be wise to rely on it, but I
don't think we can stamp it as unequivocally treif.

Michael Makovi