[Avodah] [Areivim] Cholov Yisroel

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

Someone on the Areivim mailing list wrote:
> And still, AFAIK, the LBD approves chalav akum products.
 
To this comment, R' Jay F. ("Yaakov") Shachter gave a very erudite and interesting comment. He's not really wrong in any of what he wrote, but in my opinion, he focused too much on a minor error, and totally missed the major error.

By "minor" error, I am referring to the second vowel in the phrase "chalav akum". Indeed, over my years here on Avodah, the grammarians have taught me that it should be a tzere - chaleiv. And I do try to pronounce it as such, whenever I am in a situation where it will not appear as yuhara (that is to say, never).

But the *major* error in the quote from Areivim lies not in the second vowel of "chalav akum", but in the second WORD. And I am not talking about "akum" as opposed to "nochri"; as RJF("Y")S wrote, there's no difference between them in this context.

Chalilah to think that the London Beis Din, or Rav Moshe Feinstein, or anyone else worthy of our respect, would ever say that "Non-Jewish milk is allowed." They would never suggest that this halacha, however one chooses to name it, can be ignored.

They do NOT "approve chalav akum products". Rather, they say that the halachos of chalav akum do not *apply* to *these* products. There is a world of difference.

(Some try to resolve this problem with the phrase "cholov stam", but it seems to me that "plain milk" has no advantage over "non-Jewish milk". My practice is that here on Avodah, I use the phrase which Rav Moshe Feinstein used very consistently in his teshuvos, "cholov hacompanies", and in other situations I use the phrases "rabbinically supervised milk" and "government supervised milk".)

Akiva Miller

____________________________________________________________
SHOCKING: 13" Macbook Pro for $91.72!
SPECIAL REPORT: Macbooks are being auctioned for an incredible 85% off!
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3131/4c3f445ec4c2628dd86st04vuc