[Avodah] Rabbinate banning non-chalavyisrael products?

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' SBA asked:
> Is there any difference (to those who aren't makpid on Cholov
> Yisroel) between the various following types of milk:
> Chalav stam, chalav akum, chalav nochri, chalav hacompanies ?

My understanding is that there is no difference between chalav akum and chalav nochri. The halachos relating to the kashrus of milk are based on trustworthiness and reliability, and I'm not aware of any difference between a practitioner of Avodah Zara and other non-Jews. As a general rule, their milk is assur. However, there are exceptions.

One exception is chalav hacompanies, which was ruled by Rav Moshe Feinstein and others to be muttar. This was based on the idea (if I understood correctly) that as long as we are sure that the milk is kosher, that is just as good as if a Jew had actually watched the milking.

A less well-known exception is milk powder; I understand this to be the psak of Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank. Another exception, whose details I've forgotten, has to do with the milk used for making butter and cheese. In these cases, it is based on the idea that these things simply cannot be made from non-kosher milk.

My understanding is that "chalav stam" is a colloquial term, having no specific halachic meaning. I suspect that it was coined by some well-meaning individual who was trying to describe the "ordinary milk" seen in American food stores, which was accepted as kosher by everyone who wasn't makpid on chalav yisrael. It is very unfortunate that he did not see the circular illogic of that definition. He thought that *all* "plain milk" was kosher for the non- chalav yisrael crowd; he never realized that what the "plain milk" was not plain at all, but was supervised and certified to be pure cows' milk (albeit by the government instead of any Jew), and that this removed it from the categories of chalav akum and chalav nochri according to those poskim.

Akiva Miller

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