[Avodah] : Chometz milking question

[Eliyahu Grossman]

RAM:

> You are presuming that if the cows would eat chometz right up until Pesach
then there would be a problem with the milk that they produce. 
> And maybe there would be. Or maybe it is just a practical step in the
process of cleaning the area to insure that no chometz grains fall into the
milk on Chol Hamoed.

Me: (The following also covers points raised by others on this list)

I am not making any such assumptions, but I am actually stating the
opposite. What I was trying to say was that there is most likely no problem
because milk from a Jewish or non-Jewish source is not chometz, nor is there
any likelihood that chometz is floating in the milk any more than bugs are.

Just because Chometz is part of the input, that doesn't mean that the output
takes on the same characteristics We certainly hold like that, otherwise
nursing mothers might have a problem with their own milk production (many
pump and freeze it for later use). And I am also saying that it cannot be
about grains falling into the milk because of (1) the existing methodology
used for ensuring the quality of the milk (nobody I know strains for the
bugs that were flying around the cows the rest of the year, except, perhaps,
the most neurotic amongst us) and (2) there is no milk that I have ever come
across that is labeled "With KITNOYOT" - which would mean that all
Ashkenazim like myself would have to refrain from all dairy products
throughout Pesach since all milk will either be considered as being derived
from (internally) or tainted from (externally) chomets or kitniyot if we
follow two of the possible reasons.

I suggest that neither is accurate, and that whatever psak we might find is
just a rationale to support doing this at all.

>From what I have gathered, we do this because it plays into the neurosis of
certain segments of Jews who feel that the more chumras (sort of a mental
"suffering", if you will) that they take on, then the closer they are to God
(a whole different discussion!). And the companies that require this chumra
about milk are simply doing so for financial reasons, without ever having
any real concerns (see #1-#2 above). Chometz and Kitniyot can be easily
exchanged in this debate about milk concerns. 

The bottom line: It's about the money rather than the possibility of chometz
or kitnoyot. And I have no problem with that any more than if someone wanted
to create "Kosher for Pesach" Gasoline at my local pump. I'm all for free
enterprise, but forgive me if I snicker when I see it.

Yesterday I used Kosher for Pesach (!!!) liquid drain cleaner (an odd smell
was coming from down there. I finally called the plumber, and what he took
out, it sure wasn't chometz!), and after he left, I washed all of our
kitchen shelves with Kosher for Pesach cleaner ("Warning: Poisonous. Use in
a well ventilated room.") I then put on the clean shelving the Kosher for
Pesach paper (I kid you not! It has a great heksher from B'nei Brak). Why do
the companies that make these items do so? For the same reason that you have
Rabbonimm sell their heksherim to companies that make bleach (Yes, my white
clothes are now Kosher for Pesach!)

My only concern about any milk is that the expiration date on the container
is earlier than today's!

All the best.

Eliyahu Grossman