[Avodah] Going to a Hotel for Shabbos/Yomtov

[Rabbi Meir G. Rabi via Avodah]

Who will be answering these questions?

The hotel staff? The rabbi? The Mashgiach?

And if one suspects they are cutting corners in Kashrus, can we consider
their answers to our questions reliable?

Let's say we ask the Mashgiach, When are you here - he shares the
responsibility with others, he is not there 24 7, are we going to become
the detective and check out his answers and verify his hours with his
employer, either the hotel or the Kashrus agency? on his pay cheque?

And why should we trust the Mashgiach if he is cutting corners, if he is on
the take? if hes getting favours, if he is afraid of losing his job?

The problems include what he DOES know and DOES NOT want to tell us and
what he knows or guesses we want to know and therefore tells us. Why would
you trust him? And even if he is reporting issues to the agency he works
for - it is most unlikely he will tell a stranger who asks. He'd lose his
job and at the end of the day, it is probably some minor Minhag.

Some suspect that the hotel kitchens and caterers are seeking every
opportunity to cut corners. Well lets ask, what corners are they trying to
cut, why what do they stand to gain? and they must be thinking they can get
away with it? on a regular basis.

As for those things the Mashgiach doesn't know, the things they get away
with when he's not looking, as per the concerns of one worried poster -
what CAN the Mashgiach tell you? That he has a suspicion?

And if, as the same poster opines, the presumption is that if an owner
wants to cheat no mashgiach will be able to prevent him [which BTW I agree
with] - then as I originally posted, what and why are we asking?

And what Qs would we ask to determine [as our poster proposes] whether
these owners are the kind of people who are likely to cheat?
Perhaps water-boarding is the solution - ridiculous.

this discussion is indicative of the shallow intensity that seems to have
pervaded and tainted Yiddishkeit, and in particular Kashrus. We focus on
minor peripheral issues and are encouraged to do so in order to promote the
business of Kosher - whilst we ignore the serious violations of systematic
endemic substitutions in Kosher meat and the refusal of Kashrus agencies to
take any serious steps to address the issue. One year after the Monsey meat
disaster the Hamodia mag ran a couple of pages interviewed various K
experts [they are all experts, no?] Whats Changed Since Monsy - the answer
- nothing had changed.

Using DNA would immediately put as top to this. When I put that proposal to
HaRav Y Belsky AH, with a business plan to immediately and rapidly
implement it,  he was overjoyed at that prospect. Did he have any influence
at the OU to have this implemented? that's right, not the slightest.
So we are busy plugging all the little imaginary cracks in the bucket
whilst doing nothing to mend the biggest hole in the system - business as
usual
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