[Avodah] Chalav Yisrael: Required or Recommended?

[Prof. Levine]

At 09:40 AM 1/22/2018, Micha Berger wrote:
>On Mon, Jan 22, 2018 at 05:36:37AM -0500, Prof. Levine wrote:
>: What is your basis for asserting that Rav Breur ruled that Chalav
>: Stam was permissible?
>
>Evidence is, R' Breuer (RMB) was in the "good chumerah" camp when it
>came to chalav yisrael (CY).

First of all, how does Rabbi Dr. Yosef Breuer, 
ZT"L,  come to be abbreviated as RMB?

I do not believe that this is accurate.

 From https://goo.gl/ur8iNi

TO THE EDITOR: (of Hamodia Magazine)

In the article “Kashrus Thrives in America” in the
Parashas Re’eh/August 27 issue, Yitzchok Cohen writes: “In those
years there were relatively few American Jews who were stringent
in their kashrus observance, and there were hardly any farms that
were willing to commit themselves to providing chalav Yisrael. After
great effort, the Tzehlimer Rav succeeded in producing the first
line of chalav Yisrael products in America. The line went by the
name ‘Kahal,’ and all the strictly observant Jews in America knew
that this was the only brand that was 100-percent kosher. The
Kahal company later became the J&J Dairy Co.”
There is something more to the story of the production of chalav
Yisrael in America. In 1882 Sholom Yitzchok (Isaac) and (Shifra)
Rivka Raskas immigrated from Kovno, Lithuania, to St. Louis to join
members of Mrs. Raskas’s family, the Sarasohns. They lived about
ten blocks from the Mississippi River. Isaac
started selling milk. After the turn of the
century, the family moved to 1313 North
Newstead, which at that time was still a
semi-rural area on the western fringe of St.
Louis, and began a small dairy that
eventually developed into a large company.
The Raskases were sincerely committed
Orthodox Jews. Pictures of their parents
show that they both came from learned
Litvishe families. They produced what was
probably the first commercially available
chalav Yisrael in America, long before the Tzehlimer Rav arrived
here.

Furthermore, one should not overlook the role that Harav Dr.
Yosef Breuer played in the production and distribution of chalav
Yisrael. In Rav Breuer: His Life and Legacy, we are told, “Rav
Breuer was in the forefront of the efforts to make chalav Yisrael
milk products commercially available in the United States — a
policy that was almost unheard of in America in the early 1940s.”
A footnote to this statement adds, “The first commercially available
chalav Yisrael in America, Balsam Farms, under the supervision of
the Tzehlimer Rav, began production in the late 1930s. This milk
was not available in Manhattan due to lack of demand. In 1940
Rav Breuer arranged for it to be sold in Washington Heights, and
when Balsam could not keep up with the demand, made
arrangements for supervision of what became known as Kahal
Dairies. Later, J&J milk came under the Kehillah’s [KAJ’s]
supervision.”
Thus, the Tzehlimer Rav first supervised Balsam milk, not Kahal
milk, which came later. Also, it is clear from the information about
the Raskas dairy that Balsam Farms was not the first commercially
available chalav Yisrael in America.
PROFESSOR YITZCHOK LEVINE


>While RMB made CY available in Manhattan, KAJ never was maqpid on CY as
>a general norm. I was told by a number of products of KAJ, people who
>are now yeshivish and maqpidim on CY themselves (which is why they're
>living in Passaic), that this reflects R Breuer's own position.

As you can see from my letter to the editor of 
the Hamodia Magazine,  this does not seem to be accurate.


>Tir'u baTov!
>-Micha
>
>--
>Micha Berger             We look forward to the time
>micha at aishdas.org        when the power to love
>http://www.aishdas.org   will replace the love of power.
>Fax: (270) 514-1507                - William Ewart Gladstone

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