[Avodah] Rav Breuer' Position on Chalav Yisroel

Micha Berger micha at aishdas.org
Wed Jan 24 14:01:16 PST 2018


On Wed, Jan 24, 2018 at 03:23:09PM -0500, Prof. Levine via Avodah wrote:
: IIRC the halacha regarding making cheese from Chalav Stam is that it
: is permitted,  because milk from non-kosher animals will not
: "coagulate."  I believe that the Chochmas Adom says this.

The Rambam (Ma'akhalos Asuros 3:13) says it's altogether a non-issue
(muteres) because ein haleiv beheimah temei'ah misgabein.

More relevant to KAJ (and the two of us), the Rama YD 115:22 says that
we permit bedi'eved, "ki davar tamei eino omeid".

In practice, it is difficult to get most kinds of milk to become cheese.
However, the Mongols did make horse cheese, and the Serbs make pule cheese
from Balkan donkey milk. (And for the last decade or so, there has
been pig cheese
<http://www.foodworldnews.com/articles/37455/20150914/dutch-farm-worlds-first-sell-cheese-pigs-milk.htm>,
but I don't expect a taqanah to reflect 21st cent science.)

I came up with 2 possibilities.

1a- Chazal didn't hear about horse cheese, so they couldn't include it
in a taqanah. Or
1b- It was so removed from the Bavel to EY region we were living in,
they weren't mesaqein for the remote possibility.

2- It is meant as shorthand -- tamei milk doesn't congeal *to make one
cheese together with kosher milk*. Which is likely true, given that
butter separated because the butterfats have different densities and
don't mix. So, if it has at least enough kosher milk to look and smell
like a kosher cheese, it much be all kosher milk.


But to close with the post's intended point: The Rama says that chalav
aku"m cheese is only kosher bedi'eved. Which explains common practice
among (Ashkenazi, I don't know Sephadari norms) CY consumers to look
for CY cheese.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             I thank God for my handicaps, for, through them,
micha at aishdas.org        I have found myself, my work, and my God.
http://www.aishdas.org                - Helen Keller
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