[Avodah] What type of kosher supervision is needed for hard cheese?

[Professor L. Levine]

>From OU Kosher Yomis


Q. What type of kosher supervision is needed for hard cheese?



A. Chazal, the Talmudic Sages, prohibited cheese that is not made under the special supervision of a Jew (Avodah Zarah 29b, 35a-b). Various reasons are advanced for this rabbinic prohibition, but the reason accepted by most halachic authorities is the concern for the use of rennet enzymes from the stomach flesh of neveilah/non-kosher animals. Unsupervised cheese is termed Gevinas Akum.

Cheese is only permitted if it is Gevinas Yisroel – Jewish-supervised cheese (Yoreh Deah 115:2). This rule is unrelated to the rules of Cholov Yisroel (Jewish-supervised milk) and Cholov Akum/Cholov Stam (milk not under Jewish supervision). Therefore, even if a person eats Cholov Stam dairy products, he may only eat Gevinas Yisroel cheese.

According to the Rama (Yoreh Deah 115:2) and many other poskim, Gevinas Yisroel is obtained by the mashgiach visually supervising the incorporation of the enzymes into each vat of milk in the cheese-making process; this way, the mashgiach will verify that the enzymes are kosher.

According to the Shach (ibid. 20) and many other poskim, the mashgiach must manually add the enzymes to each vat of milk in the cheese-making process. The Vilna Gaon (ibid. s. 14) provides the rationale for this: Gevinas Yisroel is similar to Pas Yisroel (bread with onsite Jewish involvement) – just like Pas Yisroel means that a Jew actually participated in the baking process, so too does Gevinas Yisroel mean that a Jew actually participated in the cheese-making process.

Contemporary poskim rule that the basic halacha follows the Rama, although kashrus agencies typically endeavor to fulfill the Shach’s requirement as well.


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