restaurant hasgachot - America and Israel

Answer

Answered by Aaron Abadi

If the owner of the restaurant is a fully observant Jew, you do not need a Mashgiach. If you would eat in his house, why shouldn't you eat at his restaurant? If the person is not Jewish or not observant, you have a problem. If it is a dairy restaurant, it's much easier. The risks are much less. The only real issues are watching that the cheeses are Gevinat Yisrael, and that the vegetables are bug free. Or you can just avoid these foods. Don't forget, many of our prominent Hashgachot do not care about these laws. You do not need to worry about animal fat or lard being used to grease the pans, since it would not make sense for them to use that for many reasons, including the fact that it's only minimal savings, if any, and also due to the fact that kosher oil is more readily available, and if they do get caught, it will probably bring down their whole business. If you are worried about their Keilim, it would not be an issue, because we say, "Stam Keilim Ainum Benei Yomam," and therefore it is "Noten Ta'am Lifgam." The milk used in civilized countries is considered Chalav Yisrael as per my father's opinion, in line with his Rebbi, Rabbi Aaron Kotler ZT"L, and Rabbi Moshe Feinstein ZT"L's opinions. The butter is not a problem. Possibly some fishes may present an issue, if they are not standard fishes that anyone can tell the difference, like tuna, salmon, flounder, etc... But then you would have to have a real good reason why this restaurant would feed you catfish instead of a kosher fish. Of course, in the modern day civilized world there are much less reasons and very little incentives for a restaurant to fool its customers on the contents of the food it sells. It is only a matter of time when a company who sells a product under the pretense of it being free of animal derivatives, but really has a small trace of animal in it, that it will be hit by multiple lawsuits and bad press, losing thousands to millions of dollars. And trace ingredients are always Batel in sixty, so Halachically the product would be OK anyway. Bishul Akum & Pat Akum are not a problem, because the minimum would be a Safek DeRabanan, which is permitted, unless, of course, you know more details of who & how it's cooked. The real problem comes when it is a meat restaurant. The meat and gravy and possibly animal fat are expected in every dish. If the supervision is insufficient in not trustworthy, you have a serious problem. Now, we are confronted by De'oraita. We still say, "Aid Echod Ne'eman Be'issurim." But if you know that this Mashgiach is not doing his job, or the restaurant owner is not scared of him, and is able to play games, then you cannot eat there. In a situation where there are multiple violations, it usually means keep away. However, many times the violations are just political, and many times the issue is a dollar issue. In Lakewood there is a caterer whom every single person in Lakewood would eat in his house without qualms. Because of political reasons, he is now getting major problems from the local Hashgachot and Rabbanim. There is hardly an Orthodox Jew that did not eat from his food. He is one of the main Kosher caterers in the State of New Jersey. There is no one that would even question anything about his Kashrut. Yet the politics may make it seem like there was an issue. Anytime you have a situation like that, look into the story a bit and see if you can get a little of the true story. It is a little suspicious to me that a Hashgacha can be consistently fooled; yet it is prepared to continue to give a certification to the same people. It may just be that the owner violated a silly rule by opening 60 min after sundown on Sat night, instead of 70 min. Although all rules should be followed, it would not take away the trustworthiness of an observant Jew. This is just a small touch of the concepts involved. If you give some specific situations, I can elaborate further. Aaron Abadi