Tales Of A Traveling Mashgiach

Do you know what goes on behind the scenes for mashgichim that need to travel to every corner of the earth to ensure your products are kosher? Let's listen in to Rabbi Moshe Machuca - Rabbinic Field Representative for the OU, as he explains the hardships of traveling to places that aren't exactly accommodating to members of the faith.

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R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: Hello everyone and welcome back to Let's Talk Kashrus, presented by the Kashrus Awareness Project in conjunction with Torah Anytime. Today I am privileged to be joined by Rabbi Moshe Machuca, Rabbinic Coordinator and Rabbinic Field Representative for the OU in Southeast Asia. Thank you, Rabbi Machuca for being here.

R’ Moshe Machuca: Thank you for having me. It is an honor.

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: Now, besides for the fact that you're Baruch Hashem an accomplished professional in the field of kashrus, you have a a fascinating life story which we won't be able to get into here today, but you were born in the Dominican Republic you told me. Yes. Today you live in Baltimore.

Yes. But you spend two-thirds of the year, if I'm correct, in Southeast Asia where you certify companies for the Orthodox Union.

R’ Moshe Machuca: That is correct.

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: Just take a moment and give us a little feel for what that involves.

R’ Moshe Machuca: In the beginning when I started traveling, since I didn't know these countries, these countries, most of them I've been for whatever the reason ever since I'm 20 years old, traveling jobs have chased me even when I don't want them.

And I started traveling and then I started, it was, it was a, is a learning curve which I'm happy to share with everybody that is new and start traveling because in the beginning I used to pack suitcases, two, three suitcases and put food and everything that I could possibly want and used to send back and forth, finding hotels and knowing which neighborhoods were safe, where can I, where can I be, etc., etc. It took, it took a while to get it down to a science. So, the best way to do Shabbat when you are far away in foreign countries is the number one, common sense. Go to the places, go stay near the Jewish communities that are near safe places. The best places to do that are Singapore, has a beautiful community, has two shuls.

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: Really?

R’ Moshe Machuca: Yes, Magen Avot and Chesed El, both beautiful facilities. And then my favorite one is the one in Hong Kong in Kowloon with Rabbi Meoded. It's a Syrian shul and it is delightful. They have the best food, very warming, very welcoming, same as Singapore.

But those are in neighborhoods where you have decent hotels, safe environment. Then you have places like Korea, Philippines, Vietnam, the Chabad people over there are wonderful. However, if you're traveling, their Chabad houses are not in the most…

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: Not always in the best location?

R’ Moshe Machuca: Not always in the best locations and the facilities are not always appropriate, let's call it. Appropriate I mean, they're not comfortable hotels.

I have a…

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: Let me ask you. So you've, you've logged thousands of miles, thousands, right? Tens of thousands of miles.

R’ Moshe Machuca: Millions.

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: Millions of miles?

R’ Moshe Machuca: Yes.

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: Okay. Going from country to country, places where frum Jews are, are not necessarily found, right, literally not found. Would you say, I was just thinking in preparation for our conversation, probably the biggest challenges for a frum Yid to travel, to give hashgacha in these places is probably I would imagine, ironically, kashrus. Yes.

Kashrus and food, even though you're going to give kashrus, you know, supervise. Kashrus, Shabbos, minyan, and maybe anti-Semitism, right? I would say probably those, is that accurate?

R’ Moshe Machuca: Yes, those, those four are in that order, sometimes depending…

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: What would you say is the, from those four, what would you say is the biggest challenge for a traveling mashgiach like yourself?

R’ Moshe Machuca: It depends on the country. Let's say for example, I don't want to mention any country, but in Southeast Asia there are a few Muslim countries that depending on the, there are some of them that are very, I call it reform Muslims. They don't care.

They're not very well learned. And then you have other countries that are a little bit more adherent to their faith. I found that they are very zealous of their faith and the hatred for Jews. And but they're not learned.

I'll tell you a little story. I was in, I was in this country and I take a, I take a taxi from the hotel. I normally when I'm traveling, since I don't know the places, I need to be safe, so I, even though they rip you off, I get a hotel taxi. So I'm their responsibility.

So I get this guy, so I'm with this guy 12 hours in a car and I didn't want to be rude and not talk to to this guy something. At that moment there was this controversy in his country about using the Christians wanted to use the word Allah. And it was a big problem. The court rule, they can use it, but we strongly advise you not to.

So since it is something that it is in everybody's mouth, is on the newspapers, is on the news, so I told him, so what do you think about this? And he said, that's because of the Jews. And I said, but there are no Jews in this country. You don't allow any Jews. Yes, but this is because of the Jews.

And he said, he just said, tell me why. He said, because of them, there is an old testament and a new testament. And I said, okay, and forgive my ignorance, but the prophet Muhammad, he get the Quran in the early 1100s, the thousands or 900s is a what was humanity supposed to believe? He said, I don't know. I don't know, I don't know about any of that stuff, but it's the fault of the Jews.

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: It's like, don't confuse me with the facts.

R’ Moshe Machuca: Another time I was going on a taxi from that same country and and I'm crossing from one country to another country, to that other country in the taxi. And I used this taxi guy a few times. And then he tells me, I know what you are.

I said, what am I? He said, you're one of those Jews. And I said, how do you know?

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: Were you were you wearing a…

R’ Moshe Machuca: no, no, no, no. When I'm in Southeast Asia. You always wear,

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: you wear a cap?

R’ Moshe Machuca: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You can't wear a yarmulke. No, you cannot wear a yarmulke. And unfortunately, everybody knows that we are the only creatures that have dress pants, dress shirts, and a baseball cap. It's it's it's insulting for them that you try to disguise.

You've been trying to… no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's dangerous. You cannot do it. So, so he says, you're just, he tell me, but you're more intelligent than your other friends that come sometimes with the little cap or with the baseball cap on top of it.

And he said, but don't just tell them not to do that because there are people watching and they might have a problem. And I right there I freaked out. We got to a factory and I said, okay, thank you so much. How much do I owe you? He said, no, no, no, no, I didn't want to scare you.

I'm just giving you a piece of advice. It's okay. How much do I owe you? We're we're done. So that you have to be very, very, very careful.

There's another country that I had to do something in the city, and I'm with this taxi driver, and a nun crosses the street, and he tells me so proudly, we are here so tolerant. We have the Muslims, and we have the Christians, and we have the Hindus, and we have this and we have that. We only hate the Jews. So, so, so that's special people.

Yeah, so that's a, so that's a a little bit of challenge. That's in the anti-semitism part. In the kashrut part, most of these countries, they have international supermarket chains, like cold storage. And there you can find a lot of junk food.

Potato chips, ketchup, mayonnaise, soy sauce, all of these these things. That's supervised. That that that he had hashgacha. Yeah, that he has hashgacha from all, from all walk of life.

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: And But you, I mean, you eating potato chips for breakfast, lunch, and supper, or?

R’ Moshe Machuca: No, no, because thank God, there is something that is called a kumkum and there is a iron. So you will never know what a good steak is until you cut a piece of meat very thin, put salt, oregano, a little bit of oil, double fold it in aluminum foil and you put your iron on top of it. Oh.

Delicious.

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: You learned to be creative, I guess. Yes. And the kumkum.

And that meat is what you bring along with you from, from America?

R’ Moshe Machuca: That was in the beginning, but now there is a kosher supermarket in in Singapore that they bring meat from Australia. So in the hotel I always stay now that I have a set up system, I stay in the same facilities. I leave in the hotel all of my equipment, which I have a bread-making machine, a toaster oven, a George Foreman, a blender, and a cutting board and everything that I need to to to make my meals and to have a proper meal. And they the hotel people go to the supermarket and they buy me steaks or whatever they have.

Whatever they have. And I I have a real estate in their concierge freezer. They they let you keep your stuff there? Yeah, yeah, they let me keep my stuff over there. So Singapore is very good for that and Hong Kong is very good for that.

But like for example, in Vietnam and Philippines, not so much Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand, Chabad houses have very good food, unbelievably cheap. It's like you order dinner, the dinner will run you, I don't know, 20, 20 dollars. A whole meal. And you get a whole meal.

And you cannot, the portions are so big that you cannot finish the 20 dollars worth of food.

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: So your American dollar goes a lot farther there. Yes. than it does here in America.

R’ Moshe Machuca: Except for in Singapore. Singapore is a very expensive place. Very expensive. Very expensive.

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: Interesting. So that's we we we did a little on the antisemitism, kashrus. Talk about the challenge of Shabbos.

R’ Moshe Machuca: The challenge for Shabbos are that sometimes when you're traveling, you are, for example, in my case, I'm doing 18 hour day work days on average.

So when I go for Shabbos, I am exhausted. I'm exhausted. So when then you have to, you go to a, to a hotel and then you have to scour the before Shabbos starts, you have to make sure that the because now all of the most of the hotels have these electric toilets that when you walk in,

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: Sure. it goes automatically.

R’ Moshe Machuca: It goes automatically. Yeah, it goes automatically up. So you have to make sure that you have a way to flush it while unplugged. Most of the hotels now they are, they have these cards,

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: electric

R’ Moshe Machuca: Electric entry. electric entry. So you have, you have you have no other way but to do amira l'akum, but before Shabbos starts, they already know once And they'll open the door for you? Yeah, once, once you go, like for example in Hong Kong, Intercontinental, Shangri-La, all of the major hotel, all of these major hotels, they see you with a yarmulka because it's safe there to walk with a yarmulka. Uh, they know, ah, for Shabbos. I know, we you once you start going in the after on a Friday,

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: They follow you?

R’ Moshe Machuca: No.

You go to the, you go to tell them, they say, no, I know that it's better if you don't tell me, I know what you need. Leave, when you come, we'll take you to your room. Oh wow. Yeah, yeah.

So, so, so that's, so that's, so that's you have to do that every time you go to a new place. But once you start going frequently to the same places, so then you you develop your system and they know what you need.

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: And they even know who you are by now, right? They probably know. Of course. Yeah, sure. They know you personally.

R’ Moshe Machuca: Yeah. Any final thoughts before we wrap up this conversation? Any thoughts about, you know what, let's let's put it this way. There are young people out there who get into the field of kashrus, maybe even traveling nationally, not internationally. What what idea or suggestion have you learned from your 17 years in the field of kashrus that you could offer as a piece of advice?

R’ Moshe Machuca: As a piece of advice, the biggest piece of advice, Rabbi Juravel gave it to me. He told me, if you don't know, ask. Don't become your own posek, because you don't know enough.

There's always someone that knows more than you and we are responsible for the kashrus of millions of Jews. And I shiver of the Gehenom that I will get if I made a mistake and because you have such an achrayus for Yes. Yes.

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: So but listen, you you've you've been around the block as they say, coming from the Dominican Republic and today being a rabbinic coordinator in the OU is no small achievement. Yes. So uh we thank you. We thank you for your service to Klal Yisroel and for your ehrlichkeit and for being so devoted to bringing kosher food to Jews and in order to do so traveling around the world, it's really incredible. I'm sure it's on some level, it's a sacrifice on your part, I'm sure on your wife's part, having to be without you for months, right, months at a time sometimes?

R’ Moshe Machuca: No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No. Rabbi Epstein who is my immediate super was my immediate, well he still is my immediate supervisor in my RFR side. He doesn't allow me to go out of the country for more than 18 days unless my wife approves it.

And its never, I never go more than three weeks, it's not, it's not, it's not healthy for for anyone.

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: No, no, it's good to hear. So you get to come home every couple, every few weeks before heading, before heading back out?

R’ Moshe Machuca: Yes, schedule your work like two and a half, 18, 17, 18 days out, and 10, 12 days home. Got it.

R’ Yitzchok Hisiger: Yeah. Listen, it's fascinating to hear your story. Uh thank you for being here today and im yirtzeh Hashem, I look forward to talking to you again.