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Aphids & Thrips Let’s join Rabbi Yisroel Langer Dayan at the cRc Beis Din and Rav of Congregation Bais Yitzchok as he gives us a tutorial on how to check your own lettuce at home. Original video of Rabbi Langer on cRc's website https://crckosher.org/videos/how-to-check-romaine-lettuce-and-other-leafy-vegetables/ Article written by Rabbi Langer on this topic https://consumer.crckosher.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Guide-to-Checking-Fruits-Langer.pdf Rabbi 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 Yisroel Langer, Rav of Congregation Beis Yitzchok in Chicago and a Dayan with the Chicago Rabbinical Council. Rabbi Langer, thank you for being here. Rabbi Langer: My pleasure. Rabbi Hisiger: I'd like to talk to you today about a very important topic which is checking for bugs, otherwise known as בדיקת תולעים. On a home level people don't realize that many of the products that they bring into their homes, even those fruits and vegetables that may have officially been checked already, require either initial checking or rechecking. And so perhaps today you could give us a little overview about what concerns people should have when bringing fruits and vegetables into their homes, which items require checking and then we'll discuss specific methods of checking. Rabbi Langer: So when it comes to leafy vegetables, romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce, all the different lettuces, herbs, these are all growing outdoors and even when they're growing in greenhouses, bugs get in and they can infest a crop. In the olden days, the way we, some people still today, they'll take, the way they check lettuce is they'll take the lettuce, hold it up to the sunlight and see if there's anything crawling, see anything which looks like a bug. And as the ערוך השולחן tells us that even things which are דק מן הדק, they're very, very small and can only be seen לאור השמש, can only be seen by sunlight, those are considered to be insects as well. You gotta be very careful, very careful when you check. Rabbi Hisiger: Did you mention sunlight specifically as opposed to, I guess, electrical lighting? Rabbi Langer: Well, if you have an imitation of sunlight, something with strong lighting where you could hold it up to the, you know, to that light, that would also be adequate. That would be good. The problem is that there are bugs that really get camouflaged into the, into the lettuce. You have these aphids, green aphids, and it really takes on the appearance of the lettuce, which makes it more difficult to check. And people aren't seeing all the bugs on the actual lettuce. In addition, when you have to go after a lot of leaves and you're holding it up to the sunlight, so you can kind of put the strain on your neck and your eyes start to, you know, one leaf after the next. You start getting used to it. It's difficult, becomes difficult to check. So the last number of years, what the השגחות came up with is a new method of how to check, and that is what's called the Thrip Cloth Method. That's how we refer to it, or the shmatte Method. The way it works is that you're going to take the lettuce, you're going to cut it up into separate leaves, and you're going to put it into a bowl of water with a little bit of soap or a veggie wash, something slippery, and you're going to swish it around, swish it around. We like to view this as basically you're like, you clean your, your dirty laundry. You have dirty laundry. How do you clean dirty laundry? Is that you're going to put detergent, you're going to have agitation, and water, and you're swishing it around for about a minute or so. The more, the better you agitate, the cleaner it's going to get. And that's basically what you're doing right now, is that you're in the cleaning stage. You're in the cleaning stage, you're not ready to check. You're going to swish it around for a minute or so. Then you're going to pull the lettuce out of the water, and spill the water out. You spill it down the drain. There are going to be bugs in that water, almost guaranteed. There are going to be bugs in there. There's no need to check it. You spill it down the drain, and repeat a second time. Put the lettuce back into a bowl of soapy water, swish it around for about a minute, pull the lettuce out, and again, you're likely to have bugs in it again, so you're just going to pour the water out. Now, we're going to put the lettuce back into a bowl the third time. Now we think that maybe there's a fighting chance. Maybe this lettuce is going to be clean. So the way it works is you're going to swish it around, just like you did till now. Put a little bit soap in, swish, swish. Pull the lettuce out, and we're going to pour this water through what's called a thrip cloth. A thrip cloth is basically a piece of cloth which is fine like silk. You're going to sandwich it in between two strainers, and you're going to pour that water through that cloth. You're going to examine the cloth now on a light. You're going to get what's called a bug light, and you're going to put the cloth onto that bug light, and you're going to examine the cloth very carefully. If you see that the cloth is clean, there are no bugs on that cloth, then we could assume, for halachik purposes, that it's not מצוי. It's not common for there to be any bugs left back in the lettuce. He just washed it three times really well, and no bugs came up on that cloth after that third round. We could assume, for halachik purposes, that that lettuce is going to be clean and ready to eat. Okay, so now we're going to go ahead and take the, spill the water out of the bowl, and we're going to take that soapy lettuce, and put it back into a bowl of plain clean water. You got to get rid of the soap anyway. You're going to swish it around again, and just in case, just in case, there is one bug that's going to be left behind. So, he'll probably come out now when you swish it around, and you pull the lettuce out again one more time, pour the water out, and that lettuce is ready to be eaten. If you're going to find even one bug on that cloth, we're going to have to repeat the process, put it back into soapy water, and recheck the cloth. Rabbi Hisiger: Now, we're talking here about fresh romaine lettuce, and fresh regular lettuce, and things like that. Rabbi Langer: I just want to point out that sometimes you buy lettuce in the store, it says triple washed on it. You know, you have maybe a certification that you're not really familiar with. You don't want to trust that. The triple wash doesn't really mean anything. Triple wash could mean that there are three shower heads over a conveyor belt. You know, you can have a large tub of lettuce that is going through these conveyor belts, and there's really, some of the lettuce is not even, is barely getting wet. So, triple wash doesn't really mean anything to us. It's got to be checked, just like, you know, fresh hearts, or fresh whole heads of lettuce that you're buying from the store. Rabbi Hisiger: So, just a few questions that I'm sure our viewers would want to follow up with. First of all, like you said, we're talking about fresh lettuce, lettuce that is not produced under supervision. Even if it says power washed, and this washed, and that washed, it doesn't matter, like you're saying, because we don't know what that means from a kashrus perspective. But if I go into a store and I see a sealed package of Romaine lettuce leaves, and it has a reliable השגחה on it, that I could buy comfortably, bring it home, and I don't need to wash it? Rabbi Langer: If you feel, if you're comfortable with that השגחה, you can rely on it, and you can eat that. You do not have to do any further. Rabbi Hisiger: So, I don't have to worry that there was infestation from the growing process, nor from the transport process? Rabbi Langer: Correct. Rabbi Hisiger: Okay, that's question number one. Question number two, if someone wants to follow through your recommendation of this aphid checking process, how do they get that paraphernalia? A bowl, I guess, they just buy, but if they want to buy the aphid... Rabbi Langer: Well, we call it a thrip cloth. You can call it an aphid cloth if you like. We call it a thrip cloth, or a shmatte. You can buy it, you can get it online, it's called the bug checking cloth. You can get it at a lot of the השגחות - at the CRC, other השגחות also. Rabbi Hisiger: And that cloth could be used multiple times? Rabbi Langer: It could be used over and over. Rabbi Hisiger: Over and over. You just wash it off? Rabbi Langer: Until the cleaning lady loses it. Rabbi Hisiger: Okay. Rabbi Langer: It's durable. Even if it catches bugs, you just clean it off, and then you can reuse it. Correct. And two strainers, you can go to the dollar store, get two cheap strainers, and you're good to go. It's not as scary as it seems. Rabbi Hisiger: Yeah, I was gonna say, it sounds a little overwhelming, for someone who's never done it. Rabbi Langer: Once you do it, you get in the habit of doing it, it becomes part of your kitchen. It's really not that difficult. Ideally, a person should get some training, not major training, but somebody who knows what the bugs look like, to point out what bugs do look like. Because many people, when you talk to them about insects and produce, they're thinking about ants and spiders and roaches and things that they see around the house. That's not what you're going to usually find in the lettuce. It's going to be much smaller. They are visible to the naked eye. They are visible, you don't need microscopes and things like that. They're all visible to the naked eye, and you could see them. Usually, I find people are thrown off. You show them the bugs. I wasn't expecting that. It's an idea. It's important when you check the cloth, you should check the cloth the way that you would read the fine print of a newspaper. Some people, when you read the fine print of a newspaper, they’ve got to take the glasses off to be able to see, and they look really close. That's the way you're going to want to check the cloth. Some people have got to put their glasses on, reading glasses, to check it. However you're going to look for the fine print of a newspaper, that's how you're going to check the cloth. When you're checking the cloth, some people like to use their fingers, and they start touching things. You end up squashing the bugs and making them harder to realize that that's a bug. We recommend you taking a bottle of spray, plain water in a spray with a mist, and you spray on something. You're not sure if it's a bug. You spray it, and it has appendages. It's going to spread out a little bit, making it much easier to tell that it's a bug. I would recommend that if somebody's trying on their own to figure out how to use it in order to detect the bugs, you may want to use that water from that first round, pour it through the cloth, just to teach yourself what a bug is, and then you'll see the bigger bugs. When you see the bigger bugs, like the Ramba”n in Parshas Bo, from the גדולים, you'll go to the קטנים, and you'll see the bigger bugs, and you'll learn about the smaller bugs, the smaller insects. You'll pick up on that also. Rabbi Hisiger: Now because I mentioned at the beginning of the conversation fruits and vegetables generally, could you just give us a little summary of other vegetables? You mentioned leafy vegetables like romaine lettuce and regular lettuce, things like that. Are there other vegetables for which this process would work, or are there other vegetables for which people have to be concerned about insect infestation? Rabbi Langer: There are plenty of vegetables and fruits and berries out there that have infestation concerns, and this would be, you know, it can go on for hours, not the time and place for that, but there are some other things that we'll use the thrip cloth. It's really basically leafy, leafy, leafy things, herbs, cauliflower could be checked using this cloth. That's basically what we use the strip cloth for. Rabbi Hisiger: Got it. I wanted to ask you a question that comes up very often whenever we discuss בדיקת תולעים on Let's Talk Kashrus, and in generally in the Kashrus world, this question comes up, especially from lay people, and what they ask is, you know, they say we grew up 30, 40 years ago in a frum home that had a frum mother, and in their house they ate broccoli and cauliflower and spinach and so on and so forth without such intensive checking processes, and they don't remember at least their mother engaging in these such intensive processes, and people wonder what's different? Are we frummer now? Were people not as vigilant then? Should they have been? So what could you say about what may have changed between then and now? Rabbi Langer: Yes, that's the question that we get asked quite often. It's important to know that many years ago there was a, in the earlier days in America, there was a pesticide called DDT. DDT was a very powerful pesticide that really did get rid of the bugs from a lot of the produce that we have today. DDT became banned because it was allegedly killing out the bird population, so they banned DDT, and ever since then it's just been getting worse and worse. So it could very well be that when you're back in the home and you're growing up, when your mother was making that broccoli, so there were no bugs in the broccoli. But today, you know, today things are different. You'll say, what about before the days of America? What about in Europe? What about in Europe in those days? What did they do about it? They didn't eat vegetables then? So the answer is, if you look in the חכמת אדם, חכמת אדם tells you, he tells you, this berry from that country, stay away from it, it has bugs. This fruit from that country, and he writes, all leafy vegetables, all leafy vegetables are מלא, are filled with תולעים, and need a very, very careful בדיקה. So this is not a new thing that we're creating here in the 21st century. This is something that's been around throughout all the דורות, and people have been very careful about it. We had a short reprieve in the earlier days of America, but things are just right where they always are. Rabbi Hisiger: Now you mentioned to me prior to this conversation, we were schmoozing a fascinating אור החיים הקדוש. I was wondering if you could share with our viewers. Rabbi Langer: So another question that we get asked often is, you know, could it be, השם made this world filled with delicious fruit and berries and blackberries and raspberries, and what are the השגחות telling us, that it's not recommended to eat these berries, and it's not recommended to eat these fruits, these are too infested. Why did השם create it? He created it for us to eat and to enjoy. So אור החיים )שמות פרק ט״ז פסוק כ(׳ writes 350 years ago. He tells us that he asked why are their fruits and the produce in his time more infested with insects than the earlier generations, and he says that the bugs in produce come from what's called a זוהמא, the זוהמא, this poisonous אויר which is created by the עוונות of the dor, created by the sins of the generation. And the more sinful the generation is, the more produce is going to be in the vegetables. And if you look around the world today, and you see what's going on, it's quite understandable why our produce is מלא and filled with all these תולעים. Rabbi Hisiger: And I'll just add to this conversation, which whenever we talk about the בדיקת תולעים, either I or our guest mentions, is that every single bug that a person could possibly consume is, we're talking about six לאוין, correct? Rabbi Langer: Between four to six לאוין, depending on the type of bug. Rabbi Hisiger: And so, you know, there's a good reason that there is such careful attention paid to the insect infestation in our foods, and why people like yourself and other experts in the area of the בדיקת תולעים are constantly working to improve the methods of checking and also education as far as the בדיקת תולעים, enabling people to check their fruits and vegetables properly. And so, we thank you for your wonderful עבודת הקודש, and we thank you for being here today. Rabbi Langer: Thank you for having me.

5785 & Beyond Let’s join Rabbi Sholom Tendler - Kashrus Administrator at the STAR-K as he walks us through the sugya of yoshon and what has changed recently, just in time for the start of the new season, 5785. Rabbi Hisiger: Hello everyone and welcome back to Let's Talk Kashrus, presented by the Kashrus Awareness Project in conjunction with TorahAnytime. Today I am privileged to be joined by R’ Sholom Tendler, Kashrus Administrator at the STAR-K in Baltimore. Thank you R’ Tendler for joining us once again. Rabbi Tendler: Pleasure to be back. Rabbi Hisiger: So we're here to discuss the topic of Yoshon today, and before we get into the particulars of what viewers may want to know about this particular season and which items are of greater concern or lesser concern, give us a very brief summary of what Yoshon is and the related הלכות. Rabbi Tendler: Okay sure, as I say it's an old topic, it's nothing new, everyone's heard that pun a million times before, but the fact remains that ישן is a פסוק in the תורה and basically what it boils down to is the following thing, is that every year the crop, the new crop is harvested in the summer. Crops get planted in the springtime, חדש האביב, חג האביב and then חג הקציר, the summertime when crops are harvested. At least in North America and the United States, that means July-August is when every year the new crop is harvested. You go to the supermarket, you find the new fruits are on the shelf, that's when all the new produce that's for that season comes on the market. So what the תורה is saying is that the new crop that's harvested from the חמשת המינים, wheat, oat, barley, rye and spelt, is not allowed to be eaten for the next six to eight months until after next year פסח. So everything that was harvested two months ago, a month, two months ago, is not allowed to be eaten until after next year פסח. So the new crop that's coming in is called חדש. The crop that's still remaining from last year is what's known as ישן and that's why it's called old. It has nothing to do with freshness, I made that joke before, it has nothing to do with how fresh the food is, whether it's stale or not stale, that's how it works, what's the new crop and what's the old crop. Rabbi Hisiger: Just for accuracy's sake, in the time of the בית המקדש, it was until after the עומר was brought, the first day of פסח, now we're referring to it generally as being after פסח. Rabbi Tendler: Correct, because it happens to be all מצה is going to be ישן, and there's not really any other חמשת המינים products that you can eat on פסח at that point, so in essence it's still פסח and then after פסח is when ישן season so to speak ends and then starts again right around now. Rabbi Hisiger: Let's dive right into this season now. I know people know that there are different items, oats and others, where the ישן season either starts early or late and people are cognizant of that fact and they're aware that if they're going to the supermarket, for years people were stocking up on certain items because they were concerned about that. What updates could you give us on specific items? Rabbi Tendler: So first as far as before we get to the actual specific items for a second, I just want to comment what you said about stocking up, is that I generally discourage people from stocking up on many common items, at least on the East Coast area, you know New York down to Baltimore, this whole region, because there's very few products, and I'm talking about not necessarily Jewish products that you can't get the entire year, or at least you can't get until much later in the season. The reason for that is because what we're generally looking at now that the כשרות agencies have kind of taken over the monitoring of the ישן situation, the resources that we have available to us, which means we have משגיחים who are going into all the plants, so we no longer have to guess or use estimates based on harvest times, we actually can go to the plant and say when are you getting in the new crop for this year, and they know exactly, because every year the crops are different, the protein content, things are different in the crop, and they have to make adjustments to the recipes based on that, so they know, most companies that process, make cookies, pastas, they know exactly when they are getting a new crop and exactly when they're starting to use it, so we try as much as possible to go with those dates and get those dates that are as accurate as possible, so while the old, we're still punning all along here, while the old method of doing things was just basically using estimates based on crop harvest time, and then estimating how long it takes, now we know exactly when that is, so if you go back to when the crops were harvested, let's say July, August, which again varies depending on the weather, depending where it's from, it takes time until that crop actually gets into process to be used in cookies or pasta or anything like that, and we're able to monitor the mills, and not only just the mills, there's specific mills that handle pasta companies, and specific mills that handle cookie companies, so we know exactly all along that way when that crop is entering the process, so we can push the date when consumers have to start worrying about this as late as possible, which is always very helpful to know, so that's why the date we're giving right now, when ישן season officially starts, is actually today, September 15th, which is basically, from our understanding, most companies by this week will have gotten in, most companies that we spoke to at least, not just flour companies, pasta companies, cookie companies, are getting in right around now, the new crop of flour that they're going to start using, you know, after that, how long it takes from the time they start, until it hits the shelves, will be some time, so it's very unlikely that this week you're actually going to find חדש, anything except flour, flour is a different story, flour comes in much faster obviously, but pasta, cookies, anything like that, it's very unlikely you'd find it this week already on the market, but we can't tell you exactly when it's going to hit the shelves, because after the manufacturing goes to distribution, it's hard to know, it takes time, but it also could go fast, so we don't know exactly, so we're telling people this week already, they should start checking dates, and the dates are, you know, some of these were released today already, some of them are going to be released over the next two days, and the way the process works is that we're going to give general dates based on about September 15th for the cutoff date, as far as the manufacturing, so for example, if you're going to go to the store this week and look at a package of cookies, we're going to tell you as long as you look at the date, and we'll give you the date code, it was manufactured before September 15th, it's for sure ישן, after, we can't tell you, now, in a few weeks from now, we might have information from Stella D’oro, or any of these other cookie companies to know exactly when they started, in which case we'll update it, in which case the dates will get pushed off later, so that will evolve over the next few weeks, that information. Rabbi Hisiger: Now, to clarify, you're talking about people getting these dates and getting this information, what is the best way for people to access that info? Rabbi Tendler: www.yoshon.com , ישן.com , I mean, all the agencies, including the STAR-K, we have websites, a ישן page on our website, which culls the information that we're providing to yoshon.com , it puts it, you know, yoshon.com is really the best resource for all the information, they have the lists which are going to be made into a PDF file and will be emailed out to anyone who signs up, so there will be paper copies available, you know, hard copies available, I mean, hard to say, hard copies available, they're going to be sent out as a PDF email on their website, through their app, and for those who also don't have access to any of those modes, so in many cities, in Lakewood, Baltimore, Chicago, there will be pickup points that's going to be listed in the email that was sent out today, where people can pick up a physical hard copy of the list. Rabbi Hisiger: I want to go back to something you said before about stocking up, you don't recommend stocking up, now, I don't know if I revealed something, but stocking up really is a memory of my youth, and it was a different world then. People would indeed stock up on pasta, I remember oatmeal, and things of that sort, to have enough to last them till פסח, and you know, over the years, first of all, more and more people today keep ישן, how would you describe in brief what changed from then to today, just as far as availability, and you alluded to before about the availability, not just the product, but of information. Rabbi Tendler: Right, what's happening now is, like you said, more and more people, I don't like to say the term ישן's becoming more popular, you know, it's hard to say that about a מצוה, something in the תורה, but it's definitely becoming more aware of this issue of ישן, and the fact that information is becoming more and more available in a clear fashion, makes it so much easier for people to keep ישן, and what I mentioned before also, you said about being list written on the product, that's true, but a lot of the Jewish companies, they are writing ישן on it, but even by the non-Jewish companies, just because we know more about the industry, we're able to ascertain much more clearly what things are 100% ישן, and also what things maybe not, and these sometimes are things that are available all year round, I'll give you some quick examples, let's start with the kids, pretzels, roll gold pretzels, roll gold pretzels is a very popular pretzel, non-Jewish company, it's found anywhere in the United States of America, every rest stop, roll gold pretzels, 100% winter wheat, which means they're 100% ישן, all year long, so for those who don't know what winter wheat is, I think we threw that term out really fast, winter wheat is wheat that was planted in October, September, October, sits dormant in the ground until the summer, so since it sat through פסח, it's always ישן, spring wheat, which is the one that's typically used for breads, is planted in the spring, you know, April, never happened so far that it was planted before פסח, so we never got that lucky, and it's harvested in the summer, so spring wheat is always a ישן problem, and winter wheat is never a ישן problem. Rabbi Hisiger: Is it a different consistency that they like to use winter wheat? Rabbi Tendler: It could be, the protein content is different, typically for things like pretzels, you'll want to use the winter wheat, but I want to say this very carefully, it's not exclusively true, you can't just assume something like a pretzel or cracker is going to winter wheat, because a lot of companies blend, I have companies that we certify, I know for a fact, they blend winter and spring wheat in a pretzel, so you can't know for sure, but again, as I was saying, just information we know, since we're working directly with the manufacturers, we have much more clear information. So roll gold happens to be for winter wheat. And then you have a company like Pillsbury, Pillsbury, this is fresh information, literally, new information, Pillsbury retail five pound bags of flour, you find in every supermarket in the country, the all-purpose flour, and the bread flour, are all made in a mill that only processes winter wheat, so it's exclusively winter wheat product, so this is something that anyone... Rabbi Hisiger: So if you're in a store, you don't have access to yoshon.com , you don't have the guide to חדש, you don't have an item that says, you know, קמח יושן on it, but you see Pillsbury flour, five pounds, you're good to go. Rabbi Tendler: Again, not necessarily a whole wheat, and the all-purpose and the bread, whole wheat is a different story. The old, the old, we love throwing this term around, right, the old information everyone always said about the general mills, the gold medal KC mill, which is the Kansas City mill, everyone assumed that that was ישן, now it does happen to be true, that the KC mill processes all-purpose flour and bread flour exclusively using winter wheat, however, that mill is a shared mill, they do process חדש on that same mill, and that, everyone can decide from the sales whether they want to be מחמיר about it or not, but it's not an exclusive mill. From what information I was just given today, actually, the Pillsbury all-purpose and bread flour is made at a mill that is exclusive for winter wheat, there's also some other ones on the list, I believe Hecker's also, is flour that's also produced exclusively from winter wheat, so you don't need to stock up, these are flours you can find anywhere in the country, and a lot of flours also, you know, the turnaround is not so strong, for example, a lot of the big stores target Walmart, right, we have very clear dates on when these flours turn over, and, you know, it's not like a heimeshe store where you're going to, people are buying bread flour for חלה every single week, you can find a target in a random place, chances are you're going to be able to find ישן flour available there in one form or another, so, and then in the frum communities on the East Coast, for sure, since it's so popular now, the stores make sure to keep stocks of it, and it's certainly better for the stores to keep stocks of it than for you to keep stocks of it at home, because they make sure, for infestation reasons, they keep, and also you don't have space, I mean, if you have space, you don't have to, but I'm saying infestation reasons becomes a big problem sometimes, when people stock up too much, and then you end up coming to פסח, you still have a pallet left in your basement, it just becomes a whole issue, so therefore, you know, I have found personally, I could say, the last many years, there was almost nothing that I found I needed to stock up on, maybe oatmeal, maybe some oatmeal, but now they have oatmeal from ארץ ישראל, that a lot of stores bring in, which is always ישן, so again, you know, it's not something that people necessarily need to be running to the stores to stock up on, again, in the East Coast, for sure, and even the rest of the country, if you follow the list, you can generally find things that are going to be ישן all season long. Rabbi Hisiger: So an interesting thing I wanted to ask about was cut-off dates and expiration dates, very often the כשרות agencies will give out cut-off dates that don't seem to correlate with the expiration dates, what are these dates, and how do we read them properly? So we try as much as possible to tell people information that you need to look for on the package, so if we tell you on a package you should look for 2594, that is a code, which basically is a Julian date, for example, 259 is the 259th day of the year, which some companies use as an expiration date for their product, and then 4 would be 2024, sometimes it's 5, so if you look, let's say, at our quick guide or in the ישן guide, you will see some products will say, look for 2595, if you see 2595, which in that case means, I believe that is September 15th, actually, of 2025, if you see 2595 or lower, that means it was produced before today, that's what that means. So we try as much as possible not to give you the whole torah behind it, this one's 12 months, 18 months, 12 months and 5 days, we don't want to confuse people, just to give you the exact date to look for, so in general, the date we give you is the date to look for, either that date or earlier, and that is for sure, and then that product is guaranteed to be ישן. Rabbi Hisiger: It seems that oat is getting a later date than usual, is there a reason for that on the production end, is there something that changed in the industry? Rabbi Tendler: So the oats is interesting, oats historically seemed to have been one of the earlier things that was assumed to become חדש right away, but now what it seems is not like that, and part of that is because all the food grade oats that are used, I don't want to say all, but most, the bulk of the food grade oats that are used come from Canada, not grown in the United States, so even though we were always monitoring the United States harvest, it seems that that was not necessarily correct, those are all the animal grade oats, predominantly the food grade oats are coming from Canada, which just because of the way the weather is, it comes from Western Canada, which is much later, because colder harvest only grows much later, so that's why oats really are now one of the later things to become חדש. That's interesting, interesting development. At the same time, I just want to mention on that, one of the big questions we get is Cheerios, the oldest cereal, and still the question is on Cheerios, it's a very popular cereal, Cheerios, it varies, every year is different when they get it in, last year, people remember the date for Cheerios, which is what General Mills told us, they are not getting in the חדש oats until sometime it was in December, this year they're getting it in September 30th, which hasn't happened yet, but they know already they're getting it in September 30th, so we have that date going to be listed in the guide, so just because oats come in later, when the companies actually start using it, again, as I mentioned earlier before, couldn't vary, and that's what we're going to try to do as much as possible, to get really as accurate information, this way, the product becomes much more available when we can push the dates off as late as possible. Rabbi Hisiger: One final question, other items that also seem to be much later, specifically our malt and beer, does that also have to do with where it's made and production-wise? Rabbi Tendler: It does somewhat, meaning barley kind of follows wheat, the cutoff we're giving for barley is also today, right around now, September 15th, but malt is kind of a long type of process. Before the malt ends up being the product, the malt, the barley flour, whatever it is that's used in flour or as an enrichment or whatever it is, it takes time to process that, and that's something where it ferments, and then they have to mill it into a flour and it probably hits the market, it takes a lot longer, it's a longer process. The estimates that have always been around historically were December 15th for malt, we're working on that this year to try to figure out, it does kind of make sense, we're going to see if we can try to figure that out a little bit better, but it does kind of make sense to say that malt will take until sometime in December until the חדש malt becomes on the market, and beer kind of also follows the same path, the beer, a lot of the breweries we discussed are not yet getting in the new crop yet, it was just harvested, it takes time for them to get it in, and then it takes a couple of weeks to make the beer until it hits the market, so it doesn't seem like one of the big breweries that we work with, that we certify, they start using the new malted barley usually around Thanksgiving time, so by the time that hits the market, again, end of December, January time, so that's why those things are kind of pushed off, but we have some time for that, and by the time that rolls around, hopefully we'll have some more clear information. Rabbi Hisiger: Very interesting. Any final thoughts on this topic of ישן in the coming year, תשפ״ה? Rabbi Tendler: So, again, as you mentioned, it's something that's becoming easier and easier, it's definitely a little bit לא בשמים היא, I'm not here to tell people what to do and what not to do, it's a personal preference, speak to your own רב, whether you should be מקפיד ישן, not מקפיד ישן, our job as the כשרות agencies, and I will mention, it's a project, a joint project, bipartisan, all agencies together, it's something we're all spending a lot of time and working on to clarify the information, to make it as accessible as possible and make it as user-friendly as possible, with, you know, partnering with yoshon.com , who already has a great website and app and information, and, you know, we're hoping that this will increase its availability and make it as easy as possible for people to be מקפיד ישן. Rabbi Hisiger: And I'll add to what you said that, you know, most of the conversations that we have here on Let's Talk אש״ס are more general, we don't always do such specific topical type of topics, נוגע to the זמן, to the time, and because I don't know when people will be watching or listening to this, maybe in a year or two from now, they should know that a lot of what we discussed, obviously, today is germane to this particular time period, and obviously people have to stay up to date, and depending on when they're listening to it or watching it, they should make sure to avail themselves of the most up-to-date information, like you mentioned, whether it's from the particular כשרות agencies or going to yoshon.com to get the most up-to-date information. Rabbi Tendler: Right, exactly, and that's the, you know, that's, again, like you said, the information will change from year to year, but I think it seems by now the process that we have of being in communication with the companies, all the agencies, sharing the information together, it's a system that seems to be working very well, and at this point, moving forward, we're just going to keep updating the information for people to be able to access. Rabbi Hisiger: Well, we thank you for doing that, we thank you for being on top of it together with the other agencies in a unified effort to help כלל ישראל keep this very important מצוה. So, כל הכבוד, and thank you for being here.

Enough Quality Mashgichim Why is it so hard to find quality mashgichim in the food service industry? Let's listen to Rabbi Nosson Dubin - Kashrus Administrator of HKA (Houston), and founder of the Kosher Institute of America as he explains the root causes, and how we can address the underlying issues. Rabbi 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 Nosson Dubin, Kashrus Administrator of the HKA in Houston and founder of the Kashrus Institute of America. Thank you Rabbi Dubin for being here. Nice to speak to you once again. Rabbi Dubin: Yes, pleasure to be here. Rabbi Hisiger: And thank you for being here all the way from Houston, here in the Let's Talk Kashrus studios.  Rabbi Dubin: An opportunity. Rabbi Hisiger: So today we would like to speak about actually a very important topic, a topic that affects really the health of the Kashrus industry. I don't think we have discussed it here on Let's Talk Kashrus before and that is something that you told me just a couple of minutes ago, is a really serious issue facing the world of Kashrus, and that is either a shortage of mashgichim or difficulty getting mashgichim in the food service industry. So give us a little overview and then we'll get into some of the details. What is the issue at hand? Rabbi Dubin: Yes. I think it would not be an overstatement to say that the biggest Kashrus challenge that we have today worldwide is finding quality mashgichim. Finding and quality. Both. It's remarkable. I mean, we're talking about, not so much in the factory world, industrial. Those are not nearly as difficult, but in the food service world where restaurants, caterers, supermarkets, bakeries, that kind of environment, finding quality mashgichim and being able to maintain and retain those mashgichim is a tremendous challenge to Kashrus today. Around the world. I speak to hashgachos from in the United States, North America, in Europe, South Africa, everywhere. Everyone is struggling with the same issue and it's a really, really big challenge. Rabbi Hisiger: I'll just jump on this. Is the issue as simple as compensation? That there's just not a lot of extra money to go around and if you're not paying, then you're not going to get good people? Is it as simple as that, or am I oversimplifying it? Rabbi Dubin: So I think that if we were able to solve that 100%, then I think we would be dealing with a lot less of an issue. But I think there's a few components, a few pieces here. Number one is definitely your point. Money. It boils down to money. And really what's happening here is that when you have a factory, you have a huge company, you have a Nestle, you have a Coca-Cola, you have a production company, they understand that there's cost, there's research and development, there's all kinds of associated costs with, if they want to have organic certification, they want to have non-GMO, there's all kinds of marketing costs and that they can just build certain things into their budget and understand that the Kashrus fees are just part of it and that's okay. In a food service world where there's a steakhouse, a falafel shop, a pizza store, a bakery, a supermarket, right? If you want to have a mashgiach temidi, you want to have a mashgiach that's there all the time, right? We're talking about a full-time salary and you need someone, you need to be paying them enough that they can support a family. That means that you're taking Moishe's falafel joint and you're telling him, okay, I don't know, what's the lowest amount that we can assume that would be the lowest amount that someone can support a family? I don't know, let's say $80,000 or whatever the number would be, right? Depending on where you live, right? Obviously, New York would be a lot more than in other places. But by the time you're paying your rent and you're a person that has a family of a bunch of children and they're paying tuition and they're paying rent or a mortgage and car payments and all kinds of other things, they don't have that kind of budget to pay a mashgiach, besides for the regular Kashrus fees, besides for everything else. And it just creates an environment that's untenable. It's impossible to be able to pay a proper salary to a mashgiach. Rabbi Hisiger: So from what I understand, one of the ways to address this very, very issue, where businesses don't have extra funds and whatever profit they're making, that's why they're in business, to make that profit, not to give it away, is by employing someone who could be an employee of the business and also serve as a mashgiach, right? Double dip, so to speak. Rabbi Dubin: So this is what's known as a working mashgiach. And I want to touch on that. That's a very, very crucial point. It's a critical point. But I think there's a few pieces. So you have number 1, the pay is too low. So for example, you have a mashgiach that's getting paid $18 an hour, $20 an hour. It's not sustainable. Okay, we'll touch on that. I want to touch on that in a minute. In addition to that, you have, it's an extremely demanding job. You are a policeman. You can call it a mashgiach, but it's a very difficult job. I'm in the food service world. And it's not easy. When I have to function in that role, it's not an easy job to do. Sometimes you have a frum owner, you have somebody who cares about Kashrus, and then it's a pleasure. But even then, you have other people working in the kitchen. You always have to be on top of people. And obviously, there's a lot of social skills and you're trying to do it nicely, but it's a conflict. It's not easy. So you have the pay, you have the conflict. In general, restaurant employees, there's a very high turnover rate, right? A lot of times, like I'll see a Houston, I'll see the same employee, he'll work in this restaurant, and then he's fired from this one, he shows up this one, and then he gets, he leaves this one because he got another dollar an hour somewhere else. A very high turnover rate in general, because it's a hard environment to work, very high stress kitchen environment. And I think that the last point is respect. And it really plays on both. Number one, respect from the owner and the establishment, respect from the community for the integral role that they're playing, and respect from the Kashrus agency. That's also important. So I think there's a composite of a lot of things that are going on here. But I think that if you think about it, right, if you think about it, think about Chinuch for a second, right? What was the status of a melamed 75 years ago, 50 years ago? Very often you had some extraordinary Melamdim, right? But a lot of people who really didn't belong being Melamdim and just couldn't find another job, right? And it wasn't considered a prestigious position and it wasn't compensated as a prestigious position. And over time, we've come to realize that, no, these are our children and we want them to be compensated properly. We want them to be taken care of. We want to put them on a pedestal, right? And now to get a job as a Rebbe is hard, right? The question for, I think that we need to be asking ourselves is the Mashgiach is also filling a crucial role because you could have the best policies in the world for a Hashgacha. Bottom line is, it's only as strong as the weakest link. It's the person who's actualizing your policies, who's doing that. So how do we take the Mashgiach of today? And we have some really excellent Mashgichim, but at the same time, we're forced sometimes to hire people just because we need someone. How do we create that respect and prestigious position and put them on a pedestal in a way that they, in hopefully not 50 years from now, but that it should be something that it should be a hard position to get. Rabbi Hisiger: What is the Eitza? What's the Mehalech? What do you see as a Mehalech? If not to rectify it, at least to alleviate it somewhat. Rabbi Dubin: There are different ideas that, like you said, alleviate. I don't have anything that's going to rectify the problem. Everyone has ideas. So I'll tell you some things that I'm thinking. Number one is, and I think this is the most important, consumers need to care. That's the bottom line. Sometimes when a product is being sent out, let's say with Uber Eats, right? So we have a system of how it needs to be wrapped with chosamos. Once in a while you have a situation where something wasn't wrapped properly. So I'll get a customer, he'll call me. It didn't come according to protocol. Very often I'll tell them, do me a favor, call the restaurant to complain. They say, why should I? It's your job. I'll take care of it too. But when a customer is upset, that has a lot more value. If somebody comes into a restaurant and something's playing in the music and they're not happy with it, so they'll call me, I say call the restaurant. Not that we won't deal with it. We'll also deal with it, but it has a much bigger effect. Rabbi Hisiger: I think for two reasons. First of all, because they're the ones who, they're paying. So, they're the source of the income. And also, because if it's just the Mashgiach, it's, oh, it's the Mashgiach again with his issues and with his problems and with his complications. Why are you bothering us again? And now you're getting involved in, let's say with the music, you're getting involved in something that's not even the Kashrus, right? I'm sure you hear this all the time. Rabbi Dubin: A hundred percent. But that's exactly the point. Meaning if we as consumers would start to just be a little bit more conscious. So, I'm not saying, I'm not a big advocate of people saying, if I'm going to go to an event, I'm going to go into the kitchen and go check it out and find out where the meat is. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying like, we should have an appreciation. Who is the Mashgiach here? Am I comfortable with that person? And when you are comfortable, make a comment to the owner and say, you know, I feel very comfortable eating here. Meaning if there was a grassroots awareness that we want good quality Mashgichim, I think that that would make a big effect. That's number one. Number two is also what you mentioned in the beginning is dollars and cents, right? Mashgichim at a time are typically paid between 18 and $22 an hour. Okay. So, assuming they're working full time, 40 hours a week, right? So now they don't necessarily have so many shifts, but let's say they're working a full 40 hours, 50 weeks a year. That translates to about $44,000 a year. Rabbi Hisiger: Before taxes. Rabbi Dubin: Before taxes. Right. Okay. So what does that translate after taxes? Pick your number. Texas doesn't have state income taxes. But you're talking about your walk-home pay is what? $35,000? Yeah. Not more. Right. Okay. And after Maaser, and if you're paying Maaser, Rabbi HIsiger: It's not a livable wage. Rabbi Dubin: It's not even, it's not even close. Right. And it's a hard job. You don't really have the capacity to take on so many extra jobs and it's hard. It's physically hard. It's challenging. So it's dollars and cents. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. So sometimes we'll have quality Mashgichim and I'm dying to keep them. Right. You can't afford them. Why? Who's paying their wage? Where's the money coming from? So, some Hashgachos they pay the Mashgiach. Some Hashgachos the store pays the Mashgiach. That's a whole separate conversation. Either way, the money's coming from the same place. Money's coming from the restaurant. Right. Right. So, they're paying $44,000. They're not willing to pay $80,000 or $100,000 or $120,000. So that's, that I think is, is a huge issue. And that's something that, you know, like we were discussing before, I think that the going back to us as consumers being more conscious of it is, I think that's an interesting thing to think about. Would you be willing, I don't mean you necessarily, but the proverbial we or you, would we be willing to pay an extra $2 for each meal that we order for the level of Kashrut to be a little bit higher? Rabbi Hisiger: Right. So, when the question is asked like that, I think most erliche people will say, of course, it's worth $2. It's worth $2. But when it comes down to it, and when you're actually paying the bill, no one likes paying more. Right. And people will kvetch about it. Right. That's the bottom line. And I'll just add, I'm sorry, I'll just add that also, because when you're paying the extra $2 for more pastrami, you see the more pastrami in your sandwich. It's a tangible benefit. Yes. Over here, it's somewhat of an intangible benefit because you're not, meaning you don't see it. Of course, it's tangible, but you don't see it. You don't, you really don't. Rabbi Dubin: Right. So, I mean, like I think that, I think that's something we really, really need to think about. You know, there are hashgachos in the New York area that are paying $28 an hour, but again, $28 an hour in New York. Rabbi Hisiger: Even $28, bottom line, it's not cutting it. And at the end of the day, someone who's super capable and super driven and super knowledgeable, ultimately this is not going to be his calling. Which is unfortunate. Rabbi Dubin: Which is unfortunate. So, you know, some thoughts that I've discussed with different people. Some people have mentioned different ideas. One idea is, and again, this is something that needs further thought. I don't know necessarily if it's the right idea, but there's different things, you know, is for the kehillah, every community, to have a fund for Mashgichim. You know, something like a Torah Mesorah has, and Chasdei Lev for Rebbeim and different things, but to create a fund for Mashgichim, which accomplishes two things, right? A fund for Mashgichim where we're not going to be able to get a Meshgichim salary from $45,000, you know, to 80, 90, 100. This, we're not gonna be able to raise enough money for that. I think that's unrealistic at this point. But what we could do is we could give them a few thousand dollars for Yom Tov. We could give them a few thousand dollars for Bar Mitzvah. We could give them the opportunity to take off and go on vacation with their wife. We can give them, you know, matzos for Pesach. We can give them daled minim for, you know, there are things that we can do as a kehillah. I don't mean, not so much from a Kashrus agency perspective but as a kehila. If we banded together to create a cause match charity campaign or any other fundraiser, to have a fund for Mashgichim, which accomplishes, number one, giving them tangible benefits, but also giving them a sense that not only the kashrus agency and not only the owner that's always mad at them, but people really care. Rabbi Hisiger: I just wonder, not to be the Debbie Downer or the cynic, but I wonder if that would only work out of town, you know, where it's a little more of a cohesive kehillah in a large city, in Brooklyn, you know, Brooklyn, Lakewood, five towns, so on and so forth, big flourishing metropolises. I'm not sure if people will have that feeling, I'm just saying. Rabbi Dubin: I think today, maybe not. But the question is, if we can create an environment where this is something that's appreciated, maybe it's something to think through. Maybe in Houston we could do it.  Another thing is, what you mentioned also earlier, is a working Mashgichim. And I think that's probably the easiest, one of the easier ideas, is to have, you know, like we have some of our Mashgichim who are really providing tremendous value to the restaurant besides for hashgachah. And when you have somebody like that, the restaurant really has no issue paying them a very nice salary. Again, it's not going to be, you know, like equivalent necessarily to other jobs, because in the restaurant food service industry, the salaries are typically lower. But even so, you're talking about something which is somewhat sustainable. Somebody could be in there for a few years. These are some ideas as far as pay, that's just as far as pay is concerned. I think with regards to the respect component, and I think they're really both equally important, like I was reaching out today to a bunch of different people in advance of this discussion. I reached out to some of my Mashgichim, I reached out to other food service administrators, I reached out to some owners, just to have, and really this is what we're discussing a lot of it is a composite of different ideas and different things that people have mentioned. And I think one of the most common things that came up is respect for Mashgichim. We need to understand that they're the ones that are providing us with kosher food, ultimately, and respect them and appreciate it. And really, the Mashgichim that really do stay in it, what I find at least in Houston, in my experience, is people that are idealistic, because money is not going to cut it. It's not the money that's keeping you in, and it's not the respect. As much as I respect the Mashgichim, and I think they're amazing, and without them, we would not have kosher food. But it's a hard job. And this is huge. So, I think the respect is really, really a big deal. And going together with respect, I think there's another angle to that, which is training. And this is something that other people in the kosher world push very much. The reality is that when someone goes to school for two years, or three years, four years to get a degree, there's a higher barrier to entry. And therefore, the salary is higher, automatically, because it's supply and demand, and the respect is higher for the person because they have an understanding that they have something that I don't have. I don't have an MBA. I'm not a CPA, and I'll probably never be a CPA. So, if I have something, an accounting question, this is somebody who I know, knows much more than I do. There's an inherent respect for that. And creating that training and the continual training. You know who does this excellent, is COR in Toronto. They have a phenomenal program for their Mashgichim. Phenomenal. Rabbi Hisiger: Is that a prerequisite to be a Meshgiach for COR? Rabbi Dubin: I believe so. They have a course, which is actually a college course that they get credits for. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. And then they also have like a kollel for them, and they give them supplements. They're doing things right. They're doing really, they're doing it. Really a lot to learn from what they're doing there. As far as training, so we're, you know, the AKO Mashgiach course, I think that definitely helped. Let me tell you a little bit about the AKO Mashgiach course. It was created by us - the Kosher Institute of America together with AKO. And we started it in 2020, January 2020, right before COVID. And by now we have probably about 4,000 Mashgichim who have taken the course, around the world. And it's been completely transformative because really, you know, when we were hiring Mashgichim before the course, right? Let's be real. So, some Hashgachos had really good trainings, granted, and they did like, you know, multi-day trainings and so on. We didn't have that, right? So, if you need a Mashgichim, what do you do? You meet them on site. You show them around. Take a look at this. When your convection oven opens, make sure to look at this. This is how we do vegetables. And that's really it, right? So really what the Mashgichim course did is now every single person who's becoming a Mashgichim for many agencies, right? We have, I don't know, 30, 35 agencies that are using it. OU, OK, Kof-K, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Montreal, South Africa, London, you know, all over the world. And everyone's taking the same training, taking the same test, and really getting a full knowledge in basar b'chalav, in pas Akum, bishul Yisrael, tolaim, and everything else. I think that part of that really was to create that sense of respect that this is somebody who's trained. You get a nice Mashgiach card, a photo ID. Rabbi Hisiger: Besides that, you're actually teaching them very important skills and knowledge. But you're saying from the respect standpoint, it's dignified. It's not like, oh, you need a job. You need to make a few dollars. OK, we'll sit you down and check some vegetables. It gives them a chashivus, which is takeh something very special. Rabbi Dubin: Yeah. Rabbi Hisiger: Any final thoughts on this topic? Rabbi Dubin: Yeah. So, I think that I would say just one thing I would say that if you have the opportunity, if you're in a restaurant as a customer, if you can take the opportunity and go to the Mashgiach, thank him for his service. This is a suggestion that R’ Sholey Klein suggested to me, and I thought that was brilliant. It was great. It's huge. You know, like when somebody's in the army, someone's in uniform, people say, you know, thank you for your service, right? Right, right, right. So, they're in the army of kashrus. Rabbi Hisiger: In the army of kashrut. It's so true. And the truth is that the amount of responsibility that Mashgiach can carry for thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of people over the course of a week who are eating food, relying on their expertise and their responsibility. So, we are really, we have a debt of gratitude to those who are out there in the field. And you alluded to it before, it's not, it's definitely not the best paying job and it's not always the most fun job. A lot of stress in the kitchen environment. Things go wrong. Right. You're dealing with, there's also a social component like you also alluded to of dealing with people and it's the Mashgiach's job to do that. So, you know, for what it's worth, we'll express that here to all those who are in the food service industry and really any part of kashrus serving as Mashgichim. And we are very grateful to them for their service because they're underappreciated and underpaid. And IY”H maybe together with your initiatives and your ideas and with this conversation, hopefully we could raise the level of respect that they receive. And also, hopefully, maybe eventually even the compensation at some point. Rabbi Dubin: Even the compensation. And maybe one day if the kashrus awareness is still going, you know, in a few decades from now, we'll look back and be like, we once had an issue with this. Rabbi Hisiger: Amen. Amen. Rabbi Dubin, thank you for being here. It's a pleasure to see you.

Protecting Kosher Wine Wine in the hands of hired help. Wine as a present from a gentile colleague. These questions and everything you need to know about wine in the hands of people that may cause wine to become Stam yeinam answered by Rav Shmuel Fuerst - Dayan of Agudas Yisroel of Illinois in this weeks episode.

The Tiers of Beer Are the drinks at an event kosher? Most hechsherim usually have a sign saying they take no achrayus. At the cRc though, they recently implemented a new policy with regards to beer at events. Let’s listen to  R’ Sholem Fishbane, Director of Kashrus for the Chicago Rabbinical Council and Executive Director of AKO, as he explains the reasoning behind it.

Maris Ayin Confusion Can I walk into McDonalds to get a drink? How about to use the restroom? Can one have a business meeting in a treife restaurant? These and other maris ayin questions answered by Rav Shmuel Fuerst - Dayan of Agudas Yisroel of Illinois in this weeks episode. Here  is a short synopsis of chashad vs. maris ayin from the OU website: The Talmud often uses the terms “ maris ayin ” and “ chashad ”. What do these terms mean and how do they differ from each other? Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l  (Igros Moshe (OC II:40)) defines maris ayin  (literally, “appearance to the eye”) as the­ prohibition against giving the impression that one is doing something wrong when it may influence others to sin as well. Chashad  (literally, “suspicion”) is the prohibition of causing others to suspect one of wrongdoing, even when it will not  cause others to sin. Although maris ayin  is the more serious violation, the mere appearance of impropriety is also forbidden. This is derived from the verse in Bamidbar (32:22), “And you shall be clean before Hashem and before Yisroel.” The tribes of Gad and Reuven wanted to remain on the east bank of the Jordan and not join the other tribes in conquering the Land of Israel. Moshe encouraged them to be clean (to act appropriately) “before G-d and before Yisroel.” “Before Yisroel” indicates that a person must be concerned about human perception. The Mishnah (Avoda Zara 11b) states that one is not permitted to follow a path that is designated as an entrance to a temple of idolatry. Rashi writes that this is because of chashad . Igros Moshe explains that maris ayin  does not apply in this case, because there is no concern that a Jew will be easily influenced to worship idolatry. Yet, it is still forbidden to take the path towards the idol because of chashad —arousing suspicion about one’s own behavior.

50 Years In Motion Let's listen in to R' Menachem Lubinsky, President & CEO of LUBICOM Marketing Consulting for his unique perspective behind the scenes as he observed the explosive growth of Kosher products over the last 50 years.

What’s the deal with dried fruits? Apricots, Raisins, Dates are some of the more common ones. Rabbi Tzvi Rosen - Kashrus Administrator at the STAR-K explains the entire drying process and what to look out for.

There’s never a dull moment with Rabbi Sholom H. Adler - Senior Kashrus Administrator at Earth Kosher. But what do you do when your knife gets dull? Let’s learn what to look out for when having your knife professionally sharpened.

Overnight Sakanah Chazal say that leaving peeled eggs, garlic, and onions overnight makes them dangerous to consume. Sleeping on top of food, as well as eating fish and meat together are other examples of dangerous foods. Let's listen in to Rav Shmuel Fuerst - Dayan of Agudas Yisroel of Illinois as he explains us the exact parameters of Chazal's takanos.

Focus on Shabbos Are the waiters at your simcha allowed to take pictures for you on Shabbos? What happens if you run out of ice? These questions and more answered by Rabbi Moshe Zev Kaufman - Rav of Khal Adas Bnei Yisroel in Chicago, Menahel of the Midwest Bais Horaah, as he walks us through the intricacies of Amira L'akum on Shabbos and benefitting from a Melocha done by a non-jew on Shabbos.

Non-Kosher Takeout Let's take a walk through a typical camp kitchen together with Rabbi Moshe Kaufman, Kashrus Administrator for KVH Kosher ~ Rabbinical Council of New England and Co-chairman of the AKO Camp Kashrus Committee. As we walk through, he explains to us the common potential problems that may crop up.