"OK" Kosher Certification(www.ok.org)

13th of Sivan, 5770

In the coming weeks -we’ve announced- on the Wednesdays’ Kashrut section I would like to present the readers the world of “Kosher supervisions”.

My goal is to promote a better understanding and observance of Kashrut. However, I’m not endorsing or sponsoring any specific Orthodox Kashrut certification over the other. Today I would like to introduce the readers to the probably second largest Kashrut organization in America. The OK.

Let me quote from their web site:OK Kosher Certification is one of the world’s most respected symbols of kosher approval...

Under the leadership of Rabbi Don Yoel Levy, the OK provides certification for food giants and products such as IFF, Kraft, ConAgra and Tropicana. Operating on six continents and supported by more than 350 of the world’s leading kosher experts, the OK certifies more than 300,000 products, produced by over 1,500 companies.

One of the most difficult problems in Kashrut certification today is the use of additives in the food industry. For a nice article about this and other challenges in the Kashrut world read the following text from OK:

…Hundreds of foods labeled “kosher” dot our supermarket shelves, but many factors that we cannot see complicate the process of guaranteeing a product as kosher. Over 2,800 additives not known fifty years ago are legally present in our foods, including colorings, flavorings, and preservatives. Huge factories manufacture enormous quantities of many types of food using processing techniques of which we know little or nothing…

Read the complete article here: http://www.ok.org/Content.asp?ID=116

Read a credible story about the fascinating world of Kosher supervision: "http://www.ok.org/Content.asp?ID=218">http://www.ok.org/Content.asp?ID=218

ELOKE ABRAHAM “The God of Abraham” (Part 3)

Today is the 12th of Sivan 5770

In the previous weeks we analyzed the words Eloke Abraham, the God of Abraham. We explained that we are praying to the God Abraham “discovered” and taught us about.
First, we said, Abraham found out that God is invisible, second that He is one (see last week’s HOTD) but probably the most important thing we’ve learned from Abraham about God is that God ”cares” about us.
In all ancient civilization the gods had their own concerns and problems. Normally they would spend their time fighting against each other to impose their supremacy. If they ever did something good for a human it wasn’t out of love or altruism: it was payback for or in anticipation of some human favor (human sacrifices, human gifts or human help in fighting a competitor god).
Abraham Abinu taught us that God Almighty is our Creator, and as such He loves us and cares about us, the same way a parent loves and cares about his children. While the idols or mythological gods “behave” like the tyrants who invented them, and acted upon selfishness and mutual interests Abraham taught the world that the true God listens to our prayers, protects us or delivers us without expecting anything in return.
It was probably the most revolutionary discovery of our father Abraham.

So important is this concept that the rest of this berakha does not elaborate on God’s unity or God’s invisibility. It focuses on the ways the God of Abraham cares about Abraham’s descendants, the people of Israel.

The eight levels of Tsedaka

Today is the 11th of Sivan 5770

Tsedaka is usually translated as “charity” but in its Hebrew original Tsedaka means “justice” or “the practice of social justice”. Tsedaka is one of the foundations of Judaism and a Mitzvah practiced by all.
When a Jew attends a Minyan every day, he has the opportunity to do Tsedaka by giving a small amount of money during vaibarekh David in the Tefila of Shacharit, when we mention veata moshel bakol, that “You, God, are the one that rules over everything”. Including whatever money I will have at the end of the day. We believe that despite our efforts, it is God who is ultimately in charge of the final balance of our banks accounts, because He is the one that can bring upon so many variables, beyond our predictions, to increase or decrease our final balance.
But, is giving a dollar bill or 3 quarters the only form of perfomring the Mitzvah of Tsedaka?
There many ways of doing Tsedaka. In his Laws of Tsedaka Matanot Aniyim Maimonides enumerates eight levels of Tsedaka.
The first level -the highest- is when one offers someone a job or a loan. By giving a job we are avoiding from a person to depend on charity and he is able to earn money by his own means. Giving a job is doing Tsedaka without causing embarrassment. Tsedaka with dignity for both!

“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime