Reviewing: “Kashrut Unveiled: Unraveling Contemporary Kashrut,” by Rabbi Chaim Jachter. Kol Torah Publications. 2024. 460 pages. ISBN: 979834099751.
Since the definitive ‘The Kosher Kitchen: A Practical Guide’ by Rabbi Binyomin Forst was published by Artscroll in 2009, there have been few comprehensive guides to kashrut published that seek to assist normative orthodox households in keeping kosher, and in answering both standard or infrequent questions. However, after reading through Rabbi Chaim Jachter’s latest treatment, I realize that the time is ripe for a new look at a topic that touches every observant Jew’s life, especially in light of new products and cooking methods that have entered the kosher marketplace in the past decade.
Like Rabbi Forst, in all things, Rabbi Jachter encourages precision in halachic observance. He also communicates a fair amount of joy in the process.
“To the physician, tiny points often distinguish between life and death. The same applies to an airline mechanic. A businessman who does not devote proper attention to the details of his business is destined to fail… L’havdil, we Jews as the heirs and stewards of a great legacy—the greatest and noblest gift. We have the responsibility and the privilege of observing and preserving God’s law. How can we not take halachic details seriously?
“Moreover, just as a sports fan revels in the game’s details, we who love Hashem revel in the details of Torah observance. Far from being a burden, it is a source of great and genuine happiness and joy.”
Rabbi Jachter knows quite a lot about the kosher-keeping community he seeks to reach with this book, which I see as a notable and useful reference volume not just for his former students and their wives setting up their kitchen for the first time, but also for veteran balabustas who need to know what knife to use on lab-grown meat. In addition to his weekly column here in The Jewish Link, Rabbi Jachter is a community rabbi in Teaneck serving the members of Congregation Shaarei Orah. He is a posek for Teaneck-Bergenfield’s eruv and a sought-after consultant for many other eruvin nationwide. He is also a rebbe at Torah Academy of Bergen County (TABC) and serves as a dayan on the Beth Din of Elizabeth. As if this were not an impressive-enough list of responsibilities, Rabbi Jachter is also one of the most prolific members of this rabbinic community, having published at least one book a year for the last decade and averaging two a year since the start of the pandemic in 2020. Actually, rabbi or not, he’s one of the most prolific people I have ever met.
The last several years, publication-wise, have seen books published on Rabbi Jachter’s study of Tanach, having published a book each on Megillat Ruth, Sefer Daniel and Megillat Esther. He wrote on the aggadic mindset in 2022, Sefer Melachim in 2019, and on belief in the Jewish faith (Reason to Believe, which is a must-read volume that belongs on every Jewish bookshelf) in 2017. And these are only the books by Rabbi Jachter that I have personally reviewed. He has written quite a few more, on bridging differences between Ashkenaz and Sefard traditions, on electricity on Shabbos, and halachic haircutting (written with his son Binyomin).
In Kashrut Unveiled, what was most useful to me what his organized and almost encyclopedic treatment of topics, drawing on his ability to share ideas and psak from the Orthodox Union, the CRC and other major kosher poskim throughout the country on a variety of topics as they relate to kosher. The normative halachic debates on baser v’chalav (milk and meat) are present as well as well-reasoned treatments of why some populations wait six hours between them and some wait only one (all are valid, and all favor family minchag over rabbinic psak).
Most interesting to me were Rabbi Jachter’s treatments of how to check produce for bugs or infestation, which relied not only on a depth of sources but also on his wife, Rebbetzin Malca’s experiences in their home kitchen, along with consultations with OU Kosher. Acknowledging real life experiences, with the understanding of what is seen in the home kitchen, creates a powerful lesson in helping the kosher-keeper develop personal best practices and gain confidence based not only on the letter of the law, but on what kind of infestations can derail a meal (or at least cause a box of berries to be thrown out).
Also focused on quite a bit are newer cooking methods such as sous-vide, which uses vacuum sealed bags placed in heated water to cook slowly; which begs the question of whether the same water or the same container can be used for dairy, fish or meat, since the aroma (taam) is sealed in with the food. Finally, lab grown meat, a topic that is quite literally, hot, shows Rabbi Jachter at his best, sharing viewpoints as different as Rabbi Hershel Schachter, shlita, who says it’s pareve but rabbinically defined as meat, like chicken, and Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, who thinks its a new entity entirely, like gelatin, to Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, who says it’s halachically meat since it came from meat.
The book also delves deeply in the kashrut of medicine and the various issues that come up with children and their need for medicine to taste pleasantly; and in medication delivery systems like gel caps or glycerine. It also addresses the great halachic controversies of our time, which include topics that have been discussed in Jewish newspapers like this one, including the kashrut of canned tuna, skinless salmon sold without a hechsher, the permissibility of turkey and contemporary milk. It also spends quite a bit of time explaining the halachot of wine and mevushal rules, including the whys and the why-nots in terms of liquor, sherry casks, and drinking liquids at a bar or coffee house.
As with all portion of the book, Rabbi Jachter focuses on clarity and on preventing misunderstandings, and also on the concerns regarding marit ayin (appearance) in kashrut as it related to foods such as non-dairy cheese, lab-grown or soy-based meat-like products, and fish made to look and taste like non-kosher shellfish. “The Torah expects us to guard our reputations zealously. As such, the Gemara speaks of two related concepts, chashad and marit ayin, regarding doing something that appears to violate the Torah. Rav Moshe Feinstein defines chashad as causing others to suspect one has violated the Torah, and marit ayin as misleading others to incorrectly think something is permissible…. Bamidbar states: ‘And you must be clean before Hashem and Yisrael.’ The Mishnah teaches ‘One must be clean in the public perception just as he must be regarding Hashem.’”
Virtually every topic related to the kosher kitchen is addressed in this book, from pet foods and dairy English muffins, to kitniyot on Pesach and microwave ovens. Also in the book the more wacky stories of kashrut in the Gemara are highlighted, including the story of Yalta and Rav Nachman, who created the foundation of the modern delicacy of kosher baco-bits!
Above all, Rabbi Jachter in his final chapter on communal policies, returns to the importance of asking the right questions (and knowing how to ask the right question) as it relates to kashrut, and provides a definitive guide for understanding the reliability of kosher agencies. While nothing beats “knowing your kosher symbols,” Rabbi Jachter also recommends frequent visits to the CRC website which provides more detailed information and has the ability to both ask and answer the right questions of those certifying kosher foods.
Kashrut Unveiled: Unraveling Contemporary Kashrut, is available in Jewish bookstores everywhere and on Amazon (https://tinyurl.com/ycyexdk6).
