While organizers expected between 20-30 women due to icy weather, over 60 women participated in last Tuesday night’s bug checking workshop with Rabbi Yosef Dovid Chanowitz, Rabbinic Field Representative and hilchos kashrus expert. The event was truly informative and hands-on, benefiting all who attended.
Rabbi Chanowitz opened the workshop by explaining how fresh produce is infested because of the decrease in the use of pesticides and therefore the necessity to clean vegetables thoroughly.
Using the OK’s Vegetable Checking Guide, Rabbi Chanowitz showed the different types of insects that are found in a variety of vegetables, including numerous sizes of aphids, cabbage maggots and the infamous leaf minor, commonly found in spinach and lettuce. Romaine heart lettuce and celery are examples of loose layered vegetables, where it is imperative to check each leaf and stalk because insects have easy access to crawl between the layers.
The group was shown how to make an effective ratio of soap-water solution in which to cleanse vegetables and then how specific vegetables need to be cleaned and inspected. There was time allotted for a questions and answer session that involved the crowd and proved extremely informative.
Due to the great demand from the community, Junior N’shei will be arranging more such events in the future. To keep informed on future events and programs, contact [email protected].
Junior N’shei is open for all women, no matter age or stage.
To become involved in their programs, please contact Malka Michla Perlow at (646) 464-2011
Please join us, at Mayanot shul Wednesday Jan 22nd, 388 Kingston, for Rabbi Chanowitz’s first of 2 part Halacha shiur of vegetables. Looking forward!
Your clarity and patience is always so appreciated. You’re amazing, thank you!
Is everything an argument on COLlive these days?
Its time to stop this! Accusing people of eating ham? THis is Jewish? This is nice?
Genug Shoin!
BTW. _ I would love to see a video of this, education is always a good thing, but no need to put down a devoted Jewish mother and say that she is like eating chazir! Hashem Yishmor! Where has all the civility gone, CH?
Just as we are. I didn’t accuse them of not keeping mitzvos the way they should have. They did, and they were *still* nichshal, because it’s impossible not to be. Only tzadikim are protected from ever being nichshal in forbidden foods. (And even then, if a tzadik holds that something is permitted, then even if he’s wrong, and klapei shmaya galya that it’s really forbidden, he is not protected from accidentally eating it.)
Treif is metamtem halev vehamoach, and also harms the guf, even if you had no idea it was there. It’s got nothing to do with whether you followed the rules. Even if it’s not your fault at all, you still ate it, and it will still harm you. Do you think that an innocent baby is not harmed by eating treif?! How many times did the Rebbe stress the importance of making sure children eat only kosher food, only cholov yisroel, etc., lest their neshomos be harmed? And just last week we learned about Moshe Rabbenu being saved from nursing… Read more »
If yes, please share
If you don’t feel like checking for bugs just cut your veggies very small, a cut-up bug isn’t a problem, only a whole bug is.
Yum!!
I agree with #3 (b’erech, I don’t like her attitude), in that there are too many chumrot these days.
And #17 v’domov are just wrong, and how DARE you guys say that our ancestors were nichshal, to accuse so many thousands of people of not keeping mitzvos like they should??? And YOU keep them better?
Puke puke. Bug off!
for an informative and lovely evening
“and found a nice sized bug (no, not microscopic at all) in my salad”
Something about the way you write it tells me you are trying to scare people about the severity or sin involved, or perhaps to put down people who aren’t “makpid”, or defend against a claim that “Rabbis are just making up rules”. You must be one of those rabbis.
I’m lazy about washing/checking, so I don’t buy problematic / highly infested foods. There’s plenty of fruits and veggies that are easy to clean.
To all those who say the Rabbis are just making up rules – I was once by someone who isn’t makpid about how she washes lettuce.. and found a nice sized bug (no, not microscopic at all) in my salad.
if u have a question or something dont make up ur own shulchon aruch…ASK a rov!
i looks like u are saying things just the way u feel
if u THINK something, it does not mean it’s right.
and is very imp to ask a rov
If you did follow the requirements to clean or check vegetables for insects, and ate some insects unknowingly, you did not eat trief! That is if you followed the rules! It is the same as if you ate an apple that had a worm unknowingly, you were not over an aveira, since you were not required to check. As the matter of fact, most vegetables require checking M’dirabonon. Which means that min Hatorah they do not need to be checked. The reason for this is- since we follow the Majority of vegetables, since most vegetables do not have bugs we… Read more »
Would it be possible to video tape the next class so that those of us who live out of town can also benefit from a class like this?
No matter how carefully you check, if there is a visible bug that you missed, and you eat it, then it is exactly the same as if you ate ham. Actually, it’s WORSE than ham. And yes, our ancestors did sometimes miss bugs, and therefore were nichshal in treif. What’s more, with all the light boxes and other modern accessories, once in a while you will STILL miss a bug, and eat treif. That’s just the way it is. All you can do is try to reduce the number of times this happens. And if there’s something you CAN do… Read more »
“Our ancestors didn’t have light boxes — and therefore they sometimes didn’t find bugs, and ate them without knowing. Who knows what damage that did to their neshomos?”
Oh? So Hashem set them up for failure by not providing them with the technology?! The halacha does not require using a light box. A light box can make it easier for you, but it’s not halachically required.
I personally use greenhouse grown Positiv lettuce and cabbage and greenhouse grown Eden/B’Gan frozen broccoli and cauliflower, dill and parsley cubes. And I use scallions in the winter when they are clean.
He is a Rabbinic Field Representative of the OK and did a great hands-on job!
Yasher Koach!
Can the presentation be given again, perhaps one for men too (to be able to help their Noshim Tzidkoniyos) or at least put on a video.
Completely agree!!!!
It seems to me that it’s a bug’s life out there.
So don’t bug me.
I agree with 3 this is nonsense check your lettuce what you see is there the Ok ou star K etc bodek do not check like they want mothers of children to check
This nonsense falls under the category of lo sosif and it’skilling our young
At best the attitude towards tel aim is fullish at worst it’s just of men sitting in a killer and dreaming up extra hardships on call yisroel
Let’s not forget it says vochai bohem
PScheck letters the way our mother ‘s and bubehs did
My mother zol zein a guteh beter did this 40 yrs. ago, with al drop of dish detergent of koshe one
lets us not be frimmer than Galochim
ess iz zeir gring tzu machin shaylos.
Any fool can make a shayla but it takes a real rav to paskin that it is good. If you choose to live with extra chumros that is fine for you .. but it is preferable that you try to make another persons load lighter.. What you are suggesting is really way off the mark!! It is not our derech. Someone who soaks and washes her veggies and does not use a lightboard does NOT equal to eating ham. I think this statement indicates your approach tzu zuchen fun unter di erd.
While I also have a large family, me and other women came to this event to help us do the right thing, in a convenient way. The methods demonstraited were to simplify the process, without the need to use all these tools and light boxes. I think Rabbi Chanowitz and the OK are pretty reasonable about their requirements. He showed us how the insects are visible to an eye, yet hard to detect if one is not trained. But the good thing is, that I learnt how to clean the vegetables without the need for a checking each one. Which… Read more »
With that attitude you are GUARANTEED to be feeding your eight children treif. You may as well just cook ham and be done with it. Of course creatures that are invisible to the naked eye are permitted; NOBODY DISPUTES THAT. Absolutely nobody. You can search forever to find anyone who says there’s any problem with such creatures, and you’ll find the bugs more easily than the rabbis who forbid them. So stop pretending that is the issue. As soon as someone mentions microscopic bugs in this context, you know that they are being dishonest and working with an anti-Torah agenda.… Read more »
Would a demonstration like this be available for women in Boro Park. If yes, to whom do we contact? Please advise and direct reply to: [email protected]
thank you.
So, did the Rabbi find any bugs while he was cleaning the veges?
Thank you OK for sponsoring such events, and giving us a first hand opportunity to meet theOK rabbis behind the hechsher so many of us trust.
I am so tired of hearing about bugs…If it were up to the rabbonim to make dinner every night….there would be NO checking of bugs…. This is ridiculous….’because’ of pesticides the produce is infested? pesticides are supposed to get rid of the bugs..you can’t have it both ways.. Where in the Torah or Shulchan Orech does it say that you have to check for bugs under a light box. Who had light boxes or microscopes in those days? If you can’t see it with the naked eye, then to my (perhaps inferior) mind…they do not exist. NO ONE wants to… Read more »
Thank you for the very informative presentation.
While not eating bugs is very important, I find that people use this as a opportunity to become crazy, they drive people nuts about everything they eat and how there might still be bugs.
Also the Jewish companies like Bodek charge crazy high prices and the Goyishe companies Clean the vegetables with a better process.