Kosher Column - Is that coffee kosher? - December 2013

Page 22 M
jewish life
‫מזל טוב‬
Family
Moments
Mazel Tov!
Mazel tov Noah Wolgelerenter on your bar mitzvah!
Love Mom, Dad and Nathan!
cjnews.com › December 26, 2013
The Canadian Jewish News
Is that coffee kosher?
In the cold months, many of us
like to drop into our local coffee
shop and warm up with our favourite coffee. There are many different
franchises, all offering a slew of aromatic and delicious products. At
the MK office, we often receive queries on the subject. We would like to
share with our readers the kashrut
issues that come up when we drink
coffee at a non-certified establishment.
While some establishments
specialize only in coffee and coffee items, there are others that sell
food items prepared on the premises. They may also have panini machines, meat sandwich makers and
the like.
There are certain machines dedicated to the production of black
coffee in the form of coffee, espresso, long shots or similar drinks that
do not require any certification.
However, when the coffee is a latte,
cappuccino or flavoured, it would
require a reliable certification, as
does hot chocolate.
An establishment that has a dishwasher or a machine for the preparation of non-kosher items will often wash the jug used to pour the
regular black coffee (which should
technically be kosher), together
with utensils used in the preparation of non-kosher food items, in the
able certification. There
are many on the market
today with a reliable koRabbi Saul Emanuel
sher certification.
When
you
add
non-kosher
creamer,
whipped
d i s h w a s h e r. cream or similar products to cofHa l a c h i c a l l y fee, it’s important to ascertain that
speaking, the they bear a reliable certification,
d i s h w a s h - because stabilizers or similar ingreer uses soap, dients are often added.
and therefore, according to some,
Frozen drinks are also common
the jugs are still considered ko- items that require kosher certificasher. Others, however, believe that tion. These often contain flavouring
once the utensils used for kosher and similar ingredients that require
products are placed in the same certification. But kosher cold drinks
machine as the utensils used for produced in a cold blender are konon-kosher, one should not partake sher even if the blender is used to
of this coffee.
blend non-kosher-certified items,
Lattes and cappuccinos, which as long as no heat is used at any
are made with black coffee and point during the production of the
heated milk, are acceptable with- drink, and the blender is washed
out certification, unless one is with detergent prior to its being
stringent about the laws of cholov used for the kosher product.
Yisrael. In such cases, one should
When soy milk is added to cofseek out an establishment that is fee, one should make certain that it
cholov Yisrael.
bears a reliable kosher certification.
Some establishments produce Should the soy milk be found in an
coffee in big urns. The coffee is unmarked jug, one should ask to
made by pouring it from the top of see the label of the product.
the container into the urn through
While we try to keep warm in the
a filter. These kinds of urns are not winter months, let’s ensure that we
washed in a dishwasher, and the keep the warmth of Torah within us,
coffee poses no kashrut problem.
and we consume only those items
Flavoured drinks sold in the that are of the highest kosher stanstore, hot or cold, do require a reli- dard. When in doubt, check it out.
Kosher Living
We must honour our sages
Happy six month birthday to Charlie Lew, son of
Kristen Chemerika and Kyle
Lew. With love from the whole family.
Congratulations Amanda on the birth of your
beautiful daughter Makelyla Alexandra Serge.
Love your favourite uncle
Email your digital photos to
[email protected] or go online
to www.CJNews.com
and click the “Family Moments”
Probably the most popular story in the Talmud is the story of the
modular oven (Baba Metzia 59b)
whose parts were connected by
sand so that it functioned as a unit,
but whose parts remained somewhat independent of each other.
The question before the sages was
whether this should be considered
a finished vessel and, therefore,
subject to the rules of purity and
impurity, or whether it was technically under construction and,
therefore, not subject to these
rules. The principle was that an unfinished vessel does not have the
potential to become impure until
it has reached its finished state.
The sages declare that it is indeed finished enough, while Rabbi
Eliezer disagrees and says that it’s
not. At this point, the fireworks begin. Rabbi Eliezer has a number of
parlour tricks that he invokes in order to prove that his opinion is correct. Streams are twisted around,
carob trees jump several football
fields, the walls of the beit midrash begin to collapse, and finally,
a heavenly voice descends and announces: “The law always goes according to Rabbi Eliezer!”
None of these “proofs” impress
his colleagues, not even the heav-
The Talmud poses the
following question: “But
where in the Torah did
Rabbi Ilan Acoca
God command us to light
the Chanukah candles?
enly
voice.
The Talmud answers,
Quoting from “Rav Avya said from the verse ‘You
the Torah, they shall not deviate from the words
say, “It [the that they [the rabbis] will tell you’
Torah] is not [Deuteronomy 17:11], Rav Necheheaven,” and miah said from the verse ‘Ask your
“after the majority one must in- father and he will tell you, your
cline.”
elders and they will say to you’”
Later, one of the sages sees Elijah (Deuteronomy 32:7).
the Prophet in the marketplace and
This idea reminds me of my faasks how the Holy One reacted to ther, who passed away 19 years
the seeming impudence of the sag- ago. He was someone who had
es, and Elijah replies, “God smiled such kavod for the Torah and chaand said, ‘My children have defeat- chamim. Whenever a chacham
ed me! They have defeated me!’”
walked by, my father stood up in
How is it possible for God to awe and trepidation. It didn’t matdeclare that His children defeated ter who the chacham was – my faHim? What was God intending to ther had to show respect to the Toteach us through this story?
rah by standing.
God wanted to emphasize how
I often ask myself where my faimportant it is to have emunat ther and his generation got this rechachamim, trust in our sages, and spect from? I believe it’s something
how we have to respect them.
they got from their childhoods. It’s
The Talmud (Shabbat 23a) in- something they saw their parents
structs us to light Chanukah can- do, and they continued with this
dles and recite the blessing, “Who magnificent tradition.
has sanctified us with His comLet’s all remember this teaching
mandments and has commanded and continue living and perpetuatus to kindle the Chanukah light.” ing it into the next generation.
Sephardi Window