No other ‘rabbi’ will ever act against another ‘rabbi’ – even when he knows his colleague is clearly desecrating the Torah. Each rabbi is only worried about losing his own position.

Therefore, the ‘rabbi’, ‘dayyan’ or false ‘mekubal’ (‘kabbalist’) will never effect justice. And he will never truly stand for the Torah or the Honour of Hashem. His pocket will always prevail.

The Torah must never be used for commercial gain and profit. Amm israel can only be lead by those who have the necessary love and respect of Hashem and the Torah.

If he refuses to do community work voluntarily, and wants and accepts payment for everything he does, such a man should not be leading a community. He should get a job and earn a living. He can collect milk bottles or clean the windows. That is what is called ‘earning a living’.

Torah is learned, studied and taught: out of Love. Voluntarily. But the ‘rabbis’ have turned the Torah into their ‘Profession’, from which they earn money.

We are commanded in the Shema to:
‘LOVE Hashem, your G-d, WITH ALL YOUR HEART, and with all your soul and with all your might.’

‘VE’AHAVTA et Hashem Elokecha BECHOL LEVAVECHA uvechol nafshecha uvechol meodecha.’ (Devarim, Vaethanan, 6:4-5)

Is the ordinary man or woman PAID to pray to Hashem, or to say some words of Torah? No. Has veshalom! But the rabbis are. These men can give ‘lovely’ shiurim that they have rehearsed. But they would not give a shiur without being paid for it.

The true hachamim and rabbis of old, all actually worked at proper jobs and professions.

Wake up! Even a little child could have worked this out. These salaried men can never truly stand for the Torah, because in a case of conflict between a correct course of action according to the Torah, and the rabbi or rav’s pocket – his pocket and position will always prevail.

Pirkei Avot: (2:2)
“Raban Gamliel beno shel Rabi Yehuda HaNassi omer: yafeh talmud Torah im derech eretz, sheyegiat shenaihem mashkachat avon. Vechol Torah she’ein imah melacha sofa betailah ve’goreret avon. Vechol haoskim im hatzibbur yiheyu imahem leShem Shamayim……”

“Rabban Gamliel, the son of Rabi Yehuda HaNassi, said: It is good to combine Torah study with a worldly occupation, for working at them both drives sin from the mind. All Torah without an occupation will in the end fail and lead to sin. And let all who work for the community do so for the sake of Heaven………”

If you aren’t already paying enough for kosher food be prepared for price increases as purveyors of kosher foods must purchase/print “labels” and spend the time affixing the labels; a preposterous requirement since an unchallenged provision of New York’s kosher laws requires every purveyor representing that it sells kosher food topost a notice identifying under whose hashgacha it operates, how often the mashgiach supervises [for those without a mashgiach temidi], and the mashgiach’s “background”.

Last time I checked Pirkei Avot told us to find for ourselves a rabbi and it is our rabbi’s determination as to whether the hashgacha is acceptable. If the hashgacha is acceptable, what is the need for a label.

It is suspected that no purveyor of kosher food adheres to having every product bear a label identifying it as kosher [ever buy a sandwich to go.] Surveys of some of the most respected purveyors of kosher foods, establishments which indisputably adhere to stringent rules of kashrut, reflect that they sell some kosher food without the statutorily required label.

In this regard it is important to note that there is no provision of the law which provides that heckshers constitute the required label. Of course, according to Kashrus Magazine, there are now well in excess of 900 heckshers and, if the purpose of the labeling law is to give consumers notice that something is kosher, few if any consumers can recognize most, much less all, heckshers . More to the point, very few of the heckshers state, in English, Hebrew, Yiddish or otherwise, that the product to which the hecksher is affixed is kosher – the statutory requirement..

i strongly believe that this stress on machmir and institutional kashrus (and all the costs that come with it) has cost the jewish people many kosher-observers, those who do not want to/cannot absorb the cost (because we think within a framework that since the jews are set money wise, we don’t have to consider cost a major concern anymore. also, the existential piety is also triggered by a higher cost, due to our sacrifice).

people who want to keep a (more) liberal kashrus can’t really compete with these social forces.

I believe neighboring New Jersey has a kosher law that can withstand constitutional muster. It merely requires kosher restaurants and groceries to post a sign listing their certifiying agency, frequency of inspection, and has a short checklist for consumers to check for specific kosher standards, without entangling into denominational differences as to what exactly is kosher.

BTW, New Jersey also has a similar law regarding halal food. The idea here is consumer protection is a legitimate state function; religious favoritism is not.

I am not sure of the history but I believe that the laws were originally implemented as a form of consumer protection legislation. I have a recollection of problems with ‘Kosher Style’ restaurants.

But… it is an interesting conflict with Church-State issues.

Here the question is, in some ways, who defines which church the State is in conflict with.

The Jewish community isn’t unanimous about what is and isn’t kosher — and the idea that the government is implementing one denomination’s religious law over another is pretty jarring. It’s not NY State’s job to verify who is and isn’t kosher — that’s for the Jews to decide.