Monsey, NY - Since sundown on Saturday, when the Jewish Sabbath ended, men, women and children have been scrubbing kitchen counters and stoves, and dipping pots and utensils in scalding water.
Butcher Is Accused of Passing Off Chicken as Kosher
Click Here for a newscast of this event (FOX5)
Monsey, NY – Since sundown on Saturday, when the Jewish Sabbath ended, men, women and children have been scrubbing kitchen counters and stoves, and dipping pots and utensils in scalding water.
“My husband and I had to leave everything we were doing,” said Esther Herzl, 61, a Hasidic grandmother who lives here, “and all we did was scrape and scrape and scrape — from the cutlery to the glassware to the countertops, oven and stove. I’m beat. We’re truly religious, so we don’t cheat in the cleaning.”
The cleansing ritual, which is prescribed by Jewish law, became necessary after a Hasidic butcher was accused of stocking the shelves of a kosher grocery store here with nonkosher chicken and selling it to thousands of Orthodox Jewish families.
Now a group of rabbis is debating the fate of the butcher.
Last week, the state’s Department of Agriculture and Markets seized 15 cases of chicken from the store, Hatzlocha Grocery, where the butcher sold chicken and other meats from rented shelf space to test it for salt, a key ingredient in kosher food.
The state agency and the rabbis, who represent several Hasidic congregations in Monsey and elsewhere in Rockland County, are trying to determine the origin of the chicken, whose package carried the stickers of two area kosher meat plants that had ceased supplying to the butcher after he failed to pay them, according to a local rabbi and an employee at the store.
“To sell nonkosher as kosher is one of the biggest acts of betrayal that a Jewish person can do to another,” said Rabbi Menachem Meir Weissmandel of Chemed Shul, a local synagogue. “This is the darkest day in the history of our community since we settled in this area many years ago.”
The butcher, Moshe Finkel, owns Shevach Meats, which buys kosher chicken and other meats in bulk, and then slices, packages and sells it at the grocery store and to wedding halls, religious schools and Hasidic camps in the Catskill Mountains.
Attempts to reach Mr. Finkel, who lives in Monsey, by telephone were unsuccessful on Wednesday. Rabbi Weissmandel said that Mr. Finkel was banned from Hatzlocha Grocery last Wednesday, as soon as the store owners uncovered his alleged transgression.
He said the store owners confronted Mr. Finkel after they noticed the shelves lined with kosher meats, even though his usual suppliers had not made a delivery. Almost immediately, leaflets lined Hatzlocha’s windows, telling patrons in Hebrew that Shevach Meats had been caught selling nonkosher chicken. At synagogues and on the street, rabbis instructed the faithful to throw out the meat and cleanse their kitchens to make them kosher again.
The matter has been the talk of Jewish Web logs. One of them, Vos Iz Neias, announced it under the banner headline “Butcher Sells Treifa Chicken as Kosher.” (Nonkosher food, or food that is not in accord with Jewish dietary laws, is called treif, which derives from the Hebrew word teref, or torn.) The posting generated 440 comments in two days.
Rabbinical panels often work in secret, so it is hard to figure out when the rabbis here will reach a decision or what it will be.
As for the state, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department said investigators were trying to determine if the chicken was ever certified as kosher and advertised as such at the store. She said violators are subject to fines of up to $1,000.
CN
If it was really treifa meat, of such a butcher Torah says to "throw him to the dogs" (which according to one opinion means the butcher in a future gilgul would come back to this world as a dog) See Meam Loez
not a big fan
with all the crap that is flying around about CHK, they were the ones that found out that the shuk was selling meat that was not rubashkin, as rubashkins, and closed them down!!
BrookAve
What ???? Only $1,000.00 !!!! That is such a paltry (read) poultry fine!!! That violation code needs to be addressed.
From Montreal
Wow! What is this world coming to?? Is this what money hungry frum yidden do?? Moshiach better come quick…..
Dov
The same thing happened in Brooklyn. I think that we should only buy from a butcher that has a Mashgiach present.
NO COMMENT TO THIS COMMENT:)
OH MY GOD….WHAT KIND OF A PERSON CAN DO SUCH A THING??? NOTHING TO SAY….
Moishy Goldstein
Ye! I heard about it! It’s Mamash Crazy!
Rivka
Did anybody stop to think about the obvious? As soon as the story was broadcast on CBS I thought its probably a money issue, The suppliers refused to give Mr. Finkel merchandise until he paid up so he got their meat from a different source. They were angry at being outsmarted, hence the false accusations. Shame on them!
Kashrus Stringencies
I think I’m only going to buy meats packaged in the original (company) packaging unless the store has a Mashgiach Temidi that can be trusted. That store DID have a hashgacha, but you can hide things.
sem girl
first of all you don’t even know all the detailas, an average jew has a status of being innnocent untill he is proven to be guilty.
talking about it is not gonna change anything, it could only bring much MACHLOKES and LASHON HARA
!!! be carefull especially that we are now in elul!!!!
from monsey
well that store is know not to be to good. a couple of summers ago one worker stabbed the other worker and he died. and other such crazy things have happened.
chaim
that is why you need mashgechim in such a store where meat and chicken is repacket it dose not matter how chasedish or not a person is if you are the owener you think more about the cash then the kosher aspect of the business.
Eliezer
as much as people want to defend him, and there have even been better defenses. but, as rumor has it, he admit to what he did, just made up some side excuse as to why he did it. also, dont balme the people for making accusations, this story came out over a week ago, and there has not been much defense on his part, publicly claiming that he didnt do it. it only hit the goyishe news now. i would be very surprised if he came out innocent.
eli
EXCUSE ME!!! the meat dep of the store had nothing to do with the owner of the store. in fact, it was the owner who helped save more people from eating treif. dont base things on what you hear. u know articles usually dont say the full story… and to- FROM MONSEY- lets hear what "other such stories" have happened? i happen to love that store, the service, the prices, what could be wrong?
let me know
that store did have a hashgacha but u cud hide things…. which store? as far as im concered the store and meats were two separate owners, no?!?!?!?
oy
They haven’t even proven anything yet, have they? Gosh, I really feel bad for that butcher if it’s not true!!!!! Imagine the embarassment he’s going through!!
Rochel
Who would do such a thing.
Reality Check
There is a Gemarah in Sanhedrin (and further discussed in Shulchan Aruch) about such acts being the worst sort of deceit and genaivah and the required Teshuva which includes in the first instance his having to be stripped of his license and ability to sell meat.
As and when he demonstrates the right sort of contrition (yailech limokoim acher etc. see there Perek Shlishi) and also includes his requirement to reimburse everyone accordnigly, then he can start to make his way back!
OI meh hoyoh lanu! Then again who rememebrs Shmelke Burnsteins and the horse meat?
OT Bochur
To: from monsey
you said " a couple of summers ago one worker stabbed the other worker and he died." i think you’re getting mixed up with chai Pizza shop in Monsey right which took place right before pesach a couple of years ago. And it was two Latino goyim, nothing to do with the hashgachah.
yeshiva bochur
excuse me miss "sem gal" such things need to be publicised for many reasons so seriously..wake up.
Civey
So now I know why Jews have gone crazy to eat Japanese maichulim (seeshi, toifee etc). It’s to teach us that when some one is caught doing a maase nevulah, he should be a mentch and do the Japanese tsheeva -commit "Harry carry".
don-t judge until u know the whole story
He is inoccent until proven guilty! When you embarrass some one it’s like killing them!
E.E.
I am not from Monsey, but go there visiting regularly. Hatzlacha Grocery is owned by very erliche and good people, they also happen to be Ba’alei Tzedokah in a quiet and unassuming way. People (i.e. From Monsey) should be careful before writing negative things on a public website. What happened in their store had nothing to do with them and they are really suffering from this scandal. There once full store is now empty. My heart goes out to them and all Monsey – except of course the person who caused of all this.
realistic
oy, love ur dan l’kaf zchus attitude, but the evidence is pretty conclusive…
impossible
reality check, how in the world can you "reimburse" someone for making them eat treif?!!??!?!
izzy c
we are all at fault, meat needs two simonim (seals) al pi torah even us crown heightsers only purchase with one, second of All when another company, store, etc… packages meat from the original company where are the mashgichim????
been to monsey this week
the store and the butcher shop were two seprate owners and the butcher was also a ba’al tefilah and ba’al koreh in one of the shulls in monsey and also he did the acts at night not during working hours so the rabonim were not there at such hours such as in middle of the night and it even efected other places such as isreal and more
BrookAve
To Reality Check: Shmulka Bernsteins on Essex Street in the 70’s had the tastiet deli. That Romanian pastrami rocked ! He only used the finest breed of horse from Kentucky. I used to trot over there every Sunday for dinner. Is Shmulka in the winners circle in Shamayim? Hey Hey
From Monsey
1) This came out AFTER the local rabonim (including the Rav hamachshir of that store and our Lubavitcher Rov, Rabbi Lesches) investigated this issue.
2) He admitted that he did this vile act. Since he lost his chezkas kashrus, the rabbonim are debating how far back we need to go.
3) The community is obviously devastated and is begining to be bodek if we there are other areas that need to be checked.
The hechsher on that store was a local reliable hechsher.
Instead of talking about issues that you know nothing about, plesae spend your time doing something more constructive.
MK
I feel really bad for his wife and family – can’t imagine what they are going through…their lives are ruined.
optimist
ppl have free choice (i.e. the butcher) but i find it hard to believe that g-d would allow something SO evil to befall such innocent ppl. i hope and pray that soon more facts come to light and this story has a happy ending!!!
WE CAUSED IT!!!!
My father was a shochet for many years -he says that the reason this story and other stories like it happen is because of US!!!
We say this Rav’s hechsher is not good enough I need specifically my Rav. Who pays for the extra hechsher/rabbi. Who pays the extra expense?!? The seller can’t raise the price on us because competition is very tight, and many of the cows and chickens they shecht become unkosher and they must throw them out. So the slaughter houses must take SHORTCUTS to make up the extra expense of the extra Rav you guys are demanding. When they get really desperate they may do something like this.
How ironic. By your own chumras, you wind up messing up Kashrus ROYALLY!
IN SHOCK
For those of you who think he may be "innocent". Even if he is 99% innocent and there is a 1% chance that he did this vile act, it needs to be made public. We are talking about treif meat here, this is very serious.
zalmy
to we caused it:
you make a lot of sense! as a result of this story we should be LESS carefull about the meat we buy.
the simple logic is that those people who would do these atrocitys just to make a few extra bucks,
obviosly wouldn’t do it if we just let them put theire own hechsher (which we of course don’t recognise)
on the other hand, if we insist on requesting meat that has a familiar hechsher of a LOCAL rav who we know and trust, so that we can try to stop such people,
then we will be depriving those poor people of theire extra profits, which would then justify them doing what this man did.
indeed "how ironic?"!!!
please make sure your father isn’t shechting my meat.
impressed with hatzlacha, not shevach
hatzlacha grocery, all i can say is much hatzlacha. the misconceptions will evetually be taken care of,
the owner of hatzlacha is a great man, baalei tzdakah with such fine midos. i dont know him too personally but i know many people have benefited from his donations and fine attitude and smile that came with it all. may you continue to do so, and as they say "giving tzdokoh besaiser is the best form of tzdokoh"
why blame it on ppl trying to keep tora
to we caused it: yep, that is defenitely the cause of all the hashgacha problems in the world today. I think we should cut out the whole hashgacha thing so that it will be even cheaper for the store owners and even less of a chance that they will try to scam us! and hey, youll be doing a GOOD thing by taking off the hashgacha, b/c this way, the food will be cheaper and more people will start eating kosher! For those of you who are too slow to pick up the sarcasm, what im trying to say is: You are wrong! Don’t blame it on people who are at least trying to keep kosher.
!!
Gevald is all I can say!
shocked
i cant believe a yid would do that
MENDEL S
when the rebe said lo mehem ilo momonom , not to have to do with them and not to have to do with thei shchita, i remember No ONE from all of us ate satmar shchita < today evreyone eats evrykind of shchita< and when the rebe said the rabbonim will be till moshiach it was so loud and claer i was a bochur then that parshas mispotim 770 walls ware shaking evrey single word from our nossi hador was and is forevor. we should all have a great year and if us the one who lived thru all the years with out moshe rabenu will stop being busy with money and covod and look on out kids and just give them that love that the rebe gave us when we ware small we will be zoch to see the rebe ain bimherah vyomeni
my name
all i can say is, i don’t know details so i’m not judging. But. I am sure happy that I stood and will continue to stand strong in ONLY EATING LUBAVITCHER SHCHITA MEAT!!
Moshiach NOW!!
a practical yid
If you want kosher produce- grow it yourself, if you want kosher wine- make it yourself, if you want kosher meat- shecht it yourself!!
P LIPSCHUTZ
A TIME FOR TEARS
By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
The frum world is still reeling with shock over revelations that a Monsey butcher was fraudulently selling non-kosher meat and chicken as kosher. While it remains unclear exactly what was taking place at Shevach Meats and for how long, there is no doubt that people were led astray on a massive scale.
People in Monsey stood on long lines kashering their utensils last week following the p’sak of local rabbonim, as printed in last week’s Yated. That p’sak advised that all utensils used for cooking and eating meat and poultry products purchased at that store require kashering.
Some stories are so sad that it is difficult to write about them. You want to believe that it didn’t really happen. You wait for someone to call you and tell you that it was all a massive misunderstanding.
For once, the cliché that something is “unbelievable” can be taken literally. The news of the betrayal of the public trust in such an egregious manner and in such a vital area of Jewish life is staggering. It has left tens of thousands of Jews dumbfounded, wondering how such a thing could have happened. The initial reaction of shock and horror has not worn off, as responsible leaders seek to determine the details of this case and whether the practice is more widespread.
Rabbonim in the Monsey area were kept busy paskening shailos on this matter as people went about taking stock of their pots and pans and determining which required kashering and which didn’t. Never in their wildest dreams did they imagine such a thing would happen in their community. Rabbonim across the world addressed the issue in their Shabbos drashos as people searched for answers and direction.
One seeks to remember the last time something like this took place, bringing a michshol to this many people. We hope and pray that such an occurrence will never be repeated.
“How can it be? How can it possibly be? What are we missing?” asked people who are medakdeik b’kallah k’bachamurah. Erudite people were unable to answer.
P LIPSCHUTZ
He Broke
Down Crying
Last week, amidst the tumult surrounding the scandal, I heard a story that drove home an important message regarding the calamity that has hit our community.
The story, as it was told, was that an elderly gentleman, who decades ago survived the concentration camps of Auschwitz, went to kasher his keilim after learning the p’sak of the rabbonim. As he stood there, handing over his pot to be dunked in the boiling water, he broke down in tears, weeping uncontrollably. He wasn’t burned by the steam or splashed by the boiling hot water, but his soul was seared and the pain was unbearable. He said to no one in particular, “All my years in the camps, I was literally moser nefesh not to eat tarfus. I risked my life, many times, just to have kosher food to eat, even as I existed on mere morsels of bread. Many times I starved. And now, so many years later, living in the land of plenty, I may have eaten treif.”
This man cried because, after a lifetime of nisyonos and challenges of all kinds, he understands the severity and the gravity of what has occurred. To a man who risked his life for kashrus, the possible consumption of non-kosher chicken is a cause for weeping, not a reason to gossip.
As many people indeed are, we should all be heartbroken over what took place. The tragedy should leave us speechless and not provide fodder for small talk at get-togethers.
We should focus on ensuring that we never, ever, become accustomed to a lack of fidelity in halacha. And in order to do so, we must learn halacha more often, in depth, with due diligence. We can’t live as frum Yidden without devoting hours upon hours plumbing the depths of Shulchan Aruch and the poskim. That goes for Orach Chaim, as well as Choshen Mishpot, Yoreh Deah and Hilchos Lashon Hara.
watchout
he was caught, how do we know that there isn’t someone else doing the same thing who wasnt caught yet? we have to make a certain system that should be fool proof of anyone else g-d forbid doing, or attemting to do such a thing in the future maybe barcodes or something.
Rabbi Moshe Heinemann
This whole story in Monsey makes me laugh so hard. I feel personally exonerated over the kashrus scandal I was involved in. I am refering to the cruise in the Inner Harbor some years back in which 250 frum people were eating treif after I broke the 50 year old takane of Rav Shvartz ZT"L, a former Rav of the city. I feiffed un the takane against giving hashgachas to food companys that sell both treif and kosher. Rav Shvartz ZT"L was afraid of mixups and fraud. Maybe he was right, but I saw a financial opportunity in breaking the takane. A few weeks later there was the mixup and all those people were eating treif. Ever since people refused to forget what I had done. That is until now. The Monsey scandal is like pie from the sky. I just love it. Also, I am waiting to see if Rav Shternbuch from the Eida Hachraidis is going to write a nasty letter attacking the rabbonim in Monsey, the way he wrote a letter against me saying I am not a nehman on kashrus. Thank you so much Rabbi Moshe Finkel. You have made me so happy. Finally, after so many years people will stop talking against me. You could’t have done me a bigger favor. I just can’t stop laughing. Rabbi Moshe Finkel, I owe you one. Hatzlacha.
What the Chutzpah
To "Rabbi" Heineman:
I don’t even know why they let you publish this on the website. You are glad that someone did an aveirah? Do you even know what people are going through? My neighbor was crying as she cleaned out her dishwasher. she couldn’t bear the thought that she fed her children treife meat. People had to sit for hours boiling water and kashering their keilim. The whole issue about not knowing when he started selling treife meats is a very big problem for lots of people. My family, who only started eating Lubavitch chicken about five years ago, had to kasher all of our keilim because we weren’t sure when this whole thing started. I think you should be totally ashamed of yourself that you are happy for this man. You shouldn’t mix two issues together and say that now he’s going to get into trouble. Obviously the Rabbi’s are going to say something because it was such a terrible thing that happened. I personally don’t think that this incident will clear your name for that matter. It only might cause people to remember what you did and further their fury at you.
Barak obama
i know this story is old, but obviously someone used Rabbi Heinemann’s name as a way of trying to hurt him, and someone else actually believed it was the actual person????
Please get real folks, you can write you are somebody even if you’re not.