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Kashrut is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the term that in Sephardic or Modern Hebrew is pronounced kashér, meaning "fit".
A hechsher is a rabbinical product certification, qualifying items that conform to the requirements of Jewish religious law.
A mashgiach or mashgicha is a Jew who supervises the kashrut status of a kosher establishment. Mashgichim may supervise any type of food service establishment, including slaughterhouses, food manufacturers, hotels, caterers, nursing homes, restaurants, butchers, groceries, or cooperatives. Mashgichim usually work as on-site supervisors and inspectors, representing a kosher certification agency or a local rabbi, who actually makes the policy decisions for what is or is not acceptably kosher. Sometimes certifying rabbis act as their own mashgichim; such is the case in many small communities.
Kosher foods are foods that conform to the Jewish dietary regulations of kashrut. The laws of kashrut apply to food derived from living creatures and kosher foods are restricted to certain types of mammals, birds and fish meeting specific criteria; the flesh of any animals that do not meet these criteria is forbidden by the dietary laws. Furthermore, kosher mammals and birds must be slaughtered according to a process known as shechita and their blood may never be consumed and must be removed from the meat by a process of salting and soaking in water for the meat to be permissible for use. All plant-based products, including fruits, vegetables, grains, herbs and spices, are intrinsically kosher, although certain produce grown in the Land of Israel is subjected to other requirements, such as tithing, before it may be consumed.
In kashrut, the dietary laws of Judaism, pareve is a classification of edible substances that contain neither dairy nor meat ingredients. Food in this category includes all items that grow from the ground, fish, eggs, and non-biological edible items.
OK Kosher Certification is a major kosher certification agency based out of Brooklyn, NY. It is one of the "Big Five," the five largest kosher certifying agencies in the United States. OK also has a large kosher presence in Asia.
The Islamic dietary laws (halal) and the Jewish dietary laws are both quite detailed, and contain both points of similarity and discord. Both are the dietary laws and described in distinct religious texts: an explanation of the Islamic code of law found in the Quran and Sunnah and the Jewish code of laws found in the Torah, Talmud and Shulchan Aruch.
The Chicago Rabbinical Council is the largest regional Orthodox rabbinical organization in America, located in Chicago, Illinois. The cRc is a non-profit offering a wide variety of Jewish services, including kosher product supervision and kosher certification. Kosher certification is available around the world and throughout the year, including Passover supervision.
Star-K Kosher Certification, also known as the Vaad Hakashrut of Baltimore, is a kosher certification agency based in Baltimore, Maryland, under the administration of Rabbi Moshe Heinemann, with the involvement of many other rabbis. It is one of the largest Jewish dietary certification agencies in North America. It is trusted by many Orthodox Jews worldwide for dedication to preserving Kashrut. The organization supervises tens of thousands of commercial food products and food establishments around the world.
The Central Rabbinical Congress is a rabbinical organization that is a consortium of various Haredi Jewish groups, with offices in Brooklyn, New York.
A badatz is a major Jewish beth din. The term is a modern one, and is an acronym for beit din tzedek.
Rabbi Shimon Lazaroff is the current Texas Regional Director for Texas Friends of Chabad Lubavitch, Inc. and member of the board and executive committee of Agudas Chasidei Chabad. With the direction of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, he established Chabad Lubavitch in Texas upon his arrival with his family in 1972.
Tza'ar ba'alei chayim, literally "suffering of living creatures", is a Jewish commandment which bans causing animals unnecessary suffering. This concept is not clearly enunciated in the written Torah, but was accepted by the Talmud as being a biblical mandate. It is linked in the Talmud from the biblical law requiring people to assist in unloading burdens from animals.
EarthKosher is an American company providing kosher certification. The main office is in Boulder, Colorado, with offices in California, New Jersey, Mexico City and Jerusalem. It is a member of the Association of Kashrus Organizations.
Avraham Osdoba is an Orthodox rabbi and a member of the Chabad Hasidic movement. Rabbi Osdoba serves as a rosh yeshiva in 770 in addition to being a member of the Bais Din Tzedek of the Chabad community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn; he is an authority on Halacha, Talmud and Hasidic philosophy.
Rabbi Yosef Yeshaya BraunArchived September 26, 2020, at the Wayback Machine is an Orthodox rabbi and a member of the Chabad Hasidic movement. Rabbi Braun serves as a member of the Beth Din of Crown Heights, the Bais Din Tzedek of the Jewish community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn; he is an authority on Halacha and Hasidic philosophy. Rabbi Braun previously served as the rabbi of the Tzemach Tzedek Synagogue in Sydney, Australia.
A kosher certification agency is an organization or certifying authority that grants a hechsher to ingredients, packaged foods, beverages, and certain materials, as well as food-service providers and facilities in which kosher food is prepared or served. This certification verifies that the ingredients, production process including all machinery, and/or food-service process complies with the standards of kashrut as stipulated in the Shulchan Arukh, the benchmark of religious Jewish law. The certification agency employs mashgichim to make periodic site visits and oversee the food-production or food-service process in order to verify ongoing compliance. Each agency has its own trademarked symbol that it allows manufacturers and food-service providers to display on their products or in-store certificates; use of this symbol can be revoked for non-compliance. Each agency typically has a "certifying rabbi" who determines the exact kashrut standards to be applied and oversees their implementation.
Seal-K Kosher is a kosher certification organization. The organization provides kosher supervision and certification for commercial kitchens, in addition to certifications for food production and shaatnez testing. The organization has its office in Chicago in 2021.
Kosher Australia is the largest Australian based kosher certification agency. As of 2018 they had certified over 500 companies both in Australia and abroad. It was initially called Mizrachi Kashrut, followed by Melbourne Kashrut before becoming Kosher Australia in 2004.
Kof-K, a Teaneck, NJ-based Kosher certification agency, is one of the "Big Five."
References
- ↑ https://www.akokosher.org/members
- ↑ HalalCertification@ksakosher.org VeganCertification@ksakosher.org
