"For these things I cry; my eye, my eye runs down with water; because the Comforter is far from me...my children are desolate, because the enemy hath prevailed." -- Lamentations 1:16

Has the enemy prevailed?

Has the f-your-neighbor-f-the-poor attitude of secular right-wing culture done so much damage?

TwinCities.com reported today about one Minnesota (Conservative) Rabbi who has "stirred up controversy" by backing the tzedek hechsher, the Conservative Jewish movement's justice certification:

A dozen years ago, Rabbi Morris Allen stood before his congregation in this Twin Cities suburb to announce a program called Chew by Choice.

In the past year, however, Allen has extended his concern with kosher standards from adherence to religious ritual to commitment to social justice.

His drive to create a "hechsher tzedek," a justice certification, on the basis of how kosher food companies treat their workers, has brought him into intense conflict with the Orthodox authorities who traditionally have dominated the certification process.

Last month, the hechsher tzedek received formal endorsement from the Rabbinical Assembly, the national association of Conservative rabbis. In voting to support Allen's initiative with an unspecified amount of "volunteer and financial support," the assembly invoked a verse from Deuteronomy declaring, "You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow countryman or a stranger."

While the catalyst for Allen's action was a series of articles in the Forward weekly newspaper about accusations that workers at a large kosher slaughterhouse in Iowa are exploited, the resulting conflict has far wider import...By religious tradition and in some cases state law as well, kosher certification generally rests with Orthodox boards. The Orthodox Union, the largest force in certification, oversees more than half the kosher items in circulation. So the entrance of the Conservative movement into the field represents a challenge to the Orthodox authorities not only on ethical grounds but also on market share.

Ignoring the blatant spin, and granted I'm speaking as an "infant/automaton", -- something is lamentably wrong here.

From R' Chaim Ozer Grodzienski to the Chofetz Chaim to today's Orthodox leaders, the idea of "interdenominational cooperation" within the various Jewish "denominations" is largely eschewed at worst, and severely curtailed at best. With the possible exception of anti-missionary campaigns, there is virtually no issue regarding Jewish observance that will get the "denominations" -- which range in belief from "personal autonomy" and "decide your own laws" to "do not depart from your ancestors' ways in the slightest" -- to "agree upon." And indeed, this was a primary if not the main issue when when the Jewish Press ran the article in January:

In December 2006, a call came from outside the sphere of Orthodox kosher certifiers for a tsedek heckscher or justice certification that would ensure that kosher food producers “have met a set of standards that determine the social responsibility of kosher food producers, particularly in the area of worker rights.”

The [Orthodox Rabbinical Organization] views the suggestion as an attempt by those outside the observant community to infiltrate and dilute the existing framework of kashrus certifications.

I am right there with my esteemed rabbis on this point.

These things need to be addressed by the haredi communities themselves.

Prefacing everything with the caveat from Rav Weiner:

Addressing the issue at a meeting of rabbis in Flatbush was Rabbi Moshe Y. Weiner, rabbinic administrator of the Kosher Information and Service of Boro Park and Flatbush. Rabbi Weiner stressed that a kashrus certification could not (and must not) be awarded to a food-producing establishment that does not meet all of its required civic and legal obligations.

Without the necessary municipal and other mandatory permits on full display as mandated, no kashrus certification could be valid, stressed Rabbi Weiner.

Are we really unable to enforce -- either practically or economically -- the Shulchan Aruch's definition of "legal obligation"? There is no concept of "you shall not assist a EEOC law violator" in Jewish Law, but there IS a recurring theme of ein mesaye'in l'ovrei aveirah - you are not supposed to assist a sinner in the commission of his sin.

Would we buy free porn for masturbatory teenagers? Would we offer "free fill-up on premium for all getaway cars"? Obviously not. We do not give people additional sins or "beef up" people's already-being-committed sins.

While external, nebulous "standards" derived from "verses in Deuteronomy" do originate from "alien impositions" as the Jewish Press Op-Ed piece stated (apparently), my fear is that we could create an environment where, for the food service industry, the entire Choshen Mishpat, the entire body of Jewish civil and labor laws, is effectively relegated to irrelevance and impertinence.

And here's why the "velt" or "the system" is not at fault:

The universally highly-regarded HaEdah HaCharedis Kashrus Beis Din in Jerusalem as well as Rabbi Shmuel Wosner, author of Shevet Levi and leading posek, have been alerted to the suspicious machinations of those attempting to impose the so-called hekhsher tzedek.

What did they get told? What was the information presented to them? Was it debated? "The judge only has what his eyes see" to go on (or in this case, what his ears hear). We have all changed tone of voice or left out a preposition in asking a rabbi a question once or twice -- and it is the rabbis' job to ask the right questions and it is through this exchange that G-d's practical Truth reveals itself.

It is my opinion that the Orthodox community should be the most vocal in trying to rid all theft and oppression from its communities, to shake off the dust of theft which covers so many of us, like the Talmud says. Every crumb of chometz/leaven must be removed from our homes before Passover, and this leaven, we are taught represents our own Evil Inclinations which try to tempt us to sin. Will we allow this huge breadbasket of materialism-driven pooh-poohing of gezeilah and oshek while punctiliously checking freezers?

Where are we?

I pray that only the truth of halacha comes out of this interplay, and more importantly, I hope that G-d's Will -- for all people, and all paychecks, involved -- gets done.

If we can get food lelo chashash tevel orlah u'shvi'is, we should be able to get food lelo chashash gezel, oshek v'ribbis. Ha'meivinim yavinu v'yaskilu.