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Devotion and Passion ww VOL. s f / NO. 5 ADAR BAIS 5776/MARCH 2016 THEDaf a K ashrus A MONTHLYH NEWSLETTER FOR THE OU RABBINIC FIELD REPRESENTATIVE UP 2016 DEVOTION AND PASSION A Tribute to the Life of RABBI SHMUEL SINGER RC, Passover, Wine, Chocolate Rabbi Emanuel Holzer zt”l RABBI YAAKOV LUBAN THE OU continues to give certification to Passover Quinoa. Executive Rabbinic Coordinator Quinoa will be available with an OU-P from Setton, Pereg, Earthly Choice, Goldbaum, Natural Earth and La Bonne. Pereg will also ON THE 13th day of Adar 1, be selling quinoa flour. The OU will also continue certifying OU Erev Purim katan, 5776, Rabbi Kitniyot retail items as it did last year. Manischewitz will again have זצ"ל Emanuel (Manny) Holzer its Kitni line which includes chick peas, corn, lentil mix, peanut passed away. Rabbi Holzer, an butter and popcorn. Ferrero in Italy will have OU Kitniyot Nutella extraordinarily devoted disci- Spread and Kinder Chocolate. Osem will also have a number of OU ple of the Rav, Rav Yosef Dov Kitniyot items. All these products are clearly marked OU Kitniyot -was an out ,זצ"ל ,Soloveitchik L’Ochlei Kitniyot and are all made with Mashgiach Temidi like all who ,עוסק בצרכי צבור standing OU-P products. dedicated much of his life to Manischewitz together with Welch’s is introducing concord grape the service of the Jewish com- juice and sparkling concord grape juice. Kedem continues to bottle munity. grape juice under its own name as well as under the Savion and For the Kashrus Department of Gefen labels. All these items have always been and will continue Rabbi Holzer, circa 2005 the OU, his demise has particu- to be Mevushal. Kedem has one not Mevushal grape juice. This is lar significance. Rabbi Holzer bottled in 1.5 liter glass bottles and clearly labeled Non-Mevushal. served with great distinction as the chairman of the Rabbinic Kashrus Kedem also has Fresh Pressed Grape Juice as an OU-P grape juice Committee (RKC) of the RCA for two decades. He played a pivotal made without sulfites. Kedem also has Pomegranate and Sparkling role in the development of the OU during an exciting era of expan- Pomogrape Juices with the OU-P certification. Passover vodka sion and transition. With his passing, an important chapter in the will be available from David’s Harp and Royal Elite. OU-P liquers annals of the OU has come to an end. will be available under the Queen Esther, Spirit of Solomon & Gold Shot labels. Zachlawi will have OU-P arak and vodka. Zwack Rabbi Holzer’s involvement in kashrus began years before, while Slivovitz will be available with OU-P. assisting his rebbe in his battle against anti-shechita legislation. Between the years of 1958-1962, Rabbi Soloveitchik made numer- Manischewitz continues to bake matzah in Newark, NJ as in years ous trips to Washington to testify before Congressional Committees past. The OU has also agreed as in past years to place the OU-P on in defense of shechita. In the words of Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld Aviv, Osem, Yehuda, Rishon and Holy Land matzah products com- (Rabbi Holzer’s rav and devoted friend of many years), “Manny ing from Israel. The items are supervised by local Rabbanim and fought like a tiger in those years. He spared no effort to research are satisfactorily made with OU Pesach guidelines. In addition, we scientific data and assist the Rav in every possible way. Manny did certify Yanovsky matzah baked in Argentina. This matzah is widely much of the leg work for the Rav and was his right hand man.” distributed in Latin America. This company manufactures various types of matzah. Yet Rabbi Holzer’s most important contribution to kashrus was as chairman of the Rabbinic Kashrus Commission. What is the RKC? Manischewitz has whole wheat matzah meal and whole wheat matzah farfel. These items are made from Manischewitz OU-P whole wheat The RKC is a committee of prominent RCA Rabbis, which works matzah. Manischewitz also bakes OU-P Matzah under the Horowitz in partnership with the Rabbinic Coordinators (RCs) of the OU Margareten label. They also make Mediterranean Matzah which is Kashrus Department, to insure proper and appropriate standards of regular matzah sprayed with oil and spices after baking. It is not kosher supervision and offer valuable insight and suggestions. Until Matzah Ashirah. Manischewitz continues to produce Egg Matzah as Rabbi Holzer’s retirement in 2006, the RKC met once or twice a well as Passover Tam Tams. These are made from egg matzah dough month in the OU office in Manhattan, together with RCs, to discuss continued on page 33 continued on page 32 Published by the Orthodox Union, Eleven Broadway, New York, NY 10004 Please direct your comments to RABBI YOSEF GROSSMAN, EDITOR at 212-613-8212 or [email protected] language, messages that need to impact and stir to action must be MESSAGING TIPS FROM HEAVEN specifically tailored to the listener or recipient. This is why cutting and pasting emails without any attention to the individual recipients, RABBI AVROHOM GORDIMER or using a boilerplate text for communications that should be per- RC, Dairy sonalized and express a relationship, is usually a really bad idea. LEAVING USEFUL MESSAGES: Prior to Mattan Torah, CONTEMPORARY society does an absolutely awful job at com- Hashem instructed Moshe with all of the details that needed to municating. Despite possession of the most advanced communica- be related to B’nei Yisroel about the event: what to expect, how tion tools ever known, modern man would earn an F in Interpersonal to prepare, where to stand, and several dos and don’ts. In other Communication 101, were there to be such a course (and there words, Hashem sent B’nei Yisroel a useful, detailed voice message, should be!). as it were, and He expected them to listen and act upon it. Please Be it parental distraction and detachment from communicating with contrast with this: children, or people’s aversion to engage in face-to-face conversation, Dovid (in voice message): “Hi, Yisroel. Can you please tell me their refusal to listen to voice messages and their consistent ignor- whether or not Mrs. Bee brand flavored honey is kosher?” ing of emails, we have a major communication problem on our hands. Yisroel (in voice message reply): Hi, Dovid. I missed your call - just calling you back.” Let’s take a step back to antiquity - to over 3500 years ago, at Mattan Torah (the Giving of the Torah) - and let’s try to glean some com- Yisroel failed to reply to a very simple yes or no question. Dovid will munication essentials from Hashem Himself as well as from Moshe call Yisroel again, and if he does not get through, Dovid will leave Rabbeinu and our ancestors as they stood at Sinai. Although these Yisroel another message with the same specific yes or no question. communication tips may seem very basic, their precedent and deriva- Yisroel will call Dovid yet again and will probably leave him a voice tion from Mattan Torah elevates them from the plane of common message telling him once more that “I missed your call - just calling sense and good etiquette to a holy and moral imperative. you back”. I, for one, and assuredly countless others as well, have often spent up to 10 days of “phone tag” because the other party PREPARATION: Klal Yisroel was instructed to rigorously prepare did not leave a useful message with the necessary information to a for Mattan Torah over a period of three days, and, according to R. basic yes or no-type question that would have taken care of the issue Yose, Moshe added a fourth day of preparation. (Shemos 19:15, from the start, in the course of one 10-second call. How wasteful. If Rashi from Gem. Shabbos 87a) When one is about to participate Hashem Himself could leave a detailed message, we can and should in an important communication, he must be prepared in all ways. too! Showing up for a meeting without first being mentally/physically/ intellectually prepared and presentable will hamper the effectiveness RESPONDING TO MESSAGES: “And Moshe conveyed to of the encounter and will demonstrate a lack of seriousness and fit- Hashem the nation’s response.” - The Torah relates this in order ness for the task. Becoming knowledgeable in advance as to what is for us to learn derech eretz (proper manners) from Moshe, who expected, whom the other party is, and how to condition oneself for did not reason that since Hashem obviously knew the nation’s the discourse are indispensable. response (to His suggestion that the Aseres Ha-Dibros be commu- nicated directly from Him to B’nei Yisroel), there would thus be no FOCUS: Rashi tells us (Shemos ibid. v. 14) that when Moshe was need to convey to Him the response. (Shemos ibid. v. 8, with Rashi readying the nation for Mattan Torah, he did not tend to anything from Mechilta) Moshe taught us, and the Torah saw necessary to else at the time. He was not distracted and was completely focused record it for perpetuity and practice, that we must reply to a mes- on the event at hand. How often do we witness people distracted sage even if we feel that the other party does not really require the with their cell phones while attending milestone life events, or read- reply. Ignoring questions that come to us via voice mail or email is ing and responding to emails while in the midst of face-to-face dia- not acceptable, despite our belief that an answer to the other party logues or meetings? If a person is not focused and “into it” during should not actually be necessary.
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