Sunday, March 22, 2009

When Did Machmirim Supercede Ma'minim??!?!?

I don't know... when I first heard this I thought it was a JOKE.
What milk company would call itself MACHMIRIM and tout that it's products are better than all the others because they hold by more chumras and have more certifications than any other company?
What company would come up with the slogan "Anachnu Machmirim Bnei Machmirim"???
Are they SERIOUS?!??!?
Do they honestly think that this is praiseworthy?
..... and then I checked the certifying agencies, only to find out that KAJ is one of them.....
Mike in Midwood coined the very apt phrase "keeping up with the Machmirs".  Is that what we have been reduced to?  Doesn't the intimation that four hashgachos are better than one make a mockery of the entire kashrus certification system?

Somebody please tell me when Ma'aminim Dairy opens up with only one hechsher on it.  I'll be their first customer.....


4 comments:

Mikeinmidwood said...

Thanks for the mention.

Anonymous said...

No doubt the extra hashgocho fees from this milk and the chaburo matzos will erase the kehillo's deficit.

Anonymous said...

Somewhere in my files is a piece that I had scribbled together called "the cult of yotze kol hade'ot," attributing much of the "shift to the right" and attendant sociological outfall to our lack of confidence in our individual poskim. When milk (which, as I understand it, might not need any hechsher at all in this country) can be proud of its multiple hechsherim, we've got trouble right here in Riv... er, New York City.

I also blame the decline of Yiddish as a common language: from what I understand, back in the day (and, since we're talking about before MY time, you know that we're dealing with ancient history here... :) ) the pun was that Machmir meant "Machn fahr mir" ("I make for myself"); i.e. a personal restriction that, while perhaps laudable, was not intended for the masses.

On the good side, if this keeps up, I've got my purim shtick for next year: packages so covered with hashgachot that the product name has to be written in tiny print on the bottom...

YeshivaWorldNewsRant said...

Well said. We have gone crazy. I blame the Yeshivshe world for fostering a culture that is always looking for the next and newest Chumra, as if that will make you a better person, or at least, better than your neighbor. (Instead of working on the important things, like middos and ben odom L'chaveiro)

It basically the frum world's "keeping up with the Jones' and I find it as destructive to our society, especially when people look down on other people because they choose NOT to be sucked in to the nonsense.

I just think it is sad that KAJ feels they have to be part of something like this.