Update bulletin from the Guide to Chodosh

[Y. Herman]

CHODOSH BULLETIN 29 DEC 02

The second issue of the Guide to Chodosh has been mailed out to all the 
subscribers. ( A small group of about 30 subscribers had their Guide mailed 
out only today, Dec 26 due to a technical problem. We apologize for the 
inconvenience.) The following are additions and corrections to the second 
issue of the Guide.

BENZY’S MARTISCO AND UNGER BARLEY UPDATE. The second issue of the Guide 
described in great detail the halachic questions raised by these brands of 
barley. Refer to that Guide for the details. We suggested that you consult 
your Rov or Posek for halachic guidance. After the publication of the 
second Guide, on Dec. 13, 02 a letter was issued by Rabbi Evan Shore of the 
Young Israel of Syracuse. It states that Rabbi Shore visited Martisco (that 
packs all 3 brands of barley in question) and verified that all of the 
barley at Martisco on that date was of the Yoshon batch sealed under the 
hashgocho of the Ottawa Vaad Hakashrus. Based on that one time inspection, 
the letter concludes, in the words of Rabbi Shore,  “Without reservation I 
can say that the barley packaged by the Martisco Bean Company is Yoshon.” I 
had left two telephone messages on Rabbi Shore’s answer machine asking that 
he call me back for clarifications. I also left a telephone message with 
Unger/Martisco’s agent asking that Rabbi Shore call me. I sent a fax to 
both the agent and Unger with the same request. Despite the agent’s 
assurance about a week ago that Rabbi Shore will call me, that call never 
came. Perhaps, Rabbi Shore is out of town
? I have several serious 
questions about this letter. Since Rabbi Shore has not called me back yet I 
have no choice but to detail my questions here. When you ask your Rov of 
Posek whether or not to use Benzy’s, Martisco or Unger barley, add the 
following questions regarding Rabbi Shore’s letter:
·       How significant is Rabbi Shore’s finding that all of the barley at 
Martisco was Yoshon based on only one visit, especially since it appears 
that the visit was expected and prearranged by the company (the agent told 
me ahead of the time that the visit will take place) ?
·       There is no reason to suspect that Martisco will necessarily bring 
in Chodosh barley to include in their packing. However, how can Rabbi Shore 
guarantee that in writing?
·       How can Rabbi Shore give assurances that all of the barley packed 
by Martisco will be Yoshon the entire season, when he does not even claim 
to have been there at any of the packing?
OTHER ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS TO THE GUIDE
LE CHAIM FRUIT BARS. The Guide states that they are all Yoshon under the 
hashogocho of the Mechon L’Horoah of Monsey. The Mechon has asked that we 
warn the public that the latest packing of these candy bars may be Chodosh. 
The following package codes should be avoided: 23501, 23502 and 23512.

ARROWHEAD MILLS whole wheat bread flour is from winter wheat.

MRS. SILBER, 6 Maple Leaf Road Monsey sells 3 kinds of whole wheat flour. 
At this time these are Yoshon without hashgocho for Yoshon. They may be 
Chodosh in the future, ask.
AMNON frozen falafel balls are Yoshon.




_________________________________________________

Now, for the first time, we are offering on an experimental basis a 
formatted version of the Guide by E mail, in the PDF format. This file can 
only be read if you have the free Acrobat reader (available from 
www.adobe.com/acrobat.) This preserves most of the format of the full, 
printed Guide. The page layout is slightly altered, so that the table of 
contents and the index may be off by 1-2 pages. This version is also 
available to you free of charge on the condition that if you print it out 
it should be for your own use only, that you do not distribute it to 
others. To request this send an E mail to yherman at earthlink.net and request 
the “PDF version of the Guide”. The file that you will get is large, about 
304 KB in size. Make sure that your E mail system allows such large 
attachments to received mail messages.

Y. Herman
________________________________________

To send an E mail message to the Guide, please address it to: 
yherman at earthlink.net.

Before you discontinue using an E-mail service, please unsubscribe from 
this list by sending a message to:
chodosh-unsubscribe at jif.org.il. Then if you wish to resume receiving these 
messages from your new service, send a message 
to:  chodosh-subscribe at jif.org.il.

You can request several reports by sending an E-mail message to: 
chodosh-request at jif.org.il. Then in the body of the message type the 
command: "get" (without the quotes) followed by the name of the file that 
you want. Type each request on a new line. Make sure that you copy the file 
name exactly as spelled including capital letters. These reports are now 
available:

get Guide.txt
This gets the unformatted E mail version of the current Guide to Chodosh

Get Cereal.txt
This gets the cereal tables for Quaker and General Mills that can not be 
read in the Guide.txt received from the previous command.

get Guidelines.txt
This gets a long report on Guidelines to Mashgichim on Chodosh. This has 
not been updated in the  last two years, but is still substantially valid.


get News.txt
This gives the latest news bulletin, such as this note.
__________________________________________
Project Chodosh is an independent activity, not affiliated with any movement
or organization. We thank the Jewish Internet Fund (JIF) for allowing us to use
their E mail distribution services. The JIF  provides free email
and web hosting to Jewish education and outreach organizations.