Ham? Non-kosher. Shrimp? Non-kosher. Chicken? Kosher. Chicken with a dislocated femur…non-kosher? An aspect of home kashrus not so well-known is the avoidance of traifos. Despite its colloquial usage to mean “non-kosher,” a traifa is actually a bird or quadruped with a certain type of bodily defect that renders it non-kosher even when slaughtered correctly!
In OU Kosher’s new video, Harav Yisroel Belsky, Rosh Yeshiva, Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, and OU Kosher Halachic Consultant is joined by two OU rabbinic coordinators with vast expertise in the certification of meat and poultry, Rav Nosson Goldberg and Rabbi Chaim Loike. Together, they elucidate in a clear and thorough fashion the red flags in raw chicken that YOU need to know. After watching this video, you’ll have more confidence in the kashrus of the meat you serve.
In this video, Rav Belsky masterfully weaves together anatomy and physiology with the halachos of kashrus. It is invaluable for a yeshiva biology teacher-especially one who wants to stress that the laws of the Torah and the laws of nature have One Author.
“What’s Wrong with this Chicken?” is one of several projects of OU Kosher’s expanded educational outreach. OU Kosher’s educational programs include the ever-popular “OU Kosher Coming” program, which sends OU’s expert rabbis to schools, synagogues and college campuses to share their knowledge of halacha and technology; as well as the ever-growing “Kosher Tidbits” series of short seminars on innumerable aspects of kashrus and certification, available at ouradio.org. Over 150 Kosher Tidbits are now posted.
The Orthodox Union has produced five other of DVD’s devoted to kashrus education, which includes: “Kosher Kidz,” which conveys the basics of kosher certification to a youthful audience; “The Kosher Fish Primer,” which explains the basics of identifying kosher fish and purchasing them; “Kosher Meat: Unexplored Frontiers with Rabbi Yisroel Belsky,” which describes the laws and biology of kosher meat preparation; “Kosher Birds: Who Are They,” a guide to the indicants of avian kashrus; and “Insect-Free: A Guide to Home Vegetable Inspection.” These DVDs have been purchased and used in Jewish schools and communities throughout the world including Israel, Australia, England and Latin America.
Rabbi Eliyahu Safran, Senior Rabbinic Coordinator, Vice President of Communications and Marketing, noted to Matzav.com his particular satisfaction that the OU Kosher DVDs are being used not only in thousands of homes seeking a deeper understanding of kashrus, but also in day schools, yeshivas, kollelim, camps and youth groups throughout the world. “I am confident that both rebbeim as well as Torah-oriented science teachers will be able to have their students benefit enormously from the new Chicken DVD, which integrates halacha and science in a most sophisticated manner.”
The new chicken DVD is available @ $10 per copy; to order all 6 OU Kosher DVDs the cost is $40. For further information contact [email protected].
{Dovid Bernstein-Matzav.com Newscenter}
Is it the OU’s position that the average consumer should be making an independent inspection and determination whether, for example, the femur of the quartered chicken he or she just picked from the grocer’s fridge is dislocated, and thus unkosher?
It’s a great DVD for learning and understanding… for homes, yeshivas, kollelim
Mashgichim do their best, but we still have the responsibility for what we eat. There’s nothing wrong with a little education. There’s nothing wrong with knowing what to look for “just in case” something made it past that is questionable or should not have. We have so taken for granted that everything is “kosher”, that we don’t even know what to look for. Most of us wouldn’t even know something was a sheila if we saw it.
Plenty times I buy chicken that looks, well, kind of irregular to me. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing?
THIS DVD is another winner…SO much Torah knowledge so very well presented…