Why were you late?

I know a brilliant mathematician from New York City who says that when he appears before HKBH for judgment, he will be asked "Why were you always late to Minyan?" He will respond, "You don't understand! I was always late to everything!"

And he tells this story on himself:

At the end of an academic meeting, a student he had never met approached him, addressed him by name and asked a question that they discussed. After awhile, he asked the student, "How did you know who I was?"
The student replied, "They told me that you would be the last person to enter the room."

Not Extortion!

Perhaps it's best to ignore these things, but I sent a long comment to the web site that hosted this article: The "Kosher Nostra Scam" on the American Consumer. I said:

I am responding to Ernesto Cienfuegos' "Kosher Nostra" article. Ernesto regards the money that food companies pay to get a kosher symbol on their product as a sort of tax or extortion. This is inaccurate. The companies bear this cost because it enables them to make larger profits. A great number of Americans (and people elsewhere), not just Jews, prefer to buy products that have a kosher symbol on them. No one forces food companies to get rabbinic supervision of their products. They do it to make money. And larger profits sometimes means lower retail prices, not higher prices.

The cost of a food product (and its retail price) reflect all the costs that a company decides is appropriate. That includes the quality of ingredients, the cost of labeling and also advertising. I would like to assure Ernesto that the wholesale cost of food he buys would be lower if companies used lower quality ingredients and did not advertise at all. Some companies DO use lower quality ingredients, and he is welcome to chose them as he prefers.

For traditionally religious Jews, the kosher symbols indicate that the laws of our religion allow us to use that food. For vegetarians, the symbols provide a reliable way to know whether there are traces of meat in a product. For those with dairy allergies, the symbols provide a reliable way to know whether there might be traces of milk in a product. Normal government labeling is not as accurate for these purposes.

For a great many shoppers, the kosher symbols, by suggesting greater supervision of the manufacturing process, indicate that products may be cleaner and more reliable. That is one of the reasons why non-food products also bear kosher symbols. In fact, kosher symbols on some non-food products are there ENTIRELY to attract non-Jewish buyers who feel that kosher symbols mean better quality, and have no relevance at all to religious Jews.

Food manufacturers are simply taking advantage of the needs of all these groups, to sell more product, when they arrange to get kosher symbols.

Start on Time?

Small minyans face the great question of whether to start Shachrit on time. (“On Time” generally means starting before there are ten.) On the one hand we argue that we should wait for the latecomers, especially for the sake of those on time who are saying kaddish. On the other hand we argue that if we started on time, the latecomers would get their act together and come sooner.

There’s a lot at stake. If we start on time, obviously we finish earlier. In fact we finish even earlier than that because, without a minyan, we leave out the kaddishes at the beginning of Shachrit.