Kosher Supervision
One time, our family was making a simchah. We hired a religious Jewish woman to bake the cakes in our home. We also hired a mashgiach kashrut to constantly watch that the baking was done according to halachah.
However, when we brought the cakes to the hall, the owners did not rely on our personal mashgiach. They insisted on a kashrut symbol from one of the well-known establishments.
A man sidled up to me and whispered in my ear, “Honored Rav, have no fear. Within a short while, I’ll get you the certificate and the kashrut symbol.”
After some time, this man returned with ten different kashrut certificates, as well as their symbols, containing the names of various mashgichim. I shrank away, as if bitten by a snake, realizing that they were all forgeries. “This is forbidden! How can you expect me to accept this?! I certainly vouch for the kashrut of the cakes, but these specific mashgichim did not supervise their baking.”
Obviously, we did not make use of the certificates. After some investigating, we discovered that one of the clerks in the Beit Din was responsible for the forgeries. He is not a Torah-observant Jew, and therefore felt no compunctions in his act of falsehood.
How afflicted is the world with falsehood and cheating! We must be vigilant to uphold the quality of truth. We must honestly resolve to keep away from stumbling in the snare of falsehood.
