Rabeinu Tam Cheese

Kashrut
1

Greetings Rabbanan V’Rabotai,

For what reason(s) wouldn’t we follow the opinion of Rabeinu Tam for cheese if:

a) The milk is from a kosher animal
b) The rennet is vegetarian
c) It wasn’t bitten by a snake

Thanks!

Shabbat Shalom!

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2

The Halachah ends up debated over the generations and by the time of the Shulchan Aruch the overwhelming consensus is the way we follow it today.

There’s a Tanah that held that shechita is only required during the time of the Beit Hamikdash. He was a Tanah. Obviously a very knowledgeable and respectable person. We cannot follow his opinion. That’s how psak Halachah works.

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…and thanks for the answers Rabbi! I’m just trying to understand the reasons for which we need to it chalav yisrael cheese…

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Thanks for the reply! I appreciate all your answers.

I read that the Rav Soloveitchik Z"L ate Kraft Cheese when chalav yisrael cheeses weren’t readily available. Apparently he got it from the Rama.

I understand that it is a different situation if supervised cheeses aren’t readily available.

However, how can it be eaten if it is assur? Does that mean that we can eat non-supervised cheese if supervised cheese isn’t readily available?
How does that make non-supervised cheese assur?

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Shabbat Shalom

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5

You are getting this a bit confused. Let me try to clear this up. There are two separate issues completely, practically unrelated. There’s chalav Akum and gevinat Akum.

Chalav Akum meaning milk bought from a non-Jew is a simple question of if the milk is from a kosher animal vs a non-kosher animal. Today we confirm that fact by relying on the companies, the FDA, the fact that there are too many risks of lawsuits, and the fact that it would not be worth it for a company to sell you milk from a camel instead of a cow.
Chalav Akum is a safek that can be clarified in many different ways. In truth, there’s no such thing as Chalav Stam. The typical milk that you buy in the US is all halachicly chalav Yisrael.

Gevinat Akum, meaning cheese of a non-Jew is a gezera. A whole nother story. This is a rabbinical prohibition. There was much debate about this prohibition, as to why it was prohibited. Many early rabbis would allow today’s cheese. But over the years the consensus was not to allow cheese of a non-Jew. You can study it all inside, but ultimately the gezera stands as difficult as it may be to understand. They didn’t make very many gezerot, contrary to popular opinion, and the ones that stuck cannot be reversed.

I hope this helps.