kosher bookworm: alan jay gerber

Sheloshim tribute to Rabbi Yisroel Belsky, zt’l

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This past week commemorated the sheloshim, one month, since the passing of Rabbi Yisroel Belsky, zt”l. Much has been written in tribute to his legacy. This week’s essay will note some of his literary contributions, his impact on the world of kashrut, and his special relationship with one of our community’s most outstanding personalities, Mordechai “Mordy” Kriger of Lawrence.

Among Rabbi Belsky’s communal undertakings was his major contribution to the enhancement of the quality of the observance of kashrus. According to Rabbi Menachem Genack, longtime CEO of the OU kosher supervision division with whom Rabbi Belsky worked, “Rabbi Belsky was an irreplaceable man. He was a brilliant Torah scholar who fulfilled many important functions within our community but perhaps none as central as in the world of kashrus observance. His absolutely incredible knowledge was reflected in the thousands of halachic papers that he wrote over these many years on issues that touch upon all observant Jews.”

Rabbi Belsky was affiliated with the OU for over two decades and would serve, together with Rabbi Herschel Schechter, Rabbi Asher Weiss and Rabbi Menachem Genack, as the highest authority in kashrus law. His expertize was second to none, according to all with whom I spoke in this field. He was also a shochet who was an expert in the intricacies of deveining (nikur), an expertise that he shared with many other shochtim. Halacha and its related responsa will, in the years to come, serve as a permanent literary legacy of Rabbi Belsky.

The person responsible for the initial publication of Rabbi Belsky’s work was his lifelong friend, Mordy Kriger. Given Rabbi Belsky’s work regimen, only two preliminary works were published in English in his lifetime, “Piskei Halacha,” compiled by Rabbi Moshe Dovid Lebovits, and “Shulchan Halevi: Halachic Responsa From the Desk of Harav Yisroel Belsky,” edited and arranged by Moshe Armel and Reuven Mathieson under the executive editorship of his son in law, Rabbi Reuven Cohen.

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