Dear Reader – Chanukah 5772

The last issue of Kosher Spirit showcased some of the new, modern technologies used constantly by many in the Orthodox Jewish world and the way the OK utilizes the latest technologies, from Smartphone apps to the latest computer programs, to help monitor the kosher food industry and to serve the kosher consumer.

While technology provides us with more comfortable ways to live, quick access to an enormous volume of information, and ways to organize and keep track of our lives (and yes today we have a new kind of tablets), it offers no insight and no meaning to the ultimate purpose of life itself. For that we must look to the original two tablets — our holy Torah.

As Chanukah teaches us, the Greeks wanted to disconnect G-dliness and holiness from the world. “Learn the Torah,” they said, “but declare that it’s not G-d’s Torah.” The Torah offers us the secrets of a meaningful and fulfilled life because it is G-d’s Torah. We cannot let ourselves get carried away with the latest gadgets and technology and, G-d forbid, forgo the basics.

Although we embrace the latest technology, the OK is still grounded in old fashioned protocol. See pictures from our latest International Mashgiach Conference where mashgichim and rabbonim from around the world meet face to face in New York to discuss the latest kosher developments and halachic ramifications. Read about the OK’s involvement in Sport Strings, a company that will get thousands of kids and adults to wear tzitzis while exercising, playing sports and more. Travel with Rabbi Levy to China as he physically inspects companies under OK supervision.

It is interesting to note that with all of the modern conveniences available today, which supposedly allow us to do more things better and faster, I have read that the previous generation had 20 percent more free time than we do today. So as we are being told to go green and clean up the environment and the air, we must not pollute our souls and we must stay focused on the true meaning of life, the life we are entrusted to use for Torah and mitzvos and bringing G-dliness down to earth.

Best wishes for a Freilichen Chanukah,
Rabbi Chaim Fogelman
Editor-in-Chief