The Rabbonim of Australia have their say

Maybe not all the Rabbonim but, in my humble opinion, the one's that carry the most weight.

Exposing "Rabbi" Rabi - "Not so Kosher - Not so Yosher"

Another website has been brought to my attention discussing R' Rabi and his businesses:

https://sites.google.com/site/exposingrabbirabi/

The "It's Kosher" business

On the Ben Pekuah Facebook page a video can be seen of R' Meir Rabi and Rabbi Pinchas Padwa tasting meat from a Ben Pekuah animal.  Although R' Meir Rabi has eaten this meat many times he chose to make two brachot at this time. One bracha was Shechechiyanu and the other one was She'oso Nissim.  While it is puzzling that he made a Shechechiyanu I would like to explain why he made the bracha She'oso Nissim.

R' Meir is in fact a true miracle for numerous reasons.

Together with his business partner Kalman Gradman, R' Meir runs the It's Kosher Authority and associated businesses.

There are many differences between the Kosher certification business run by R' Rabi and Mr Gradman and the three main communal Kashrut organisations in Sydney and Melbourne - Kosher Australia and Adass Israel in Victoria and the Kashrut Authority in NSW:

• The three communual agencies employ between 7 and 14 staff each as well as having Boards of Directors above them. It's Kosher only employs the two partners
• The three communal agencies employ Rabbis and Mashgichim who get paid a set figure each week - a standard which is practiced all over the world to assure no conflict of interest.  R' Rabi and Mr Gradman need to pay themselves from the fees they charge out. On the Ben Pakuah project that he supervises he is on a commission
• Other hechsherim have numerous Rabbis whose only responsibility is to make sure everything is 100% kosher to the standards of the Rabbonim they consult. While R' Rabi and Mr Gradman are under a lot of pressure as they offer a far more inclusive service:

o   Finding new business

o   Checking out if these businesses are acceptable

o   All contracts and accounts

o   Marketing and advertising on webpage and Facebook

o   Photography to promote products and to promote R’ Rabi - including selfies with a range of prominent Rabbonim around the world

o   Visiting potential customers and Rabbonim to push their hashgocha and products

o   Daily upkeep of their Facebook page

o   Travelling the world regularly

o   Checking SCTV which are used as he claims more reliable than mashgichim. A very conservative estimate on the cameras he claims to have in place comes to a minimum of 3,500 hours footage per week

o   Checking and criticizing the other Melbourne and Sydney hechsherim including writing on blogs and Facebook using fake names (eg. Kelvin Mottel)

• The “It’s Kosher” business give more new hechsherim than the other main agencies combined (His facebook page is titled “Australia’s largest and most active independent kosher certification authority"!)

Due to this amazing workload we believe R’ Rabi must be a miracle man, a posek more reliable, pious and knowledgeable than any other posek in the world (unless he can find someone who agrees with him) so making a bracha She'osa Nissim makes perfect sense.

It would therefore seem that when seeing this great rabbi of many hats we should also make this bracha.