R. Eitam Henkin, in his Lakhem Yihyeh Le-Okhlah, explores avenues of leniency regarding bugs in food, arguing for an attitude most would call “normal” even if it requires relying on leniencies. The entire book is available for free download here: link (PDF).
The book has been expanded and published in hard copy. You can buy it here: link.
See prior freebies here: link
Can someone explain to me what happened with the Michtavim blog? This doc. has a michtavim.com url but redirects to michtavim.blogspot.com which seems to have been re-purposed?
The haskamos are fascinating. Can we presume Rabbi YH Henkin shlit’a is actually endorsing his son’s halachic conclusions?
The letter from Rabbi Nebenzal is priceless, and I admire how scholars can respectfully disagree (note how Bnei Banim has a haskama from R’ Menashe Klein zt”l; while they have wildly different halachic perspectives, they stayed respectful).
“Okay so maybe the bug is batel, but what about timtum halev?”
I thought (at least for Litvaks) if the torah says it’s batel, then there’s no timtum. The final arbiter here is the will of G-d (as we understand it via the halachic process), not that which we believe to be new-age “spiritually groovy” or not (a concept that can forget there’s One greater than us running the whole show).
“What about health issues?”
Yes, what about them. How do I value a handful of aggadic statements about unhealthiness of eating bugs; vs. plain-as-the-nose-on-your-face consequences of telling a whole generation *not* to eat their fruits and veggies?