By Rabbi Yair Hoffman
Mr. Larry Gordon, owner of the Five Towns Jewish Times, visited Rav Chaim Kanievsky Shlita on Sunday afternoon at a little bit before 4:00 PM and presented him with a number of Halachic shailos from the United States. These shailos were written in Hebrew and Rav Chaim read them himself and then responded. His responses were videotaped.
In a previous article regarding Tropicana orange juice, I had presented 4 factors in which Poskim might either forbid or permit the orange juice, even though scale bugs are being consistently found in each cup of the juice.
The fourth factor dealt with whether there is an obligation to remove an item that cannot be identified as a bug to the naked eye of a trained expert within the mixture–even though he may be able to identify it as a bug were it not in a mixture.
Below, we reproduce the first question that was posed and Rav Chaim’s response. Rav Chaim said that the Tropicana juice would be permitted.

1. יש חוקרים בחו”ל שמצאו במין אחד של מיץ תפוזים תולעים (בשם סקייל באגז). ורק מוציאים את התולעים עם מגדלת לאחר שסיננו את המיץ עם בד דק דק. ואי אפשר לראות את התולעים בתוך ×””בד הסינון” בלא המגדלת. ולוקחים את התולעת על ידי מחט ומניחים אותו על נייר. ועכשיו שאין התולעת בתוך המיץ — אפשר למומחה לראותו בעינים אף בלי מגדלת מה שלא ×”×™×” אפשר לפני-כן. ובכל כוס וכוס התולעים האלו נמצאים. האם ×–×” נחשב למוחזק בתולעים? האם יש חיוב לסננן את המיץ לפני ששותים אותו?

There are investigators in USA that found scale bugs in orange juice. They only find the bugs with a jeweler’s loupe magnifying glass after they strain it with a very thin cloth. It is not possible to see the bugs in the cloth without the magnifier. They take the bug with a needle and place it on a piece of paper. Now that the bug is no longer in the juice an expert can see it — even with his eyes — something not possible beforehand. In each and every cup these bugs are found. Is this considered muchzak b’tolayim? Is there an obligation to filter the juice before one drinks it?
לא צריך לחשוש.

A Talmid Chochom that was present when the question was posed explained that it was on account of the fourth factor that Rav Chaim ruled in this manner.

The author may be reached at yairhoffman2@gmail.com
Kanievsky

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