Communist Party USA Denies Having Spies…

Are we hiring spies?

BY: SCOTT HILEY| JANUARY 20, 2021

Q

Hi, I recently came across your website and thought your organization to be very reasonable. I am a student in college and I was wondering if I could apply to be a communist spy. Any advice? 🙂
A
Hi,

Thanks for your interest in our clandestine ops/espionage program!  Here’s how the process works.  You apply for membership in our party, then continue your education, look for a job, participate in non-violent political activity in accordance with your beliefs, and live the outwardly normal life of a regular human being trying to get by in a system based on maximizing profits rather than meeting people’s needs.  But get this: the whole time, you’ll actually be gathering and analyzing information on capitalism and sharing it with other members and allies of a legal, open political party that makes no secret of its goals or program.

You can report on your experiences under capitalism by submitting them as articles to the People’s World (stories@peoplesworld.org) or the party website (discussion@cpusa.org). You can even develop a secret identity based around a pen name if you’d like.  You could be Eugenia Eagleson, a retired teacher from Naperville who’s concerned about the impact of climate change on her grandchildren. Or Larry “Big Jim” Hayes, a laid off mechanic who’s giving cello lessons to make ends meet until he finds another full time gig.

Or you could be yourself.  You’re part of a generation that has inherited a world in deep economic, social, environmental, and political crisis, handed the task of solving a bunch of problems you didn’t cause.  And that’s basically what all Communists are: not secret agents, not operatives of some foreign power, just average working people trying to save the world.

We’d love to hear your ideas on how to do it, comrade.

From CP USA, here.

תיקוני עירובין גליון 318#

גליון שאלות הלכתיות המתחדשות מידי שבוע בבדיקת העירובים השכונתיים

השבוע בגליון: איבדנו את מורה דרכינו מרן שר התורה זצוק”ל / ההנהגה שקיבלתי ממנו בנערותי על ידי השאלות של אחרי התפילה / דקדוק ההלכה שראינו בדרכיו / המידע והתיקונים של מוקד העירוב שימשו גם שיהיה אפשר לכבד את מרן בסנדקאות / פסקי מרן בפירצה שרק ילדים עוברים בה, ומה הדין כשאין רשות מהשכנים לעבור / סיום שלב בעירוב הפנימי של ישוב עמנואל / מומר שגר בקראוון נייד, האם אוסר או שנחשב עראי / אם בדירה אין רוחב ד’ אמות והאורך משלים.

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Reprinted with permission.

2 Common Kashrus Pitfalls

From Chukei Chaim Part One:

Usually, a kashrus agency’s hashgachah only covers items in the store. Once a product leaves the store, e.g., in a delivery, the agency no longer takes responsibility for it. If the deliveryman is a non-Jew or a secular Jew and the product is not properly sealed, there can be kashrus problems.

The Badatz Eidah Chareidis states that its hechsher on produce stores, fish, pizza, etc. only covers items sold in stores displaying a valid certificate. Once a product leaves the store though, e.g., in a delivery, it takes no responsibility unless the store has an arrangement with the Badatz for that (מדריך הכשרות תשפ”א עמ’ 128).

One must be extremely careful about this with chains of stores that sell identical products, e.g., pizza, when one has a high-level hechsher and another has a low-level one. When ordering, one must find a way to verify that the pizza is not from another branch with a lower hechsher – there are true stories where this has happened.

From Part Two:

All Ingredients Badatz

Many people make homemade food products, e.g., mezonos foods for kiddushim, cakes, potato kugel, Yerushalmi kugel, herring, chickpeas, p’tcha/gala, dips, salads, fruit platters, chocolates, etc. They put a sticker on the package that says “All ingredients Badatz” and sell their products in stores, makolets, or mikvaos, or deliver them directly to customers. People rely on this, thinking, what could be the problem if all the ingredients are Badatz?

Common Shailos

Hafrashas challah. In every home kitchen, shailos come up; any posek who answers these types of questions all day can attest to this. Not infrequently, we are asked questions about foods made and sold from homes. For example, one woman who made sponge cakes for kiddushim had no idea she was supposed to do hafrashas challah after baking a certain minimum amount, because when they are made in small amounts for personal consumption, there is usually not enough flour to require hafrashas challah. This caused a pitfall: people enjoyed the mezonos with ‘all-Badatz ingredients’, but it turned out they ate tevel.

Fleishige keilim. Oftentimes, people use fleishige pots and utensils to make parve food, or they cut onions or garlic with a fleishige knife, such that lechatchilah, the food may not be eaten with milchigs. Because the food is parve, customers do not know they cannot eat it with milchigs. If there was some sort of supervision, the rav would ensure that only parve utensils designated for the food being sold are used.

Checking for bugs. We know that many fruits, vegetables, and flours often have bugs, even if all the ‘ingredients are Badatz’. If one does not know how to properly check each fruit, vegetable, and type of flour, he is likely to transgress the issur of eating bugs. It does not take much effort to check for bugs when making a small amount of food for the family, but when making a large amount to sell, it takes a lot of effort. There is a chance that, due to pressure, the person making the food will be lax; if there is supervision from a rav who gives instructions, it is likely the person will check better.

Heaven help us!