There are certain areas of Halacha where Sephardim are more stringent than some Ashkenazim. What should a Sephardi do if invited over to an Ashkenazi house for a meal?
There are many areas in Halacha where Sephardim are more stringent than some Ashkenazim, such as chalak meat, eating milk and fish together, and stricter kosher grain requirements (אסור חדש). In this week's tshuva, we will focus on the matter of chalak or glatt meat.
If an animal that happened to have a hole in the lungs, all Jews consider it treifa and we do not eat it. Sometimes, as a result of an illness that develops on the surface of the lungs, a purulent membrane (סירכה) develops (a potentially healing process, during which a pus envelope is formed). According to Tosafot, this indicates that a hole will inevitably develop.
It would seem that everyone would maintain that this animal is treifa. However, the רמ"א points out there is a custom is to examine the סירכה by flicking it. If it falls off, and no hole visible, the animal is considered kosher. The Shulchan Aruch's holds by a different opinion. It says that once there is a סירכה, the animal is declared treifa, and we do not eat it.
An animal that doesn't have a סירכה is considered kosher according to all opinions and is called chalak (חלק) or glatt (גלאט) in Yiddish. Meat that had a סירכה which fell off when examined, would be still considered kosher in some opinions, but it is not chalak or glatt.
Based on the ראשונים and the Shulchan Aruch, Rav Ovadia maintains in his book יביע אומר(ח"ה סימן ג') that Sephardim should follow the Shulchan Aruch, and only eat meat that is considered chalak. Even if the סירכות are as thin as a hair's width, our esteemed Rabbis hold that we should eat only meat that is חלק.
On the contrary, Rabbi Yosef Mashash maintained is to permit to eat kosher meat that is not חלק, and he testifies that this is an old tradition from Morocco. He justifies this custom by saying that we should not waste the possessions of Am Yisrael, and we have to take that into consideration regarding kashrut.
However, Rav Shalom Mashash holds that the custom in Morocco was to follow the Shulchan Aruch, that we should be careful to only eat חלק. He says that whoever is eating meat that is not חלק is eating treifa.
To resolve this contradiction, we can think that each Rabbi was referring to a different era or a different place. There is also some confusion on what the exact custom in Jerba, Tunisia was. Many Chachamim claim that the custom was to be lenient. However בשו"ת איש מצליח says that we should be careful to buy only חלק meat, and those that say that the custom is to be lenient are misinterpreting the real custom.
If a Sephardi is invited to his friends house, and his friend serves meat during the meal, and it isn't known if the meat is considered חלק or glatt, the guest doesn't need to ask the host about the meat because we rely on the concept of ספק ספקא (a doubt on a doubt).
The first doubt is the level of kashrut the host keeps, whether the host just keeps kosher or is also strict about חלק. And, there is a good chance in the United States that the meat is considered חלק. The second doubt is that even if we say that it isn't חלק, maybe the Halacha is actually according to the רמ"א and not the Shulchan Aruch.
Likewise, there is no need to be strict with the vessels that were used for non chalak, but otherwise kosher meat. Although the poskim maintain that טעם כעיקר, meaning that the flavor has the same status as the actual meat, and if that is the case, a person that follows the Shulchan Aruch should not use those pots and pans. Nevertheless, when a guest is not sure that their host used the vessels within the last 24 hours, we hold that the flavor that is absorbed in the vessels doesn't release a good flavor when it is used again to cook other food — especially when we are unsure whether the host keeps chalak or not.