Rabbi Aaron Musat was born and bred in Australia. He came to the U.S. some twenty years ago to learn in yeshiva. Starting part time in kashrus, Rabbi Musat worked in Pesach hotels and for several restaurants before moving to Chicago twelve years ago to work for the �cRc.� For the last nine years he has served as the mashgiach of the Lieberman Center for Health and Rehabilitation in Skokie, IL. Rabbi Musat appeared on Kashrus On The Air, KASHRUS Magazine�s weekly radio show over JRootRadio.com. What follows is based upon that interview. RABBI WIKLER: Rabbi Musat, what do you see as the #1 function the mashgiach must focus on at his facilty? RABBI MUSAT: Communication. Good communication is the best way to preserve kashrus. I maintain an open door policy. My staff - some 35 people - feel free to come to me with a kosher challenge. �Rabbi, a family on the fifth floor is trying to bring outside food into the room. Please come and speak to them about kosher.� �Rabbi, I�m sorry. I made a mistake and took a meat ladle for dishing out the food at breakfast.� Without proper communication I could not be successful in maintaining kashrus here. The staff knows that I won�t �write them up� for an infraction because they came to me. So my hand can reach even further than my eyes can see. Communication begins with �Good morning� and continues with relationship building throughout the day, every day. I try to maintain an even-keeled demeanor so that the staff will feel comfortable to come to me. It�s working very well, but a mashgiach still needs to be always vigilant. RABBI WIKLER: You talk about �my staff� as though they are working for you. As I understand you are the mashgiach, not a staff supervisor. RABBI MUSAT: Yes and no. I am the mashgiach for the �cRc�, but, I learned early on that to be effective as a mashgiach I should take on additional responsibility, not because I was told to nor even asked to, but because it is good for kosher. I decided to accept upon myself duties that relate to my work as mashgiach. So, I do all the ordering of the food. This way I know what comes in. I even pay the invoices. This way I have the paper trail in front of me. Nothing comes into the facility from any vendor that I don�t know about. I also do the scheduling for the workers. This way I have the right person in each place so that I am confident that the jobs are being done with very few kosher challenges cropping up. That�s why I call them �my staff�. The director of dining services, my supervisor, considers me a supervisor and that is also very good for kosher. My job also calls upon me to do staff training and I take that very seriously. I don�t have a hard time of it though because the staff is treated very well at our facility and turnover is very light indeed. There are many workers in my staff who are there 10, 15, 20 and even 30 years. But, sometimes we do hire. When a new worker comes, I first give them an overview of kosher. They usually never heard of kosher growing up; maybe they never even saw a Jew. But, I don�t stop there; education per se is ineffective for kosher training. I have the new employees shadow the older ones, those with the most experience. They do nothing but watch, no hands on. This goes on for 2, 3 or even 4 weeks in various departments throughout the facility. Then, the experienced employee steps back and watches the new employee, observing how he performs. I deal with his questions. It�s very effective. RABBI WIKLER: Despite all your work, kosher errors can occur. What do you do to keep the error rate down? RABBI MUSAT: Kosher errors occur for two reasons: improperly labeled equipment and necessary equipment missing. Let�s face it, if a utensil, plate or pan lacks clearly visible identification as meat or dairy - we don�t do pareve - the worker can mess up. We are very careful about that. We put holes in all corners of a pan. We use blue tape to identify dairy. We have different patterns for dairy and meat utensils � one is plain with no design, while the other has a fancy design. It�s very clear. We do dairy for breakfast and lunch and do not serve supper until all our dairy dishes have been returned to the kitchen. I also use clear signage � no outside food is allowed. My staff will alert me to any violation and I will do kosher education with the violator. Pretty much everyone is cooperative. One trouble area is rehab. Our regular long-term residents are used to our system and do not try to bring in non-kosher foods, but the rehab residents are short-term and they may try to do that. We go into the rooms and educate the family - tell them the parameters of kosher. If they insist on bringing in their own food, we will give the resident his food from the kitchen on disposable plates and with disposable utensils. The other problem is with the workers themselves. There is no incentive to cheat on kosher, but that is only as long as there is enough equipment ready for the waiters and ingredients available for the chefs. If you have what everyone needs, you provide them with the tools to do their job and you put the staff in the right position, you seriously limit kosher challenges. The fact that I do the ordering means that there is never a lack of ingredients or other things that we need. I am always several days ahead in my ordering and I make certain that we have enough of everything. RABBI WIKLER: I have heard that you have been called upon to use your expertise in kosher to help the company that you work for to set up similar programs in other facilities. Can you tell us about that. RABBI MUSAT: So far there are two facilities where I have helped out: one in Columbus, Ohio and one in Rockville, Maryland. The company that I work for was making a bid to take over the food service for the facility in Rockville, Maryland and called me in to join the team. I was their kashrus expert and had to examine everything from the kashrus perspective: what was needed and how costly. They needed to be sure of their costs and whether they could do it properly. That facility is huge. It has 1,100 beds in five building. There are only two, sometimes three, mashgichim and they do a lot of walking each day. Once they got the contract, I did a good deal of training for several weeks for the staff: chefs, dietitians, etc. I worked together with the Vaad of Washington on the project. Aside from the size of the facility they are quite different in that they have the added challenge of having such diversity among the residents: skilled nursing, independent living, subsidized living, etc. The plethora of the scope of services brings with it special challenges such as new admissions on Shabbos and the fact that not all residents are entitled to the special leniencies for the sick on Shabbos. RABBI WIKLER: What is your day like at the Lieberman Center? RABBI MUSAT: My day starts by lighting the fires at 5:00 AM. I set up the workers for breakfast and then at 6:00 I am off to take care of my own family�s needs. Then I return and stay till after dinner is served. My day is filled with activity. Aside from the ordering and bill-paying activities I told you about earlier, I do vegetable inspection, and I am traveling to all the floors. We have the kitchen and five work stations - points of service - one on each floor. I�m on the go the entire day. RABBI WIKLER: I�ve heard that you also try to meet special needs of residents. How so? RABBI MUSAT: I believe that every resident at the Center is entitled to eat three nutritious meals a day and feel confident that their standard of kosher is being observed. In practice it takes some doing. Our facility is not cholov yisroel, nor is it yoshon-only. It is glatt kosher but there are people who limit themselves to a particular shechita. I make it my business to order what they need or to shop for the items myself. In some cases I buy a few items and keep them in the kitchen, but if it is a daily item like yogurt, I will pick up a week�s supply and put it directly in the resident�s own refrigerator. That is the most efficient way. RABBI WIKLER: Everyone has challenges on their job, things that they don�t want to do. What are yours? RABBI MUSAT: Obviously, starting out at 5:00 AM has to be one of them. My biggest challenges are the need to stay on top of the new programs. In today�s world, providing care for seniors is constantly evolving. New programs and new equipment are always being discussed. Some of them are serious challenges for kosher. I have to spend a good bit of time researching them, deciding what we can use, and adjusting everything to a kosher diet. And Shabbos also comes into play. Some of the new kitchen equipment is top notch but present kosher problems with bishul yisroel. Convection oven and the turbos would require a mashgiach constantly by the side of the cook. There is no pilot light. Each time the oven is opened and the food prepped, the mashgiach must close the oven or else the food becomes bishul akum, plain klockor kopior sverige and simple. So I am especially excited about our new pureeing program. Seniors who have difficulty chewing or swallowing sometimes require a diet of soft food. Many assisted living communities are able to accommodate this need and provide pureed food to residents when required.�But we�go the extra mile to present pureed food so that it�s beautiful, palatable and dignified, a Kiddush Hashem.