At the beginning of this year, I had a bacon bender. There was bacon for breakfast, German potato salad, brussels sprouts roasted with bacon and dashed with balsamic vinegar, BLTs, sweet and sour cabbage flecked with little smoky bacon bits. A funny thing happened; I became sick of bacon, and at this time, I decided to try, at least for a bit, kosher(-style) eating. The rules were simple: no pork, shellfish, or other treif; and no mixing of meat and dairy, no matter how minimal.
The immediate impact of this was noteworthy. As my friend pointed out to me, one of the ways religions have tried to gain a foothold in civilizations is by imposing dietary restrictions. Attempting to eat outside of ones homes while remaining within the bounds of those restrictions make it obvious why they work; it is pretty darn hard to do, so who’s going to bother going anywhere but place where your dietary needs are understood? Even “safe” menu items like a grilled chicken breast sandwich end up on a stealthily buttered bun.
But, I like challenges, and this was certainly one that took a surprising amount of guts. Those guts were not always present, and my taste buds got the best of them. Pork made its way onto my plate more than once, as I took the ignorance-is-bliss approach. I looked the other way, guiltily, eating free-range chicken sausages in pork intestine casings.
My #1 “why I would possibly maybe like to keep kosher” reason is that it infuses such a mundane task as filling our bodies with sustenance with holiness. You’re not just downing calories, but following divine decree. You really have to think about that food you put in your mouth, and each of those thoughts leads you to God, since that’s where this wacky eating plan originated.
But as a person who is almost always thoughtful about food, and for whom food is more than just fuel for the body, I have to wonder… What is the point (for me)? I definitely think that most laws of kashrut are silly, if only because – please sit down, as this may shock you – no one can agree on what the “right” way to do things is. And since there is no “right” way to do things, you have a choice of either going with what your rabbi says is “right” and going with what you feel is “right.”
Does it feel right to me to be okay with eating beef grown on a feedlot and processed by underpaid immigrants (legal and otherwise) simply because it was slaughtered in a kosher manner? No; an animal’s life, to me, is more important than its death, and even 60 years ago this was a non-issue, since animals simply weren’t raised like products to come off an assembly line. Do I feel it’s right to not mix dairy and poultry, just in case someone might think I’m eating meat mixed with dairy? No, because birds don’t lactate, so how could I possibly boil a chick in its mother’s milk? Does it seem right to me to have separate dishes and utensils and dishwashers and kitchens for meat and dairy? No, because how privileged and wasteful is that?
Kashrut is one of those lovely complicated things I adore about Judaism, but at the same time, I’m not sure how it fits into my life now. Do I want to build a fence between myself and my friends and family when it comes to what we’re digesting? Are we supposed to be so separate, or are we meant to be a community? Am I leading by example? If so, where on Earth am I leading anyone to? And why?
Kashrut is terrible. It’s wonderful. It’s something to strive for. It’s something to rethink. It’s something so complicated that… that it makes me think of my place with God.
…I see what You did there.
(Image: zeeweez)
Menu
I’ve been keeping kosher pretty much the way you describe for about 3 years now. It doesn’t mean you have to separate yourself from your friends or family. Maybe it means you choose not to eat the mashed potatoes with the steak or you don’t put butter on your roll. It really hasn’t gotten in my way.
And when I have to make a choice between eating something unkosher and being rude to a host/ess, I remind myself: It’s not like being an alcoholic where one drink can send you spiralling into the abyss. If I can’t gracefully avoid mixing a little meat and dairy while eating at someone else’s house, that’s just one meal, and I can continue on afterward without feeling like the world has come to an end.
I’ve kept kosher for about four years. I’ve found it immensely freeing. I don’t actually have a problem eating out; I order only food that is kosher and if necessary ask the server to hold non-kosher foods. I find the people who understand least why I keep kosher are other Jews, who think it’s ridiculous that I don’t eat shrimp or bacon. But I really don’t care what they think. I feel healthier, have lost a lot of weight and feel a connection to Jews in the past who were forced to eat pork to prove they were no longer Jewish.
In answer to your question, each person must do what s/he is led to do. My best friend eats chicken and dairy together but not beef and dairy but keeps the other kosher laws. I keep the kosher laws but do not have a kosher kitchen since I live in an apartment and can’t add extra appliances to it. I also don’t worry about whether the food I eat is fried in the same oil as non-kosher food.
In any case, whatever kashrut is for you, it is for you. It’s between you and G-d and nobody else should be judging your choices.
So,I’m trying to meld having a green diet and Kashrut together. So far what i’ve come up with is I request that all four-legged animal be either Kosher, Halal,Organic, Grass Fed, or Local or a combination of any of the five.I will eat non-______ certified poultry, mainly because ______ certified meat/ poultry isn’t really available or economically feasible for a student and I can see my self being a vegetarian. I don’t mix milk and four-legged animal or eggs and poultry. I will mix and enjoy mixing poultry and dairy. I’m undecided about pork and how it fits into my diet and can’t figure out how I should approach the issue since Kashrut expressly forbids it. I also don’t eat seafood but for a much more practical reason I’m deathly allergic to it. My home is not kosher and probably won’t ever be unless by some stroke of luck I marry a strict vegetarian the that will be as close to a kosher home as I ever get.
Susan – Yes, I definitely know it doesn’t necessarily separate you from your friends and family, but that’s part of the point of it, in my opinion, to be constantly reminding oneself – and others – that you are Jewish, and therefore, you do not eat what others do (among many other things). It is just a matter of reconciling my own reasons with the how-to, which is proving to be a much, much bigger task than I anticipated.
Shula – I do, mostly, find it freeing. But on the other hand, I do a lot of asking myself, “WHY am I doing this?” When I figure that out, it will be a grand day indeed!
Rebecca – That is one of many good approaches. I really like hearing about how others “do” kosher. I contemplate free-range pork a lot, since there is so much “happy” pork available around here.
Tiffany–EXCELLENT post! I have all the same struggles you’re discussing. When people ask me if I keep kosher I wish I could answer with a straight-forward “yes” but it’s more complicated than that. The house is kosher, “but” (I have to then explain that I wash all dishes together). We eat certain things in restaurants but not others when of course strict kosher keepers wouldn’t eat in unkosher restaurants at all. Sigh. It’s all so crazy and I totally agree about the poultry and dairy–though I keep that all separate in the house.
Point of my comment: I can relate to every word in here!