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Kosher on Campus
Unlike my esteemed colleague Chase, I myself nurture a two-tumbler-a-day coffee addiction and am steeped in the Starbucks lingo. As a Jew, however, I too am under some fairly strict dietary obligations that make a good amount of nutritional sense.
Tonight I went to the first of a three-session course at BU Hillel about keeping a kosher kitchen. The rabbi’s wife talked about shopping for food, telling some particularly harrowing stories about bugs in produce (kosher fruits and vegetables are meticulously checked to be free of any bugs). We are also commanded not to eat pork, shellfish, horses, and other animals that don’t fall in line with specific standards recorded in the biblical book of Leviticus. Kosher animals have to be slaughtered without the knife snagging on the animal’s skin in order to be suitable to eat, a precaution that ensures that the animal is killed more quickly and humanely. Milk and meat have to be eaten separately and most foods have to have a special symbol, a hechsher, indicating that their production was overseen by a knowledgeable Jew.
I signed up for the course because although I grew up in a kosher-style house (no pork, seafood, or milk and meat together but also no separate dishes or hechshers on food), I have been toying with the idea of keeping a kosher kitchen for a while. My roommate and I made a sort of lame attempt to do so in our on-campus apartment this year. The result has been a hodge-podge of separate and non-separate utensils and appliances. My blender is strictly non-dairy, for example, but we only have one set of plates for both milk and meat.
Although my family doesn’t keep strict kosher, there are certain lines we will not cross. After you’ve grown up not eating shellfish, it’s pretty much unthinkable to start (lobster night in the dining hall is always a sort of terrifying event for me). On the other hand, it’s also hard to become more kosher than you were growing up. I’ve eaten chicken in non-kosher restaurants a million times, and I highly doubt that I will ever be able to give that up. That being said, during my first two years of college, I often made the trek to the kosher Chinese restaurant in Brookline on Saturday nights with my friends simply because we liked the post-Shabbat atmosphere of a tiny restaurant crammed with Jews where you were bound to run into people you knew.
I like the idea of keeping a kosher kitchen because I like the constant awareness of God and Judaism that comes with being meticulous about what goes into your mouth. Oftentimes after I eat a meat dinner, I’ll have a craving for ice cream, but I’ll remember that I am supposed to wait at least an hour to eat dairy, and although I miss out on instant gratification, it brings God into one of the more mundane aspects of my life. I also would like to have a home in which my friends who are strictly kosher could feel comfortable eating.
Like Chase, I don’t super-strictly follow the dietary laws of my religion, but I do my best and I appreciate their function. And for me this means that the dietary rules do not just provide nutritional guidelines, but also an opportunity for a closer relationship with God and with other Jews.
By
Shari Rabin
|
November 27, 2007; 8:59 PM ET
| Category:
Chutzpah Chronicles
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Posted by: John Morrow | December 5, 2007 1:30 PM
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Agreed with anonymous - have a little respect! As for Big News, no, we actually believe God is reasonable about things like that. However, as Shari said, we do find value in bringing holiness into even the mundane aspects of our lives and the ability to choose what we eat for reasons other than price and taste. And Ender, I'm not really sure where refrigeration comes in, but it certainly doesn't have anything to do with this "bullshirt" (is that worn with bullpants?)
Most importantly, just be civilized human beings before you write! Thanks!
Posted by: Benjamin E. | December 5, 2007 9:16 AM
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The dietary standard issue certainly affirms my faith that the Lord is a reasonable individual. I try my best to follow the rules, but I can’t help indulge on the naughty foods way too often. The spirit of the Lord still graces my soul enough to make me feel comfortable with my celestial brownie point score.
Maybe one of these days I’ll try being kosher for a month or something. But only if Shari stops drinking coffee at the same time. It will be awesome. I’ll call her telling her how tempted I am to eat a pork chop and she’ll facebook me telling how jittery she is without her fancy Starbucks. I think Newsweek could totally do a one page feature on our little experiment… Tee hee.
Posted by: Latter-day Chase | December 4, 2007 12:42 AM
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I'd say about keeping kosher what I've said about many other activities: if it works for you and makes you feel good, go ahead and do it and be happy in it.
On the other hand, as a non-Jewish person, keeping kosher seems to me to be a rather obsessive activity that requires a lot of time, energy and attention that might be more usefully employed in other spiritual pursuits.
But not being Jewish, I'm probably missing something here.
Here's a true anecdote that probably has no relevance to this discussion, but I've always been intrigued by it.
In 1957-58 I was working on a kibbutz in the Negev. Periodically some formerly American members, all Jewish, would go up to the western, Jewish portion of then-divided Jerusalem.
They had one purpose in mind. Somehow, despite Jerusalem's city ordinances against keeping pigs or pork products within the city limits, they had found probably the one restaurant in all of Israel that served pork.
Their single-minded goal was to have a meal of pork chops, which they attained every few months.
All I could think of was that those dinners might have reminded them of their former American homes and may have assuaged any homesickness they might still be feeling.
Posted by: Norrie Hoyt | December 2, 2007 12:16 PM
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Its really sad that readers of this column take the time to read this, and yet don't have the common sense to think before they write. Its one thing to disagree with the authors beliefs and comments, its another to disrespect her beliefs for the sake of disrespect. Please think about your beliefs and wonder if there are not millions who would disrespect you for yours in another society
Posted by: Anonymous | November 29, 2007 4:50 PM
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The god of the Jews hates shrimp.
I love shrimp.
There for I hate the god of the Jews because it hates something I love.
Kosher made sense before refrigeration. Now, it is a bunch of silly, superstitious bullshirt that should be tossed out with flat earth theory, intelligent design, and ancient tribal religions.
Posted by: ender | November 29, 2007 1:36 PM
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Does this make any sense at all to anyone?
What if you wait 58 1/2 minutes instead of an hour for ice cream? You're closeness to God and other Jews goes out the window, one supposes.
Enough to make a fuss of, and a column.
Posted by: big news | November 29, 2007 12:12 PM
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Does this make any sense at all to anyone?
What if you wait 58 1/2 minutes instead of an hour for ice cream? You're closeness to God and other Jews goes out the window, one supposes.
Enough to make a fuss of, and a column.
Posted by: big news | November 29, 2007 12:11 PM
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The comments to this entry are closed.
I don't think there is much point in insulting or mocking the strictures of any religion. You're certainly not going to convince anyone to abandon their faith because some of their rules appear silly to you.
I'm personally an atheist and the kind of rules that appear in Leviticus strike me as ridiculous, but I'm not here to mock anyone who chooses to follow them.
What I am curious about is the tendency among some religious people to follow some, but not all, of the rules of their religion. I don't quite get it. Shari seems to think that Kosher is something that is important, yet she sort of, sometimes, kinda follows the rules. The same is true of a Roman Catholic friend of mine who is very devoutly Catholic except when she doesn't want to be - uses birth control for example.
Presumably if it was important enough for your God to make it a rule, shouldn't you actually be following it? And if He/She/It doesn't actually care if you follow it, what exactly was the point of the rule in the first place?