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Kashrut has no God — But shouldn’t it?

by Ben Murane · September 5th, 2008
Judaism, Kosher, Opinion, Prayer, Rant!

Talk to GodPeople often are confused by my explanation of my Jewish practice. They ask, “How kosher are you?” or “What’s your Shabbat practice?” and my answer is always something along these lines:

“Whatever the Old Man Upstairs and I decide that day.”

For whatever reason, that’s always chuckle-worthy to them. Which is unusual, because in Christian circles, talk of personal relationships and conversations with God is very common. Whereas as close as Judaism seems to get, the Bratslav tradition of hitbodedut, is extremely radical, even now: “To talk to God in your own tongue, without pre-prepared words, like you would a friend? How weeeeird.”

But interestingly enough, negotiating with God is a very Jewish idea, which is found here or there, particularly in liberal Jewish theological settings. Abraham negotiated with God, Moses haggled with God, Elijah chastized God, and so on. In Kabbalah, we even hold a threat over God’s head: without us, Divinity ceases to exist.

But the idea that you and I, personally, should negotiate with God on a day-to-day basis is very foreign to most Jewish practice. Halacha doesn’t need God. It has God in mind, and it comes from God, but actually doesn’t involve God at all.

Furthermore, culturally and generally speaking, your Jewish “practice” is something you commit to and it’s nailed down firmly in halachic justifications which are consistent and well-researched, often by scholars smarter than you. You do all of it, or you’re a bad Jew. If you’re inconsistent to even what little one does, the guilt sets in.

In contrast, my practice is a personal contract — not a communal one — with the Big Kahuna. Not only am I my own rabbi, but a rabbinical “authorization” is an affront to my own capability and impinges on the direct link I have to the One Who Wrote It All.

And it works very simply: some days, it’s clear that God expects a letter-of-the-law halacha from me. No lightswitches on Shabbes, no computer, no un-hekhshered food in my mouth. (Within which I also interpret the laws I as read them, not as is commonly practiced, which is a topic for another post.)

Other days, I hear from God that it’s not a time to get bogged down with the inanity of laws which selfishly benefit my own personal sense of spirituality but don’t accomplish worldly good for other people — and thus, I must use the subways, computers, non-hekhshered food to accomplish some aggadic (broadly ethical) end. The brightening of other people’s lives, the service of God in some deed.

And plenty of times, I don’t agree with Him. Last week I was standing in a pizzaria, looking a slice of pepperoni pizza and realizing that plain cheese is not nutritionally sufficient. I needed the protein. And I could feel the Old Man frowning over my shoulder. And I totally understood where He was coming from. The symbolism of mingling life and death together so casually is an affront to the divinity of life and death. Yet, I needed to nourish myself well. And so I wrestled for a minute, finally telling Him, “I’m going to eat the pepperoni. But life and death is Yours and Yours alone. This I know. Tomorrow is a day for that particular practice.”

This is not so radical to me, but it sounds drastically out of step with how most Jews I know treat God and treat their kashrut. Many people decide their own practice. Many people are very comfortable with flexible practice. But kashrut seems to be something that one is expected to draft out in the beginning and follow consistently and to it’s logical extreme. It’s over intellectualized.

Which I think is a shame. Because the approach I’m advocating liberates us a little from the kosher oligopolies, the rabbinical infighting, the denominational slicing/dicing, and actually encourages people to be closer to God and each other. Isn’t that the point of kashrut? To be close to God? Or is fulfillment of kashrut and Jewish tradition just something that we do to keep ourselves separate from other people?

The second seems like such a waste to me.

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14 Responses to “Kashrut has no God — But shouldn’t it?”

  1. Michael Croland Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 4:24 pm

    (Ben, please don’t let this come across as a judgment of your personal conduct as an individual in this situation. Thank you for bringing to light what is of course very widespread. And I largely agree with you on your bigger point in this post.)

    I think that pepperoni pizza is a pretty weak example for your argument:

    1. As you discussed, it’s mixing dairy and meat — often thought of as mixing life and death.
    2. Pepperoni typically contains pork (and beef), so you were eating a food that would’ve been treif even if it hadn’t been paired with dairy.
    3. You ate food from cows and pigs who quite possibly weren’t slaughtered as humanely as animals would’ve been in shechita. (Of course, the extent to which this is true is debatable, and kosher meat typically comes from animals raised under the same awful conditions as animals raised for non-kosher meat. But the bottom line is that you just don’t know and can reasonably assume that conditions were as bad if not worse.)

    What might’ve seemed like a simple “negotiation” to break a rule once turned out to be much more. The sprit of kashrut encourages proper conduct related to food, sometimes in ways we don’t consider consciously, and breaking away from that is a slippery slope.

  2. lauren ahkiam Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 5:10 pm

    as a “low-church” (i.e., not hierarchical like catholicism, more “fellowship of the believer” where we pray directly without intercession) Christian i appreciate your day to day discussion with God, and enjoy your insights of when it’s appropriate to follow certain teachings and when not to allow certain regulations to stand in the way of doing good. in fact Jesus does this when he speaks of the call to help people on the sabbath. thank you for the insight of how one might struggle with this issue within the Jewish faith as well.

    however as a vegetarian, i must agree with michael that your pepperoni example may not be the best :). the lost protein from the pepperoni is unlikely to cause much stomach grumbling as most folks get far more protein than their body needs, and cheese is pretty gangbusters for protein on its own.

  3. WoolSilkCotton Says:
    September 6th, 2008 at 11:57 am

    Ben, strong work.
    To enjoy being Jewish, which is the only reason to be Jewish, you can’t make yourself crazy with ’shoulds and musts’. If you try to keep all kosher all the time, you will find yourself unhappy and turned off to the whole Jewish experience.
    It’s ok to cobble together your own brand of observance, and that can be dynamic; keep adjusting, more or less observance, whenever your heart desires.
    The detailed and more stringent kosher rules exist, in part, to keep Jews isolated from nonJews. Don’t let that happen to you.
    No matter what you do, there is some religious holier-than-thou type out there who will be critical. However, there will also be lots of Jews who understand that nobody can, or does, really do it all.
    So eat, enjoy!

  4. Hershele Ostropoler Says:
    September 6th, 2008 at 3:14 pm

    It seems to me that:
    1) Judaism is all about a personal relationship with the divine.
    2) if there is an overriding ethic in Judaism, it’s tikkun olam, not blindly following the letter of the law (which is not to say that the two necessarily conflict).

  5. Tzvi Says:
    September 6th, 2008 at 3:51 pm

    reading about your “negotions with G-d”, kinda reminds me of Martin Buber’s Theory of meeting. Its put out in his book I and Thou, which i reccomend every Modern jew should read. Or at least some of the other works by the Jewish Existentialists.

    I tend to look at G-d as a friend with whom I can sit down, have a shot of Schnapps with, and hash out the problems of the day. Sometimes i’m wrong, sometimes I;’m right, but it evens out in the end.

  6. Rabbi Shmuel Says:
    September 6th, 2008 at 8:56 pm

    “Hershele” - thanks for the laughs!

  7. Judith Says:
    September 7th, 2008 at 7:03 am

    I’ve fallen off the “fresh, local, organic, sustainably raised, humanely sourced, fair trade” food wagon more than once for pepperoni. And I consider myself more human because of it - opens me up to understanding and humbleness.

  8. T is for Tomato Says:
    September 7th, 2008 at 1:48 pm

    Ben:

    I can relate to some of the feelings you express here. But kashrus isn’t just about one’s personal relationship with Hashem. As a progressive but religious Jew, I fear that the liberal Jewish emphasis on doing whatever feels right at any given time is informed too much with the fierce and often destructive extreme individualism of Western culture. Don’t you think that there is value in kashrus and Shabbos as spiritual DISCIPLINES? A discipline is something one follows even when sometimes it’s a struggle or occasionally one feels conflicted about it. It gives consistency and cohesiveness to one’s life. Some feel it brings spiritual elevation because we’re doing what Hashem asks of us… but even if one doesn’t believe that, certainly these practices when pursued as disciplines can provide a way to refine ourselves beyond our “animal” natures by elevating and challenging ourselves. We are not an ascetic religion but sometimes refraining or having boundaries or limits on certain things or pushing ourselves for consistency can help a person or community reach a different level of consciousness.

    I talk to Hashem often. But how do I know when Hashem is talking to me and when what I’m hearing is my own remarkable ability to rationalize gratifying my every desire? I don’t always know. Which is why I have traditional and halacha to help guide me.

    WoolSilkCotton:

    “If you try to keep all kosher all the time, you will find yourself unhappy and turned off to the whole Jewish experience.”

    Are you kidding me? Thousands of years of kosher-keeping and you think every single one of us is an unhappy person who is turned off to Judaism? Try telling that to the millions of happy kosher Jews out there who love their faith (and their food). Also, not all people who follow the “letter of the law” on kashrus are obsessive-compulsive isolated fundamentalists. I’m offended that you’d even imply that. The one thing you’re write about is that no one can do it all - Other than tzaddikim, perhaps, we are all humans. But as Jews we are given the challenge to do all that we can and not let our humanity or lack of perfection be an excuse for not trying to live according to our values and beliefs.

    Hershele,

    My understanding is that the idea of the most important thing being a personal relationship with the divine is a very Christian concept that has very little basis in Judaism. Judaism asks us to act *before* we believe (or even if we don’t believe). Our faith certainly doesn’t dismiss the idea of personal connection with Hashem, however it’s hard to argue with the center of our faith being a *communal* covenant with Hashem. That is the center of most of our beliefs and practices and of the Torah. I don’t believe all Jews have to understand our Judaism the same way, but I think you are just plain wrong in your assertion. It contradicts halacha, Torah, and tradition as I know it.

  9. Leah Koenig Says:
    September 7th, 2008 at 2:35 pm

    T is for Tomato - I want to thank you for your insightful, intelligent, and respectful comment. My own spiritual understanding falls somewhere between yours and Ben’s, but I so appreciate the way you articulated what I think is an incredibly admirable relationship with Jewish tradition, and - more than that - that you so fully expressed your opinion without falling prey to the hurtful and petty insults that too many of us (myself included) resort to in the blogosphere.

  10. T is for Tomato Says:
    September 7th, 2008 at 10:03 pm

    Thank you Leah. Your kind words mean a lot. I try not to insult people online as I don’t appreciate being insulted. I do word things strongly sometimes because I am opinionated and do find certain things offensive or even ridiculous. But I think trying to maintain a level head (as well as an ethical orientation) is as important online as it is offline. If a bit more challenging sometimes.

    BTW, I am annoyed to see that I made all sorts of typos in my comment. Bah. Posting on 4 hrs sleep = bad idea. Here are two of many mistyped sentences I feel the need to clarify to make sure that what I’m saying is clear:

    I wrote:

    “…emphasis on doing whatever feels right at any given time is informed too much with the fierce and often destructive extreme individualism…”

    that should be “informed too much BY the fierce….”

    and I wrote “The one thing you’re write about is that no one can do it all - Other than tzaddikim, perhaps, we are all humans.”

    …which should be “The one thing you’re right about is that no one can do it all - other than tzaddikim, perhaps. We are all humans.” I wasn’t trying to imply tzaddikim are less or more than human!

    Ahem. Seems I need a proofreader.

  11. littlerose Says:
    September 8th, 2008 at 3:32 am

    Ben,

    Your vegetarian friend currently living in Israel hereby supports your decision to eat the pepperoni pizza, and thinks you know what’s best for your body better than anyone else, divine or otherwise. And as an unofficial spokeswoman for Those Who Love You (which the Old Lady Upstairs certainly counts herself among), your friend would like to commend you for protecting your body so you can be healthy and happy and present for us to kick around the block for a long time to come.

    Plus, she is super craving some DiFara’s right about now.

  12. WoolSilkCotton Says:
    September 8th, 2008 at 8:19 am

    Dear T is for Tomato,

    Jews along the entire continuum of religiosity have existed, yes, and even thrived, for thousands of years. Not all Jews since Day One have been Orthodox, and yet we are all still doing just fine.

    There is a broad spectrum of belief and observance, and us Jews are all over it; many of us travel along that spectrum, in any given direction, on a regular basis. No matter what you think you are, there is always someone more religious and someone less religious than you.

    Judaism has withstood the test of time because of its inherent virtue. Once it is no longer considered good and morally desirable, that’s when all of us will go the way of the dinosaurs, no matter how religious, or kosher, you think you are.

    Moderation works best in everything, including religion. Most Jews were never orthodox, aren’t currently, and never will be.

    The orthodox have been predicting the end of nonorthodox Judaism for over a century, but us nonortho’s are still here, and there are still a lot more of us than orthodox.
    The vast majority of Jews in the world, throughout history, did not keep all kosher all the time, and yet here we all are.

    The rules of keeping kosher have evolved considerably over the past 1500 years. Based upon a few biblical passages, a group of men- yes, humans- wrote volumes of rules. The motives behind those rules varied; some were for keeping with the letter and perceived spirit of the Bible, some were meant to maintain separation from the nonJewish community (which at the time was a real and physical threat to the Jews), some were meant to protect the food supply (poisoning of food by our enemies was a genuine concern, as well as blood libels), others were meant for health reasons (the Code of Jewish Law still cites this as a reason for some of the kashrut rules).

    Let us all keep thinking, talking, agreeing, disagreeing, changing our minds, and continue challenging our own and each other’s beliefs. As long as nobody starts throwing furniture, we’ll be alright.

    With brotherly love,

    WoolSilkCotton

  13. T is for Tomato Says:
    September 8th, 2008 at 12:32 pm

    WoolSilkCotton:

    1) Not all Jews who keep kosher are Orthodox.

    2) I’d love to know where you got the impression that the majority of Jews throughout history didn’t keep kosher. I’m not saying that to be contrarian but rather because I find that curious and would like to know more. Do you have sources?

    3) I don’t feel that you really addressed my comment regarding your generalization about the inherent unhappiness of people who choose to follow kashrut (or by extension, shabbos, etc) strictly. If you don’t want Orthodox and non-Orthodox observant folks judging your own practice, how can you judge ours? You base your generalizations on a very myopic understanding of what motivates people to keep these laws. Do you get to define what moderation is? I feel strongly that I am a “moderate” person because I keep a strictly kosher home and keep shabbos in a traditional way but I also believe in somewhat less restrictive gender roles than most Orthodox people and I choose to have a critical eye towards chumras and minhagim (as well as many aspects of rabbinical judaism in general). I am also “moderate” because I try to be halchically observant yet I make a point of being part of pluralistic communities and embracing my friends who are all over the map religiously, including non-Jews. Non-halachic Jews don’t get to decide for everyone what “moderate” is any more than right-wing Orthodoxy gets to decide for everyone what Judaism means! If “moderation” means only doing what “feels right” and doesn’t challenge you, rejecting all the parts of Judaism one cannot fully rationally explain, not following any of the laws that have guided our people for generations (whether or not people were “Orthodox”, which is a contemporary term), etc… or if it means assimilating and making Judaism no more than a feel-good thing to use for your own purposes but discard when it challenges you… then I guess I’m an extremist or whatever the opposite of a moderate is. Moderation is relative.

    4) You are absolutely correct that many of the kosher laws we follow now are rabbinic in nature and kashrus today looks different than my grandparents’ kashrus. Most Orthodox Jews consider rabbinic laws to be divine in nature. I have never been able to wholeheartedly accept this, though I choose to adhere to most of them. However, I hardly think that most Jews who don’t keep rabbinically kosher choose to follow Torah laws (which were given to us without justification). I find that it’s usually throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater. Karaite Jews are the only Jews I know of who reject rabbinic Judaism yet carefully keep the Torah laws.

    5) I can’t throw furniture? Dang it, this game is no fun. *pout* Can we throw pillows at least?

  14. Bloom Says:
    September 8th, 2008 at 1:31 pm

    First – I agree with Ben that we need more decentralized and democratic halacha, and kashrut in particular. However, it is not up to each individual to make their own halacha, it is up to each learned individual to participate in the halachic process. In a democracy, everyone can vote, but if you want to be a judge, you have to go to law school. To be part of the legal process, you need the requisite knowledge. Most Jews, myself included, of all stripes, simply are not sufficiently educated to be part of this process, which is very sad. That Rabbis have so much power is but a symptom of the problem.

    As for the negotiation with God, the examples from the Torah are primarily not about us, but about what kind of deity, God is going to be. Will God be just or merciful? Will God smite the masses or not? I am not aware of any biblical negotiation where God agrees to lighten the yoke of God’s commandments to some individual.

    In your particular example, I find it difficult to find any affirmation of Godliness. Eating the pepperoni pizza was not an awkward negotiation between competing values, such as kashrut and accomplishing “worldly good for other people,” say like honouring one’s parents. You could easily have not eaten that slice of pizza and eaten something else, or eaten it without pepperoni. Instead you chose to eat it, which is fine by me and an understandable choice. What it is not is an affirmation of God or kashrut.

    Certainly, a personal relationship with God is a valuable asset, but not in place of keeping God’s laws.

    WoolSilkCotton – You are correct in saying “Most Jews were never orthodox, aren’t currently, and never will be.” Before modernity, however, most Jews were halachicly observant and kept kosher, at least those Jews who considered themselves Jews.

    T is for Tomato – while I was writing this I see you wrote half the things I was going to say… so… go T!

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