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Keeping Kosher

by Anna Stevenson · January 6th, 2008

Conversation around the dinner table on Shabbat turned to the topic of kashrut. Why is it so expensive? (in Vancouver, a 14lb turkey goes for $75) Why does it cause Jews to be so rude to other Jews, whose kashrut standards don’t match their own? Why does it matter if I wait four hours or seven – and says who?

I did not grow up keeping kosher, and although I’ve lived in de facto kosher kitchens for the past 4 years (my roommate’s dishes were dairy, but I was mostly a vegetarian so it didn’t really matter), it’s only recently that I’ve begun toying with the idea of taking on this particular yoke of heaven. But I found that all of the reasons I would give for why I might chose to keep kosher had nothing to answer all these tachlis questions.

I like the notion that there are things beyond my control. I accept that kashrut is arbitrary – this is not a health code, and to rationalize it as such takes away its power. When there are rules that are bigger than me, rules that I don’t fully comprehend – I’m reminded that the world is a lot bigger and beyond comprehension than my rational mind might want to believe, and I am humbled. I also feel that I’m let off the hook. I’m not responsible for everything. There are systems and worlds and rules that are beyond my control. It sort of feels like ‘giving up’ to say so – though what you get in return is a feeling of comfort, of being held by something larger and older and wiser than yourself.

I also like the idea of keeping meat and milk separate – which in effect ends up meaning that when you eat meat, you do it differently than when you eat everything else. And I think that’s important. Eating meat is a big deal. Eating animals is a big deal. Killing something that was alive so you can eat it (that’s what meat-eating is, though we would rarely describe it as such) is a big deal. Switching dishes, thinking about what you serve with it, thinking about how it will affect your day in terms of how long you will be ‘fleish’ (whether you wait 5 minutes or 4 hours) all serve to remind you of the fact that eating meat is taking a life, and you sure better not take it for granted, or do it automatically without thinking.

But then there are all these questions: questions about the rules that don’t make sense, the monopoly of the kosher butchers, the expense of having extra kitchen utensils, the complicated range of emotions faced by would-be hosts, or guests, when faced with eating in a home that doesn’t match your standards (Jewish or not). And there’s the question about who decides, who makes the rules. My dad was bringing up the question of eco-kashrut, and wondering when Jewish institutions would adopt ethical and environmental standards as part of the standard definition of kashrut. Some are – the Tzedek Hechser in particular. But I got to thinking: I don’t strongly identify with any particular “movement” of Judaism – I did go to the Jewish Theological Seminary, which is a Conservative institution, but I define myself as Jewish, period, and that links me to a much broader group. Who is my rebbe? Whose rulings do I follow? When I can look up the kitzur shulchan aruch online, and have access to any number of other Jewish books and codes – couldn’t I make my own rulings? Does that make me “less Jewish”?

So while I’m learning about and embracing the potential that Jewish laws such as kashrut have to bring structure and meaning to my life, there are so many Jews who are turned off by the irrationalness, the specifics, the other Jews who are more strict, or less strict than they are, etc. I want to climb up on the table and say this is not the point! I’m finding that these rules are a way back to a pre-modern way of being in the world that offers us opportunities to express gratitude, awe, humility and connectedness with the earth and with each other. When I think about all the things I’d like to fix about the world, the fact that we’ve got a system right here that can address so many of those issues all at once seems quite revolutionary. As my friend Shamu called it: radical simplicity.

But what about all the bureaucracy? So – either I’m distorting Judaism to serve my own ecologist ends, or a heck of a lot of people are hugely missing the point, and the potential, of what kashrut has to offer.

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6 Responses to “Keeping Kosher”

Larry Lennhoff Says:
January 6th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
For a different view about kashrut and rudeness look at Rav Shlomo Aviner, a religious Zionist rabbi living in Jerusalem. It is interesting that he says that host should be accepting of guests’ lower standards.

A couple of quotes:
all kosher certification is acceptable, whether it is Mehadrin, Badatz, or the Chief Rabbinate. Any product with any kosher certification is presumed to be acceptable until proven otherwise. We rely on the principle of “chazakah – presumption” based on the Gemara in Niddah (15b) that a Torah scholar “does not allow food to leave his domain without its kashrut being ensured.” Sometimes there are differences of opinion, but one needs to prove that something is not kosher. It is true that sometimes there are people who are deceptive. There is a list which is constantly updated on the website of the Kashrut Department of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. There is, however, a general principle: We must not doubt the kosher certification of Rabbis.

What is this? You are invited by people, and you say that what they are eating is not kosher?! If this is how you feel then don’t come, or say that you have a stomach ache or I don’t like this food. You are not obligated to eat everything, but don’t come to someone’s house or event and say it is not kosher enough.
Jeffrey Yoskowitz Says:
January 7th, 2008 at 2:24 am
Anna, I totally hear you. As someone who considers himself kosher I can tell you that more and more I think about and wish that I wasn’t. Especially being here in Israel. There are a lot of restaurants here that only serve kosher ingredients and are closed on Shabbat and other holidays, and yet they can’t get kosher certification because they are not observant Jews themselves. Or sometimes the restaurant owners don’t want to deal with the religious bureaucracy here because of nightmarish prior experiences.

The same corruption is true in North America. It’s become a game of power politics: who controls kashrut? It’s been this way since the beginning of the kosher industry (thank you OU). Some of the most arbitrary rules are actually completely arbitrary and are just part of Star-K or Circle-K’s particular methodology to differentiate itself from the other hecshers.

Another frustrating point is that there’s hardly incentive to change and improve among kosher institutions. So many have a fixed clientèle, which explains why so many kosher restaurants in Israel stink while the non-kosher ones just get better and better. I have family here that wants to eat at kosher restaurants but after the fifteenth restaurant bust in Jerusalem they feel forced to eat at treyf places only to meet their minimum standards. This is even more true in NA.
RivkaK Says:
January 7th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
I have my own Kosher rules, certainly not halachic by Orthodox standards. We have 2 sets of dishes. We eat very little meat anyway. I live in no way near any kosher meat, except heb National hot dogs. So my dear Jewish friends are long time cattle producers. Their cows are grass fed and as organic as you could want. The cows are not killed according to halacha. But this is the only beef I will cook for my family. I think that knowing the cow was treated good while alive, rather than the moment of death, far exceeds Rubashkins methods.So to me this is my humane thought over the actual killing.
We also do not abide by the law of sight, so chicken parmesan is a regular.
I think, in my own mind, not Halachaly of course that being kosher is far more to just buying a Hecksher.
Th whole monopoly thing drives me nuts, the whole Halav Yisroel drives me nuts. I buy raw milk from our CSA. I don’t know if it is pig milk! But I am sure that the kind dairy people only have cows on their milk operation. And they are not interested in ruining their reputation.All the milk I buy has a U or K something on it, but I know my Orthodox pals don’t consider this good enough.
chillul Who? Says:
January 8th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Two comments for Rivka:

A lot of people I know don’t consider Rubashkins kosher at all, because of the abuse their animals face, the exploitation of their workers, and the fact that they run around screaming “Antisemitism!” whenever they’re caught doing something else wrong. While the meat itself may be *technically* kosher when all you’re looking at is food rules, it’s ennabled by a host of other averot/sins.

As for keeping Chalav Yisrael and not drinking regular milk, even with regular hechshers, there’s only a minority of Orthodox Jews who don’t accept Rav Moshe Feinstein’s ruling that all cow’s milk produced in America is kosher because the FDA/USDA does the job of ensuring that there is no milk from treif animals masquerading as cow’s milk.
Anna Stevenson Says:
January 9th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
it’s funny — rivkaK you said that chicken parmesan is a regular at your table, and to me that sounds decidedly _not_ within the realm of kashrut — but it’s so arbitrary, because i’d say beef from my neighbor’s farm, happily raised and humanely killed, is totally acceptable (to me). so….it’s some combination of rules, and habit, and taste. complicated.

thinking about all the OU monopoly stuff….maybe we really need more traveling shochets. simon’s eco-kosher project Kosher Conscience — which combines the values of small-scale, geographically spread out agriculture with strict halacha — really might be the perfect next step.

thanks all for your thoughts…
Phyllis Bieri Says:
January 15th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Thanks for bringing this up, Anna. I really appreciate open and respectful discussions about kashrut issues. Over time I am learning to take things less personally and be more comfortable with our household’s practices, but it’s still a struggle. Two examples. I bought locally made organic yogurt for my daughter’s preschool class’s snack, and the teachers returned it because it didn’t have a heckscher. The ingredients were all kosher, which I checked of course, and while I checked for grams of sugar per serving, I forgot to find the heckscher. Trying to get the kids’ Jewish day school to re-think its food policies seemed too overwhelming, e.g. kosher ingredients vs heckscher only….

The other example is more mundane. Just couldn’t invite a couple over for shabbat dinner last week because I knew our standards weren’t sufficient.

Agree completely about meat being hugely important and treated as such, but separation of milk and meat still brings up too many unanswered questions for me. Wondering what the “law of sight” is that RivkaK was referring to.

I am warmed by your heightened awareness and appreciation of the laws of kashrut, and the spiritual anchor those laws provide.