3.2 Judaism and kosher food

Many religions have rules about food or its avoidance. According to a phrase in widespread use, ‘you are what you eat’. Although this is most often used in reference to particular diets, it seems appropriate to the lives of many religious people. Some show that they are committed or observant members of particular religious groups by taking a lot of care about what they do and don’t eat on a daily basis.

If you think of a religious festival or ritual you will almost certainly think of something to do with food. For example, for many people the following are almost synonymous: Christmas and turkeys, Easter and eggs, Pesach and matzah, Ramadan and iftar, puja and prasad. Of equal importance, most religions include practices to do with special ritual meals or fasts (periods of avoiding food).

Even the most ‘spiritual’ person needs to eat. What they choose to eat, and the people they choose to eat with, can be central to understanding religions.

Activity 9

Take a moment to consider what you are happy to eat, or what you may not be willing to eat. What beliefs (not necessarily religious) may have lead you to make these decisions?

Now watch this video with Rabbi Chaim Weiner who explains Jewish dietary restrictions, and how the requirements of a kosher diet affect his life. Then reveal the discussion below.

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Transcript

[SPEAKING HEBREW]

NARRATOR

Jewish dietary law is laid out in the ancient texts of the Torah. One of the most important aspects of a rabbi's role is to use these rules to check whether food is kosher or not.

[SPEAKING HEBREW]

RABBI CHAIM WEINER

We work not so much with restaurants or with factories. We work mainly with the caterers. We would work with people who are preparing a bar mitzvah function or a wedding function and go into the kitchen. We would make sure that all the ingredients being used are kosher. We do something called 'koshering the kitchen', which is a very, very deep clean, and we would watch the caterer from the ordering of the food until the serving and making sure that everything complies with Jewish law.

NARRATOR

Since childhood, Rabbi Weiner and his family have always been careful to ensure that the food they buy and eat is kosher.

RABBI CHAIM WEINER

I grew up as a child in Canada, in Nova Scotia on the east coast of Canada. Our nearest source of kosher meat was over a thousand miles away, and that was never a problem for our family. In other words, there was always a strong commitment that we were a family that kept kosher. And if it meant ordering your meat from a thousand miles away, then we ordered the meat from a thousand miles away. Twice a year, a large shipment would come from Toronto. I think part of my identity and part of my understanding that kosher food is part of forming that identity comes from that formative experience.

DAVID SALZMAN

Kosher food is part of our religion. And if I would, for example, be very, very hungry and I'd go ... I'm walking down the road and see a delicious sandwich - a non-kosher sandwich - in the window and I don't eat it, that proves to me that I ... if something, that God will be very happy, that even though I'm extremely hungry, I will refrain from buying a non-kosher product. That is absolutely wonderful thing. If you refrain from eating non-kosher, it would be wonderful for yourself and for your soul and for your religion.

RABBI CHAIM WEINER

The moment you decide I am eating this and I am not eating that because that's who I am is a very formative experience in a person developing their own identity. And I think the decisions we make, what seem like very, very small decisions - am I going into this restaurant, am I ordering that pizza or a different pizza - they seem like they are nothing, but the moment you make those decisions, you're actually really thinking about: who am I, and how do I live?

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Discussion

There is a lot to observe in this video. In particular, how keeping kosher structured so much of Weiner’s life and experience. It involved enjoyment of what was permissible but David Salzman also talked about developing discipline and restraint when kosher food was unavailable. He believed that restraining himself in the face of temptation to break kosher restrictions was pleasing to God. I was particularly struck by Weiner’s questions. He reflects that choices about what to eat and what not to eat are central to answering the questions: ‘who am I?’ and ‘how do I live?’ These are some of the main questions addressed by religions, and questions that most humans reflect on from time to time.