The Making of Holiness in Eating
From The United Synagogue Review, Spring 1999
Eating is an enormously important activity to Jews. A Jewish gathering without food, either physically or verbally present, is unthinkable. Our worship services recall the temple sacrifices consumed by priests; Shabbat services are followed by kiddush; apples and honey enhance the meaning of Rosh Hashanah. Jewish mourners return from a burial to a meal of hard-boiled eggs, and a wedding or a brit means a celebratory meal.
That we love to eat is a given in Jewish life. How we eat (kashrut) is one of the major pillars of Jewish religion (along with Shabbat, holiday observance and prayer) -- distinguishing us as a people, binding Jews as a community across historical time and geographical space, serving as a focus for our identity, and constituting an important articulation of our moral law.
As part of an elaborate and complex system, the laws of kashrut involve permitted and forbidden animals, which are slaughtered by a specially trained individual (shohet) in a carefully prescribed manner. Meat must be soaked and salted to remove all blood. In addition, a rigid separation of meat and dairy foods is required -- extending to include separation of meat and dairy cooking and serving utensils. A kashrut-observant Jew observes a waiting period between eating meat and dairy foods, carefully inspects products at the supermarket to find certification of kosher status, and scrutinizes the ingredients list with care to screen out unkosher elements.
The laws of kashrut have their origin in the Bible, as explicated and amplified over the centuries by Jewish scholars. The Torah states that the act of setting certain foods apart as kosher, or fit for Jews to eat, parallels the separation of Jews from other peoples. Observing dietary laws, then, is one way that Jews strive to be a holy people. For over 2000 years, whenever difficult questions arose, respected religious thinkers of the age were consulted for their opinions. From time to time, the accumulated commentary was condensed into codes, which, in turn, spurred further commentary. That process continues to this day in the deliberations of the Rabbinical Assembly's Committee on Laws and Standards, which regularly publishes opinions to guide the Conservative Jewish community.
With such an enormous amount of material, ancient and modern, in existence, is yet another restatement of the principles of kashrut really necessary? The response is an emphatic "yes" from the joint United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism-Rabbinical Assembly committee currently at work developing a CD ROM, "Holiness in Eating: The What, Why and How of Kashrut." So far, research has been done, a storybook developed, scripts written and colorful graphics designed.
"We are attempting to produce an authoritative compendium of information on the subject of kashrut as a CD ROM. It's a perfect match of subject and technology," declares Rabbi Robert Abramson, Director of the United Synagogue Department of Education, advisor to the committee.
Allan Wegman, a USCJ vice-president who serves on the committee, observes, "Computers are now standard equipment in many homes, schools, and synagogue offices. We have seen a revolution in the delivery of information, and our committee has accepted the challenge to make use of this new technology. We aim to develop a lively product, understandable to a novice yet of interest to the knowledgeable Jew."
Also part of the development committee are Project Coordinator Rabbi Steven Morgan, Rabbi Azriel Fellner, Judith Fellner, and Walter Cohen of Red River Films, Executive Producer. Featuring both audio and video capability and colorful graphics, the CD ROM will resemble a cross between an interactive video and a reference library.
According to Rabbi Fellner, "We can sum up its appeal in three key words -- interactive, non-linear, and comprehensive. First, the CD ROM format is unique in that it is an interactive communication tool. The user will be able to play with a subject on the screen, to dig for more information, following one's own individual train of thought or interest."
Rabbi Abramson explains the advantage of the CD ROM's non-linear quality. "Many of us remember doing research in the library with many volumes piled in front of us, using an index to flip back and forth. It was clumsy and time consuming. Here, it is easy to click on a word or concept and immediately access more information, hopping from topic to topic."
Rabbi Steven Morgan, who researched and edited the Laws and Sources section, remarks on the comprehensive nature of this format. "An amazing amount of information can be packed into a very small space, replacing an entire wall of books," he says. This CD ROM will serve as a fascinating introduction to kashrut for the curious as well as a resource for the more Knowledgeable. While a book must be addressed to a single audience, this is a very flexible form, which can address a topic from various perspectives. We will be able to look at the historical development of kashrut, its practical applications and the rabbinic decision making that formed our present observance.
Let's now open our projected CD ROM and look around. The introductory screens give a general introduction to kashrut. We learn how to keep kosher -- the basics for establishing and maintaining a kosher home. This section is informal, humorous, and conversational. We witness a family going through the process of becoming kosher. Their dining room table is covered with dozens of assorted foods (kosher and non-kosher) that a contemporary family might consume during the course of a week. As a first step, the family decides to eliminate pork. On the screen, a pig, oinking loudly , leaves the room, and is replaced on the table by steak and chicken. As a next step, the lobster clatters out as well. Now, permitted animals -- a cow, sheep, chicken -- peer around the doorways and enter the dining room. When the family decides to separate milk from meat, meat or dairy foods magically disappear from the table. Through the use of humor, a great deal of detailed information is made accessible.
As part of this basic and practical section, we learn about how kosher grocery shopping is different, using the screen to travel up and down the aisles of a virtual supermarket. We learn how to recognize kosher certification (hehkshers) on food products. There are also helpful tips on how to maintain kashrut while away from home in restaurants or other non-kosher settings.
After we have been thoroughly grounded in the how-to's of kashrut, we are ready to explore the CD ROM's authoritative summary of kosher laws and sources. "After" may be a misleading term, because the non-linear format of a CD ROM allows the viewer to click at any point in the introductory sequence on a detail of particular interest. For example, clicking on the dishwasher in the family kitchen yields information on whether it is possible to kasher a dishwasher found in a new apartment (there are several opinions) and how to use a dishwasher for both milk and dairy dishes (never at the same time, of course) and whether, since the seder is often the largest, most elaborate meal of the year in a Jewish home, it is permissible to use the year-round dishwasher for Passover (also various opinions here).
Since a CD ROM makes digressions easy, we may glance now at the Passover section containing a full discussion of special food regulations that apply during Passover.
The viewer, now possessing a basic grasp of how kashrut works, may wish to explore the underlying meanings, or rationales, of kashrut, both for the individual and for the Jewish community. The fact that the Torah does not supply explicit reasons for the laws of kashrut has generated lively discussion for the last 2000 years. The CD ROM summarizes and color codes six recurring themes in these discussions. Jewish thinkers have seen kashrut as part of our covenant with God, as a path to holiness, as a requirement for ethical and ecological sensitivity, as a means of preserving Jewish identity, and also as a means of promoting physical health. The color coding highlights some fascinating juxtapositions. For example, Philo of Alexandria, who sought to apply the Greek notion of moderation to first-century Jewish life, declared that pork and shellfish are prohibited precisely because they are delicious, and stated that eating them would encourage immoderate appetites. Maimonides, on the other hand, in the eleventh century, wrote that swine are dirty animals and that the prohibition of pork stems, at least in part, from aesthetic and hygienic considerations. An extensive bibliography included in the CD ROM refers the interested viewer to the full texts of all authorities cited.
An appealing feature of the CD ROM format is that it permits the user to follow a highly personal train of thought. Imagine a childhood memory evoked by the following kitchen scene:
Grandma: "Mamele, you can't put those carrots on the same plate as your meatloaf. Those are milchig (dairy) carrots." What on earth is a dairy carrot? (wonders the novice). Carrots, we learned, are pareve, neither meat nor dairy. Clicking on "pareve," we find that if a pareve food is cooked in a dairy pot that has been used within the past 24 hours, it is considered to have absorbed some of the "flavor"of dairy. Our nostalgic viewer may experience a delighted aha! at this point. So Grandma was right!
A novice who does not wish to wade through vegetables that have taken on meat or dairy characteristics or else a knowledgeable viewer, who is thoroughly familiar with the dairy carrot issue, may now bypass those details in favor of something more to her taste: tracing how the biblical prohibition against cooking a kid in its mother's milk provides the philosophical basis for humane treatment of animals.
Another novice viewer, overwhelmed by complex regulations governing milk-dairy separation, might decide to look for Jewish views on vegetarianism. By using the search feature, he might be surprised to learn that vegetarianism is considered by many scholars as the original and ideal state of humankind, and that the complicated laws about which animals may be eaten, how animals may be slaughtered, and the requirement to wait a substantial time after eating meat before eating dairy reflect a reverence for life and a strong distaste for the taking of life. The CD ROM format lends itself to free association, making it possible to travel through a subject at one's own speed, following one's particular interest and level of knowledge.
According to Rabbi Fellner, developers of the CD ROM actually have in mind an ideal target audience for the dairy carrot issue, that is, the individual or family engaged in the process of kashering their house. This viewer would find exactly the guidance needed. In a nutshell: If you think you may have leftovers from a meat or dairy meal, and you don't want to keep track of when pots were last used, it might be wise to have some pots strictly for pareve foods.
Another advantage of the CD ROM format is its ability to present a spectrum of rabbinic opinion. On many issues, several opinions are cited, always directing the viewer to look to one's local rabbi as a final authority. The kosher wine issue provides an example of a range of current opinion, even from within the Conservative Movement. Some authorities say certification is required for all grape wine. Others say certification is necessary only for wine used for ceremonial purposes. Yet another opinion holds that all wine is permitted, as long as all the ingredients used in processing the wine are kosher.
Whenever human beings encounter a complicated system, mistakes become inevitable. The developers of this CD ROM have therefore included a very useful and humorous section called OOPS! Or What To Do When Things Go Wrong, which offers guidance on common kashrut mistakes. A narrator takes on the role of sportscaster: It's one of those incredible moments! Let's go to the videotape! Someone carelessly left ta roll of goat cheese on the counter while preparing a meat meal. Now the goat cheese begins to move -- down the counter -- building steam -- they collide -- cheese into meat! This is not going to be pretty. What a mess! What's the fix? Well, the good news here is that everything is cold. The remedy is to cut off the pieces that touched and get that goat cheese off the field!
One of our major objectives, explains Rabbi Jerome M. Epstein, Executive Vice-President of the United Synagogue, is to supply not only a comprehensive survey of traditional thinking on kashrut but also to provide a distinctly Conservative Movement perspective. Promoting the philosophy that keeping kosher is not an all or nothing enterprise, the CD ROM offers several plans for approaching kashrut gradually. To one who has never kept kosher, it may be a daunting task, getting new dishes, depriving the family of certain food, discarding favorite recipes, scrutinizing packages in the grocery story. Several systems, devised by Rabbis Jack Moline and Shelley Kniaz, will be included to help guide one through a process that may last as long as a whole year. They suggest first eliminating pork, then adding one new level of observance each month. Rabbi Kniaz suggests ways to experiment with kashrut, such as eating only kosher animals, eating out in kosher restaurants, or putting together kosher-style menus at home.
Offering another distinctly Conservative perspective, the developers of the CD ROM recognize that modern Conservative Jews live in both Jewish and non-Jewish worlds simultaneously. They observe that while a majority of Conservative Jews keep kosher at home, it is sometimes necessary (when a kosher restaurant is not accessible) to eat out in a non-kosher restaurant. However, outside, they usually eat only dairy or pareve foods. This decision to observe a stricter form of kashrut observance at home than away is not regarded as hypocritical -- in fact, it is much preferred to abandoning all restrictions outside the home.
Stephen S. Wolnek, International President of the United Synagogue comments, "We wanted to emphasize that Conservative kashrut involves the constant process of making decisions and distinctions about the food we eat. It allows for different levels of observance on the theory that it is better to observe some mitzvot than none at all. We look forward to the finished CD ROM as a lively addition to Conservative Judaism's hi-tech collection of resources for its members."
The author, former Associate Editor of the Review, is a freelance writer living in New York City.
