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Shemini

There are many kinds of Jews. Some are Revolving Door Jews who come into the schul on Rosh Hashanah and leave on Yom Kippur and then are never heard from for the rest of the year. There are Jews at Heart, who feel their Judaism, but never do anything to express or practice their Judaism. Then there are the Gastronomic Jews who can be identified by what they eat. They are the ones who you might think like kugel and kishka and chulent and tsimis, but really they are not the Gastronomic Jews.

Gastronomic Jews find beauty in the laws of Kashruth. They recognize that one can judge a person by the way that person eats, and so they choose to be kosher. That act by itself has deep environmental consequences. Because they choose to be kosher, they have no right to kill most animals. They have a God-given obligation to care for the bio-diversity of this planet.

Because they choose to be kosher, they choose to recognize that animals can hurt; that animals can suffer; that animals have a right to be alive. Consequently we have a God-given obligation to care for animals, and to protect them. We also have a God-given obligation to make sure when we slaughter them for food, we do so in as painless a manner as usual.

Because we choose to be kosher, we are not allowed gluttoness behavior. We are commanded to eat with the understanding that eating is a venture when we recognize God’s goodness; when we recognize that this world can supply food for all; when we recognize that none should go hungry. Kashruth teaches us that on whatever table a person eats, that table should be considered nothing less than an altar, and our eating habits are nothing less than the manner in which we serve God.

Kashruth teaches us respect and love for this world; commands us to care for and protect this world, allows us to recognize God’s blessing that is so pervasive in the world.

Kashruth is just not a matter of eating.

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