Recently I started to pay more attention to how many conversations I have each day about food. This isn鈥檛 because I鈥檓 a foodie鈥攕omeone who loves to seek-out and share new food experiences鈥攊t鈥檚 because so many of my family, friends and acquaintances have dietary restrictions due to religion, allergies and personal preferences.
A personal preference we are all familiar with now is vegetarianism. I remember not too long ago that if you announced that you were a vegetarian in a restaurant, you were met with confused and often apologetic looks from your waiter or waitress. Now, almost every restaurant highlights their vegetarian items, along with vegan, dairy-free and gluten free options.
For physical health that鈥檚 great, but one option you won鈥檛 see in any restaurant in Victoria has little to do with physical health. It鈥檚 the kosher option, which is important for Jewish spiritual health.
Now you might ask, 鈥淚sn鈥檛 vegetarian and vegan food kosher?鈥�
The answer is, 鈥淣ot necessarily.鈥� If the food is prepared alongside non-kosher foods, and/or is served in dishes that have had non-kosher foods in them, then the food is not kosher.
You read that correctly: even the dishes have to be kosher.
But, you say, 鈥淚 have Jewish friends and acquaintances who choose vegan and vegetarian options at restaurants all the time.鈥� You may even have Jewish friends who are happy to choose anything from the menu, except pork, ham and bacon. You see it鈥檚 not what we eat that makes us Jewish; we are all free to choose yet many Jews draw the line at pork. They just won鈥檛 eat it.
If you ask them why, they may say, 鈥淏ecause I鈥檓 Jewish. We don鈥檛 eat pig-meat.鈥� But beyond that explanation, they may not know why they don鈥檛 eat pork products.
They may know that in the Torah G-d told the Hebrews what they could and couldn鈥檛 eat, and although your friends may eat other non-kosher animals (such as shellfish and clams), for some reason they just can鈥檛 bring themselves to knowingly eat pork.
Recently, I learned an explanation as to why the pig is so repugnant to many Jewish people and I鈥檇 like to share that with you here.
To recap briefly, the rule concerning mammals is that we may eat animals that have a split hoof AND chew their cud. The AND is very important. Cow, goats, sheep and deer have split hooves and chew their cud. Horses chew their cud but don鈥檛 have split hooves. Pigs have split hooves but do not chew their cud.
And therein lies one reason why the pig is so reviled as a food for Jewish people. All the other animals show their feet and say, 鈥淪ee, I am not kosher; you may not eat me.鈥� But the pig shows its split hooves as if to say, 鈥淚 am kosher; you may eat me.鈥� It is this outward show that is deceitful and hypocritical.
We have all heard the expression, 鈥淵ou are what you eat.鈥� In this case, we do not want to take on the attributes of the pig, and therefore we are forbidden to eat it. This doesn鈥檛 mean that other people can鈥檛 or shouldn鈥檛 eat pork. If you aren鈥檛 allergic to gluten or peanuts, then you are free to eat them. It鈥檚 the same with kosher foods. If you鈥檙e not Jewish, then you don鈥檛 need to worry about them.
I like to look at kosher food as healthy for my soul; if it鈥檚 not kosher, my soul will have an allergic reaction. And an allergy is something everyone understands.
Fiona Prince, MA is a coach, facilitator and teacher who provides fundamental communication and writing skills to help people succeed in their professional and academic lives. She worships at the Chabad Family Shul where she volunteers teaching children and adults how to read Hebrew. Sign-up for weekly communication tips at聽. To learn to read Hebrew, contact her at . (Morah means teacher and Faiga is her Hebrew name).
You can read more articles on our interfaith blog, Spiritually Speaking,
*This article was published in the print edition of the sa国际传媒 on Saturday, April 16 2016
