A Conversation for Kashrut - the Jewish Dietary Laws
There's more to Kashrut than rules
EliezerPennywhistler Started conversation Sep 4, 2004
Shalom, you-all.
Well, most of the important rules are there, but the spiritual dimension is lacking.
It's probably time to put the "health" reason to bed already. Jewish Scriptures make no reference to health, but to holiness. Maimonides - the 12th Century CE Jewish philosopher, physician to the Egyptian Caliph, and mystic - writes that if kosher food were healthier we would see Jews living longer than non-Jews. And we don't (everything else being equal).
And a few phrases are sticking in my craw: OLD TESTAMENT: That's what evangelical Christians call the (Jewish) Bible. We Jews do not.
POINTLESS: Seperate dishes were not pointless when they were made from wood or pourous clay. Modern dishes that do not absorb any liquids merely need to be thouroughly washed.
RELIGION: Judaism in no more a religion than Norway. The Jewish People are a nation, a civilization, a family. A nation that, among other things, HAS a religion.
IT SEEMS LIKELY THE LAWS WERE INCLUDED ... : Passive voice, as if keeping kosher wasn't part of the Jewish People's covenant with God. In the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) God offers no other reason for keeping kosher than maintaining holiness, and avoiding inflicting pain on buthered animals. The covenant keeps the Jewish People together.
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