Kosher Food: Key To Jewish Faith And Culture
Similar to the practices of Muslims and Hindus, kosher is very much important to the Jewish faith. Stemming from their deeply-rooted beliefs about food – its preparation and consumption – this practice of “keeping kosher” is their way of expressing their devotion to God.
Virtually any large European and American city has kosher food stores. These stores can be specific such as butcher stores and fish markets, or they can be all encompassing, including kosher grocery stores and delicatessens offering take-out food.
Religious Jewish women, who do most of the cooking for their families, know that shopping for kosher food means more than buying foodstuffs in certain markets. It also means checking all the foods for a sign known as a rabbinic seal. This mark indicates that the food has been prepared under the supervision of a rabbi. The rabbi will have inspected the food, but also the workers, their equipment and their methods of preparation to ensure that everything has followed all the religious laws of Kosher. Each country has a rabbinic association that supervises Kashrut, or the certification of foods as having followed the Jewish laws.
The Kashrut has several degrees to accommodate the different theological schools of the Jewish faith. As a consequence to this, kosher food shops and groceries offer several kinds of seals for essentially the same kinds of foods. Only the degree of adherence and strictness is changed – along with the price, of course.
For those who aren’t practicing Jews, the matter of food can be confused by the expression “kosher style.” Those who don’t adhere as strictly to the Jewish food laws often eat kosher style food. However, even kosher-style foods must conform to certain basics, such as not including the meat of forbidden animals and not mixing dairy with meat.
All of this exacting practice is rooted on the Torah, the holy scripture of the Jewish faith. In it, it is forbidden to eat the flesh of forbidden animals and even if the animal is not forbidden, it must be prepared by way of “shechitah keshera.” The shochet, a Jewish butcher, plays a huge role in a Jewish community’s ability to eat according to kosher laws. Although the Torah allows any man to be a Jewish butcher provided a rituals is performed, in actual practice, a rabbi designates the role to a single person. A kosher meatshop is essentially kosher if the butcher is a practicing Jew. Gentiles, or non-Jews can never be kosher butchers.
The Torah details these laws and specific ways and techniques are contained therein. Subsequent interpretations by rabbis through the centuries accounted for the fact that food preservation then was practically nonexistent and that food scarcity was a very common occurrence. Much of the practice was hinged in practicality as much as religious belief. “Keeping kosher” was based on consuming foods that were also nutritionally sound. Fulfilling God’s wishes also meant consuming food that was good for you and that would take care of your health.
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