I recently (in the last two months or so) started buying candy for the people in my office. I bought a nice bowl and once or twice a week, I fill it with candy for my co-workers.
As a rule, I only by kosher candy. As many of you know (and for those of you who don’t), I am an Orthodox Jew. I am the only Orthodox Jew in the department that I work in (but not the only Jewish person, as you will later see). If I was the only Jewish person in the office, I would have no problem buying non-kosher candy for everyone. However, since there are other (non religious) Jews in the office, it would be wrong of me to bring them non-kosher food. Therefore, I only buy kosher candy.
I mentioned this to a friend of mine (who doesn’t work with me) and he mentioned in a half-joking manner that I could be accused of forcing my religious beliefs on the non-religious Jews in the office (or even the non-Jewish). Normally, I would laugh it off, but living in today’s hyper-sensitive age, who knows if that is how someone would take it? No one in the office has said a negative word to me about it (everyone loves the candy), but a future employee could possibly create a problem, I suppose.
Now then, am I worrying over a lot of nothing, or is this something to seriously think about?
You are obviously a horrible, HORRIBLE person and you should be horsewhipped.
No, seriously: since you’re bringing it in on your own and since you’re not requiring anyone to take the candy, I don’t see how it could possibly be considered prostelitizing(sp).
Candy is candy. If some candy is prepared according to kashrut, so what?
If you put out the candy, then put out a notice that they could only have a piece if they performed some reigious practice, you might offend someone, but it would still be a gift to the group. (If you are the boss and you expect them (implicitly or explicitly) to abide by any religious rules while they :accept" your “gift” you have a problem.
If you simply put out treats for them to enjoy and you select those treats based on your ability to eaqt them, there can only be problems with people looking for fights–and they would be out of line.
[Short hijack rant]
It’s Prosetylizing (No, not buying the candy; that’s what the word is.)
Prosthelizing, which somebody used recently on another thread, would probably be forcing an artificial limb on someone. And Prostetilizing sounds like it means forcing your prostate gland on them. While this sounds like a fertile source of off-topic puns, I’m pretty sure Fenris didn’t mean that either.
Sorry, Fenris…didn’t mean to pick on your spelling, particularly. But that was one too many misspellings of the word, and it hit my rant button.
[/End hijack rant]
In another group, there was a discussion a while back about unconsecrated Communion wafers. The consensus was that until they’re blessed by the priest (or whatever – I’m NOT trying to start a theological debate here), they’re just bread. And in the manufacturing process, as with other types of cookies, crackers, etc., some are stamped wrong or broken. We don’t want to waste them . . . So in some areas, one can find, IIRC in places like Sam’s Club, bags of “Broken Hosts” that you can buy as a snack food.
Having been raised Lutheran, I have no idea what Catholic hosts taste like, but the Lutheran ones were like salted toilet paper. Not much of a snack. But imagine finding a bowl of those in the lunchroom . . .
Nah. I think it might be an issue if it was against someone’s religion to eat kosher foods, and they therefore felt that they were being excluded from eating the goodies, but I don’t know of any religion that forbids eating kosher.
Thanks, Scarlett. There is always something ironic in somebody complaining about spelling and including a typo, particularly in the word they were flagging. It’s truly embarrasing to get caught in that trap.
::: locates appropriate hole to hide in :::
Look! It was tracer said it! No, really! Would I lie to you? …
Does that mean that my employer (or Zev’s) is doing wrong by putting out non-Kosher goodies which our religion forbids us from eating? You might want to rethink this…
Et al:
I used to work in a two-man Intenet Sweatshop in New Jersey. We were both Orthodox Jews and, when we finally decided to hire a secretary (Polycarp, Scarlett, did I spell that right?), we decided to make the microwave noon-Kosher as a rule.
That meant that the two of us had to jump through some minor hoops to warm our lunches, but she was comfortable. We thought that that was the only fair way to do it since the restrictions were ours, not her’s.
There is another, much larger internet firm in NJ that employs many, many Jews. The owner is Jewish and I would estimate that almost 70% of the company is Observant Jews.
They recently settled (out of court) a class-action suit filed by the non-Jewish employees. It seems that Jewish employees got extra breaks during the day for prayers, got more days off because of Jewish holidays, etc.
Isn’t there something called the “Good Samaritan law”? I know that strictly speaking it doesn’t apply in this case, but in principle I see it as the same.
Zev, no one’s forcing you to bring in and/or share candy in the first place. And you’re not (as far as I know) preventing anyone from bringing in candy for their own sakes. So if someone wanted non-kosher candy and tries to level that as a complaint against you, just tell them, “This is what I get for being nice?”
Zev…they aren’t required to eat your candy I assume? So what of it? What makes candy kosher? I have to admit that I’m a little puzzled about how something like candy would be handled. Naturally my knowledge of kosher-ness is limited to… meat and dairy are separated right? Animals are raised and slaughtered in a certain way. Pork is taboo. Never cook anything in it’s mother’s milk. Restrictions on leavening agents at certain times. Are kosher foods blessed in some way? That I’m not sure about. How could candy not be kosher? The ingredients in candy are often very limited. Sugar being the biggest in most cases. Tell me now I’m interested.
Needs2know…just for fun…I have two beautiful white table cloths. My mother purchased them from an antiques dealer. They used to belong to the family of a rabbi. I only use them on special occasions, Thanksgiving etc. But everytime I get them out it gives me the greatest pleasure to think of how they might have been used before.
It saddens me that we have come to the point where this question must even be asked. To answer your question Zev, no, you have nothing to worry about. I stand with Chaim on this, if someone has a problem with it, well… that’s their problem!
*I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
Four months, four weeks, two days, 15 hours, 26 minutes and 36 seconds.
6105 cigarettes not smoked, saving $763.22.
Extra life with Drain Bead: 3 weeks, 4 hours, 45 minutes.
*“I’m a big Genesis fan.”-David B. (Amen, brother!) **
Well, you’ve pretty much nailed it in your message. As long as the candy does not contain matter from any non-kosher animals, or not-kosherly-slaughtered animals, or milk and meat together, it’s likely to be Kosher.
However, this is not necessarily limited to only the ingredients of the candy itself. If, for example, the machines that produce or package the candy had also been used to produce or package something that was not Kosher, the candy wouldn’t be kosher, since the machinery might have absorbed some non-kosher substance and imparted some of that onto the otherwise-kosher candy. And this goes not only for the finished product, but for the individual ingredients as well. I’m oversimplifying here, but suffice it to say that even if you look at a food’s ingredients and can’t figure out why it might not be kosher, it might be for a reason not related to that food in and of itself.
Because prepackaged food production is so complex in this industrial age, and not everyone is expert in the minutiae of religious law, Kosher-observant people such as myself, Zev, IzzyR, sdimbert, etc. (CKDextHavn, I know you’re Conservative…do you observe Kashrut? I hope you realize that I don’t mean to slight you, I just don’t know) rely on certain Rabbinic organizations to inspect food manufacturers’ plants and, if one of those Rabbinic organizations have certified that these foods meet the requirements of Kosher law, their symbol will be on the food’s package, and we’ll know it’s kosher. The food companies pay the Rabbinic organization in question for the service of providing this certification. So there’s another reason why something that may appear to be Kosher isn’t bought or eaten by Kosher-observant Jews. If the producers decided it’s not worth their money to hire a certifying Rabbi, there will be no symbol on the package to assure us that it’s Kosher, and we won’t eat it…even if, in theory, the product would be Kosher.
I’m not sure that we’ve really “gotten to the place” where the question HAS to be asked. From reading Zev’s postings, he strikes me as a genuinly caring individual who, on a regular basis, questions his own actions to make certain that he is causing no undue harm. Nice, in other words.
And, it’s opened up, as far as I’m concerned a couple of tangents that I’d never thought about. Was not aware, for instance that either candy or microwaves could be “kosher”. eradication of another teeny corner of ignorance, thank you.
In addition, sdimbert’s posting was interesting to me as well. how DOES one balance the need for religious freedom with corporate demands for workplace equity? hmm. back to my drawing board.
You know, that’s just about the dumbest thing I have ever heard. There is no reason that a gentile can’t eat something that is kosher. Gentiles and non-kosher Jews eat kosher food all the time–they just don’t really notice or care.
So, how is this any different? You are offering candy. The fact that the candy happens to be kosher is irrelevant. The kosherness of the candy won’t matter to those who don’t keep kosher, and it will be appreciated by those who do.
Sheesh. I’d better stop serving Hebrew Nationals at my barbecues–someone might think that I’m trying to convert them.
