BDA, you should be enlightened to know that such traditions and customs have a wee 2000 years beated by a long shot! As you enjoy eating some ribs or steaks tonight, just be glad the USDA keeps the pee and poop away from your steak with their own “traditions and customs”!!!
but that beef/pork has pee/crap in it; through the topsoil . . which is pee/crap/leaves/etc . . the same topsoil your chicken was raised in . . yet your chicken is kosher? get real
earth to earth . . dust to dust . . . nothing can be “kosher” give it up
bda, the word ‘kosher’ simply means following the rules. Eating something grown in dirt is OK, under the rules. Eating something that has animal fat in it may not be.
Now, these rules may not make sense for the year 2000, as you so warmly suggest. That being the case, you are welcome not to observe them. But the question wasn’t, “Does this make sense?” The question was, “What are the rules?”
By the same token, I could watch a football game and scream, “What do you mean, the ground can’t cause a fumble! Of COURSE the ground can cause a fumble! Get with it, NFL!”
But I’d be doing the same thing you’re doing. The issue is not, “Should hitting the ground and losing the ball because of that be considered a fumble?” It is, by rule. So if someone asks, “Was that a fumble,” the answer is NO, if the ground caused the loss of the ball.
In this thread, the issue is, “What are the kosher rules?” Not if they make sense, or to what degree they make sense.
- Rick
bricker . . point accepted
The question of kosher salt came up in my cooking tips forum a while back. My resources say that kosher salt is so designated because it doesn’t have any additives, e.g. iodine, and is manufactured in accordance with the aforementioned dietary rules. It is preferred by chefs (even us goyim) because it takes the form of tiny flakes rather than granules and stimulates the palate better than regular salt. I can dig out the cite if anyone wants me to.
Live a Lush Life
Da Chef
So… Have you stopped beating your wife?
(You’re right about Kosher and non-Kosher, but there are plenty of propositions that are neither true nor false.)
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
Isn’t there a term (pareve?)for foods that can be eaten with either dairy or meat? They are effectively neutral, but, I guess, still Kosher.
Oops, sorry about that.
My goodness, bda, where did all this anger come from? I don’t follow Jewish dietary laws, a) because I was not raised to do so, and since my mother allowed me to develop and enjoy a taste for shellfish and pork, I’m not willing to give it up, and b) because I simply don’t have the patience to do it - it doesn’t fit in with my lifestyle (and I’m not willing to change it).
However, I would never, ever, EVER be so disrespectful to those who do choose to follow the dietary laws of their religion as you have. I almost want to scream, “how DARE you?”, except that I don’t want to appear as rude, insensitive and condecending as you.
And for the record, the last time I looked, it was 5760, not merely 2000. So Jews have been following these rules a lot longer than you suggest, and I’m sure will continue to do so for the next million years, whether you agree with it or not.
I implore you to, please, in the future, at least try to exhibit a modicum of respect. Escpecially if you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Thankyouverymuch.
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” - Anne Frank
grumble grrrr #@%^&# - I want spell check!
Especially
I DO know how to spell that word. Apparently, I just can’t type it.
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” - Anne Frank
On a slight tangent…
the 1943 US Army Guide to North Africa gives the helpful advice:
I was in the supermarket this evening and I discovered that many of their low-fat desserts (trifles, yoghurts and such) contain pork gelatine. Who’d have thought it?
bda, That is one of the most casually, gratuitously offensive posts I have ever read.
bda? Temper, temper.
I remember…lo, those many years ago. Sandee Huberman had an entire set of dishes. Nice ones, too. She was about to move in with a girl who kept Kosher ( Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. I mean, KOSHER). Sandee had TWO choices. She could ship said dishes to Vancouver, and leave them untouched for a year, OR she could hie them down to Coney Island ( the closest seashore ) and perform a ritual ceremony, and thus cleanse them again. They had never had trafe upon them ( she wasn’t THAT fallen of a Jew ) , but they were not used in a strictly Kosher household.
I got invited to visit after she moved. Her roommate was HIGHTLY agitated by my presence. Me…an Abraham ! Go figure. Anyway, I was invited over JUST as the sun set. You guessed it…" Hey, can ya turn on this light for me, on your way out?" I didn’t stay for dinner, but did flip a lot of switches.
Good Ole Sandee. Converted to Hasidism, and married the head of the Simon Weisenthal Center, in Los Angeles…
Cartooniverse
" If you want to kiss the sky, you’d better learn how to kneel "
Cartooniverse, there are an amazing number of rules that you’d never even think would exist… the observant roommate would undoubtedly refuse to drink a glass of wine if she thought you might have poured it, for instance. I don’t recall the name of that din, but it was prohibited based on the supposition that the wine might have been intended for idolatry.
- Rick
Some “observant”! It is just as much a violation for a Jew to ask a gentile to perform labor on the sabbath as for the Jew to perform it himself. (A Jew may, however, take advantage of something the gentile has done for the gentile’s own benefit.)
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
Thank you cmkeller and Cap’n Crude. I was just talking about soap and water and a Brillo pad or something when referring to cleaning. Being severely allergic to pork, I can’t get some people to realize they can’t even touch my food with the same fork they touched pork with without causing me much distress. This is why places that serve Kosher food are so wonderful for me even if I don’t understand every little detail.
Thank you for explaining the salt. I always wondered how a salt could be Kosher or not.
WRT AvenueB-dude’s second post (“What if a tiny bit of emulsifier is added to a huge vat of pickles?”), I asked a rabbi, since I wasn’t sure of the answer. The reply that I got was:
“Kings die, and leave their crowns to their sons. Shmuel HaKatan took all the treasures in the world, and went away.”
This is a very interesting thread for me. I don’t really know much about Jewish religious customs.
May I politely ask what the basis is for the importance of being kosher? That is to say: Are their health risks of being un-kosher?
Do I explain my question and curiousity well enough? I’m just trying to understand why or how this kosher thing came into being 5760 years ago…
Thanks, and I want to assure you that this is being asked respectfully and in order to educate me…
Krispy Original – voted SDMB’s 19th most popular poster (1999)
I gather from AvenueB-dude’s question he was referring to the emulsifier used as a preservative, and therefore edible – and in any event, not poison. But the rabbi’s advice with respect to poison is good. 
- Rick