A Kashrut for Today…the Same as it Ever Was?

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch

Just as the external temple, which represents your holy mission and to which you should sanctify yourself, becomes desecrated by impurity...so are these foods impure and unfit for your spirit, as far as they are all of them the living place of activity for your own being which is summoned unto holiness. If you have eaten them. not only touched but absorbed them into your system- you may be more nourished and better fed: but the animal instinct will be aroused more strongly within you, and your body becomes more blunted as an instrument of the spirit. Your heart, instead of being holy, instead of only striving for holiness- namely, your sublimity over everything animal-like, is drawn down to the animal- or become the more apathetic and dulled. Your spirit is now faced with a fiercer battle. and is less equipped for the fight" (Horeb, 317).

Manischewitz Wants to Move to a Mainstream Aisle (By Stuart Elliot) From the NY Times – 07/07/06

The leading marketer of kosher foods, Manischewitz, is expanding efforts to reach mainstream shoppers with what the company is calling its first campaign aimed at the general market as well as at consumers who traditionally buy kosher products for religious reasons… …Research has found that many non-Jewish consumers perceive kosher foods, made in accordance with centuries-old dietary laws, to be purer and higher in quality than their nonkosher counterparts.

Kosher Food Becoming Chosen Food of the Unchosen People Sunday, Jan. 28 2007 Fox Business News By Michael Y. Park

The idea of kosher, in a world with so many health and product claims, is just and continues to have with consumers this idea of being cleaner, purer, better, and because of that, many consumers are looking for kosher foods and something positive, even though they don't keep kosher...‖ ...In fact, non-Jews are now the kosher-food market's fastest-growing segment, which is good news for Manischewitz and its competitors, considering that the Jewish population in the United States isn't growing.

Kosher foods catching on with non-Jews too Thursday, December 14, 2006 ס ד" The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"It's not your bubbe's (grandmother's) matzo and gefilte fish anymore," said Jeremy Fingerman, president and chief executive officer of the privately held R.A.B. Food Group of Secaucus, N.J., which acquired the Manischewitz brand in 1998… …Non-Jews represent one of the fastest-growing sectors in the kosher market. They are looking for healthier food options, similar to growth in the organic or natural foods market. "Kosher is perceived as being cleaner, better, purer," Fingerman said, though he does not promise more healthful.

Blu Greenberg, How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household

I believe that the purpose of kashrut is to make eating a special experience and to serve as a reminder of a Jew's ethical conscience as well as of the other unique teachings of Judaism. To me, distinctiveness and not separation is the Jew's calling. This feeling is possible in the presence of non-observant Jews and of non-Jews. The values of friendship, human solidarity, and socializing are highly esteemed Jewish values; making a living and exchanging professional service (sometimes performed over a meal) also are respected in Jewish culture. One of the great qualities of the Jewish tradition is its ability to balance contradictions- idealism and realism, Jewish particularism and unusual concern for humanity. Similarly, in the act of eating, one can strike that balance between fidelity to one's own principles and shared friendship and respectful contact with others.

Rabbi Edward Feld

There is no “Conservative kashrut.” Kashrut is kashrut, at least as it relates to shechita – ritual slaughter. But for Conservative Jews, it is also much more. One of the hallmarks of the Conservative approach to Jewish law is its sensitivity to ethical issues. The recent creation of Magen Tzedek, a certification that kosher meat has been processed in a way that is both halachic and not abusive to the labor force, is an important example. Judaism’s strong opposition to cruelty to animals underlays many aspects of kashrut.

Reb Zalman Shacter-Shalomi

I invented the word eco-kosher, to say that something is ecologically kosher. I'll give you an example of eco-kosher. The regular kosher way is about the dishes that mustn't be contaminated, etc. If I pick up a cup to have coffee, styrofoam would be the best thing to have. It hasn't been used before and after I drink from it, I'll throw it away and nobody else will use it. From the usual kosher place that's the direction to go...but in comparison to what will happen to the planet by my drinking in a styrofoam, I'd much rather make the other choice...eco-kosher.

GLATT KOSHER — GLATT YOSHOR BY RAV YOSEF BREUER, PUBLISHED 1949

A further comment: "kosher" is intimately related to "yoshor [ethics]." God’s Torah not only demands the observance of kashrut and the sanctification of our physical enjoyment; it also insists on the sanctification of our social relationships. This requires the strict application of the tenets of justice and righteousness, which avoid even the slightest trace of dishonesty in our business dealings and personal life.

God’s Torah not only demands of us to love our neighbor in that we concern ourselves with his welfare and property, but it insists further on a conduct of uncompromising straightness ("yoshor") which is inspired not only by the letter of the law but is guided by the ethical principle of honesty which, then, would deserve the honorable title of "yeshurun."

Jerusalem Post interview with R. Haskel Lookstein and Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, May 3 2008

In 1971 you were the only Orthodox rabbis to declare that non-union lettuce and grapes should be regarded as non-kosher and you urged Jews to boycott them. What is the basis in Judaism for that position?

Greenberg: We were both students of the Rav, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik. From him we learned the idea that Halacha is not just a list of ritual dos and don'ts, but a comprehensive worldview that applies to everything that happens around us. The Torah prohibits the exploitation of workers - so why shouldn't that apply to migrant farm workers picking lettuce or grapes? They were being mistreated, so it was natural for us to apply the principle of nonexploitation to their situation, too. It seemed obvious.

Kedushat Levi on Parshat Noach

The verse which states “Take for yourself from all that is edible” is said in the language that implies one who feeds others. This is explained in the Midrash which states “The woman that was given to me gave me (fruit) from the tree (and I eat)” The past tense, I ate was not used in the verse. The Midrash teaches a general rule that through eating, a Jew eats in the manner of fixing the flaw of Adam HaRishon that was made through his eating. This fixing is done by way of the mitzvot that Jews do when eating, which are blessing said of one’s food and other blessings said in regards to food before consumption. Therefore, the reason why the verse says “I eat” and not “I ate” implies that an element of Adam’s original eating continues to this day. Thus through the consciousness of our eating, we can repair that which was flawed before.

Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb

Consider the interdependent web of connections in which we live our lives. Take a simple snack, like a chocolate chip cookie made with flour, butter, eggs, cocoa and sugar. The flour is from wheat, raised and harvested by farmers with the help of whole supporting industries. The butter and eggs come from flesh-and-blood animals who likely suffered as part of the process (though not as much as if meat were served). Cocoa, though tasty, is a notoriously devastating crop because rain forests are felled for cocoa plantations. And the human rights abuses of the sugar industry are well known. Then there are the truck drivers, the packagers and producers and advertisers, the manufacturers of hardware, the refiners of oil, the advocates for more sustainable business practices. The list goes on. How can we be more conscious and more respectful of these interconnections in our daily lives?

Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg

Eating is the primary way that human beings interact with the rest of nature. we are composed of the same elements and compounds that make up our food. Indeed, when we eat, we transform a part of nature into energy that we can use for conscious purposes. The system of kashrut causes us to pause and consider that while we are part of nature, we are endowed with a unique potential to make choices in the way we respond to life.