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I wasn't born into a religious family, and my family doesn't keep kosher.

However, about a week and a half ago I made the personal decision to start doing so smile thus far I don't regret it ^_^

i dont keep kosher that much

I like too many non-kosher foods to become 100% kosher

Well, for one, it's expensive. Try living on your own on the income I have, while paying your way through school >.>

I've solved this problem by being mostly vegetarian anyway.

Also, non kosher roommates don't help, but whatever.

That's why you keep kosher, but you didn't answer what you think the idea behind it is. I am currently taking the Rambam's look at things - Every mitzva has a purpose, and a reason.

I like the idea's brought up here, whether its to teach discipline, and self control, or if it's just because G-d has some reason that sub-conciously effects us. Any other ideas? 3nodding

aren't i supposed to be the one who can't take jokes?

the role and purpose of kashrus is rather deep, to say the least.

there are only 4 laws of kashrus that are d'areisa (15). don't eat live meat, don't cook meat in milk, don't eat blood, don't eat non-kosher animals. everything else is expounded and extrapolated from those 4 laws. but i'm not going into that right now. methinks yoni should research it first a bissul more.

one of the concepts involved in kashrus is that by eating something, taking it into oneself, one is incorporating it into oneself. the food, in a manner of speaking, becomes part of one, in both physical and spiritual terms. '

the physical is obvious. the matter that comprises my body was at one point in time my food. there are calcium deposits in my bones from the milk of my mother. some of the iron in my blood has been there since i was a fetus. even my dna, the quintessential physical essence of life, is made of various proteins, fats, sugars, and water i have ingested over my life.

the spiritual is less obvious, or rather, more obvious, but less perceived. everything in creation has a certain spritual quality to it that, as with the physical parrallel, becomes incorporated into one's being when taken in (for our intents and purposes, ingested). for example, certain animals have certain traits attributes, and those traits attributes manifest in the eater.

there is such a concept as a "spiritual foodchain/totem pole". i believe that buddhists (+/hindu) have a similar concept. unliving things, rocks, water; low level life, plants, fungus; crawlers, bugs etc; fish, fish, fish (inside joke. naftali might get it); animals, birds, reptiles, anphibians; goyim; yidden; alter yidden (another joke), from lowest spirituality to highest. when one eats something, one is elevating it spiritually. this is more relevant than it seems, i'm just not quite sure how.

bottom line: you are what you eat.

Yeah, so don't eat yucky s**t.
I was watching The Tin Drum with my husband once, and there is a scene in the movie where the father fishes for eels in the sea with a dead horse head (they're Kashubians, which is one of the ethnic groups in East Germany, and eels are a delicacy in their culture). Anyhow, he pulls the head out of the sea and all these eels are crawling around in its rotting flesh, coming out of the eye sockets and s**t, and the wife immediately throws up.

Antony turns to me and says: "Now THAT is why eels are not kosher!"

I am inclined to agree. xd

Bear with me, this might be a long one.
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- Do you keep kosher and why?
- What is the idea behind keeping kosher?
- Why are some animals kosher, and some are not?
- Why do we have to slaughter an animal if we want to eat it?
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Do you keep Kosher and why?

As some of you may or may not know, Keeping Kosher is one of the most important things in my daily life. Because it i s religious and involves the nourishment of the human body, it is a harmonic synchronization of the physical body and the Spirit.

Now, I was raised in a non-Kosher house-hold, we used to eat thing,s like pork shops (EW!) and bacon, when I was too young and did not know what Kosher was (Around the ages of 3-5). One day my sister, who is two years older than me learned about keeping kosher in Hebrew School, came home and said that she was not going to eat bacon or pork anymore because it wasn't Kosher. So, me, like any other younger sibling, copied exactly what myolder sister did. And I have not had any bit of pig since. Now it would be a few years time before I learned the other rules of Keeping Kosher.

AFter I did, I always wanted a Kosher house-hold, my sister and I asked my parents over and over again who ignored us, or maybe just did not hear us. That is, until last year. I could not stand it and I wanted it so badly to have a life more abiding by Jewish Standards, that I went up to my parents, and handed them a few brochures of Jewish boarding schools and gave my case. "I want to live in a more Jewish environment, and it is clear that I am not going to get that here." That got them thinking. So now, I am ecstatic to say that we now have a Kosher household, complete with seperate dishes, etc. The only thing not Kosher is the dishwasher because it has to wash both. And i am bcurrently working on finding out how to Kosher our new grill.

What is the idea behind keeping Kosher?

For a Jew, holiness is not about being out of the norm. Life itself, is a sacred "Endeavor" if you will. Everything we do in life should be sacred, even the simple everyday task of the consumption of foods and drink.

Why are some animals kosher and others not?

When people think of Kosher animals, many think of Split Hooves and the chewing of their own cud. Yes these are true, but they are by no means the only laws restraining animals. In fact, the Torah goes so far as to describe which insects are Kosher to Eat (The four locust). The animals which are and are not Kosher are that way because that was how G-d described theem when he gave these dietary laws to Moses, who taught them to the Hebrew CHildren in the Sinai Desert.


Why do we have to slaughter an animal if we want to eat it?

The slaughter of animals was another law given to us by G-d. Kosher mammals and Fowl (Birds) must be slaughtered instantly, and painlessly. This is done using a Chalaf to slit the throat, which kills the animal, as stated above, instantly and painlessly, however, if something goes wrong and the animal does not die and suffers even for the smallest amount of time, the animal is not Kosher.