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Hello

I was curious to hear what it like living on a kosher diet?
I imagine it has to be hard to go shopping to going out to eat with friends?
Also if one is going out with friends how do you handle such?
Thanks for any replies.

I keep kosher; I'm Orthodox. Since going kosher, I've moved to a neighborhood with a high concentration of Orthodox Jews. This many Jews in a neighborhood means that it can support kosher businesses: kosher restaurants for going out with friends; kosher grocers where EVERYTHING on the shelves is kosher, so you can just walk in and pick up anything and know that it's okay; kosher butchers, bakers, fishmongers; Judaica stores with books and other items needed for kosher living; and Jewish-owned businesses of other types, such as dentists, doctors, architects, and so on.

If you're not living in an area with a high concentration of Orthodox Jews, though, it can be trickier. I used to go out with friends, and we'd go to restaurants that weren't kosher. I'd order a glass of water or seltzer, or a soft drink. If I was in need of food, and unable to get to kosher food, I would also ask for a cold salad without dressing. I also carry kosher snack bars or crackers in my purse at all times, because I'm hypoglycemic and often need to eat, and I'm nowhere near kosher restaurants or grocery stores where I can get something I can eat on the go.

I've got relatives who live in places where there are literally no other Jews. When I visit them, I bring along kosher travel meals that don't need refrigeration or even a microwave for heating up, which I eat for lunch and dinner, and some kosher granola and shelf-stable soy milk for breakfast, often supplemented with fresh fruits that I can buy right in the stores where I'm visiting. My relatives don't keep kosher, so I can't depend on their food, cookware, or serving dishes/utensils.

Another friend of mine solves the problem by eating vegetarian/vegan, because she doesn't live anywhere that she can get kosher products. However, http://www.kosher.com is solving that problem for her; now she can order meats, fish, cheeses, and other products, and they're delivered right to her door.

You mention that you do not keep complete kosher, is this common or how bad is breaking kosher viewed? How strongly do most people keep kosher? I understand it must be alot harder depending on location.

I am sorry but I am new to many of these Ideas, what is glat kosher?
From how you talk I seem to get the idea it is a stricter style?

I do not have much fear when it comes to clothing however I do have a question, if I may I have a leather coat that I have had for about half a decade, however if one is not to mix to kinds of cloth does that mean I would have to wear leather pants etc... to wear it does it refer to hybrid clothing i.e. 50% nylon 50% cotten type of clothing?

I have not come across much mention on regard money, thank you I must look it up, I did not know there was such as kosher money.

Thank you for you reply.

Thank you I was curious.

Yes, absolutely. It helps to know that if I am ever in mourning, people will come pouring over to sit shiva with me (help me mourn, not let me be alone in my grief). If ever I hear someone is injured, ill, or has just given birth, I want to be near enough to bake them a casserole and deliver it while it's still hot, so they can eat and rest instead of having to cook and wash dishes. I love being in a very diverse community, but I also need to have members of my own community within that diversity.



The Jew in your dojo probably doesn't live in an area that contains a lot of other Jews, so if he does keep kosher, it's probably very, very difficult. Non-Jewish populations just don't request things at the stores like kosher meats, cheeses, and fish. They don't ask for matzah meal, farfel, or other prepared or semi-prepared foods with a hechsher (a certification mark that lets you know it's kosher). And if there aren't enough people requesting those items, the grocers won't carry them, because they won't sell. Mind you, there are a lot of mainstream foods that are kosher, so it's not impossible to do. Just harder. One doesn't eat out much, if at all.



I'm fond of Body & Soul: A Handbook For Kosher Living. You can get it for about $9 or $10 by calling up 1-888-GO-KOSHER and asking for it, and sending the money where they tell you. Don't tell them you're not Jewish; just say you're considering going kosher and that your family doesn't keep kosher, so you don't really know where to start.

Most of the laws of kashrut, at least as far as food is concerned, have to do with meat, milk, and fish. Animal products and byproducts, that is. However, some relate to the growing, harvesting, and tithing of plant products. It's complicated stuff, but it gets way easier with practice. For now, I suggest picking one food that isn't kosher, and deciding you won't eat it anymore.



Kind of similar, actually. A few less items, but a wee bit better quality, from what I've heard of MREs. (For the uninitiated, that's Meals Ready to Eat -- they feed them to you in the military. They used to be called Sea Rations, or Sea Rats for short. Kind of awful.) There's just a main dish that cooks under its own power, a little packet of cookies, and a little packet of chicken soup that requires you to add hot water. I actually like all of the ones I've tried, including the Honolulu Nuggets. My RLSO (Real Life Significant Other -- I say RL because I've heard of people having things like Gaia-boyfriends or Gaia-wives or whatever, and it means nothing) hates the cheese ravioli kind, but I'm very fond of them. Your mileage may vary.



You're not a Jew yet, so it's okay that you didn't know this, but it's actually forbidden to ask whether someone is a convert, unless you have a need to know. (For instance, Kohanim -- direct male descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses -- are forbidden to marry converts or the children of adulteresses, though they can marry the daughter of a convert or the grandchild of an adulteress. If you're thinking of getting married, you want to make sure that you're not getting interested in a kohein or a bat kohein (daughter of a kohein).)

To answer your question, though, I'll answer both questions. First, you're correct, a convert's parents don't keep kosher, because non-Jews don't keep kosher. They can get close to it, but in the end, it's not kosher because kosher food involves a Jew in the cooking process. smile Second half of the question: Right, not all Jews keep kosher. Some don't want to keep kosher, others simply don't know how (or don't even realize that there is such a thing). I was reared in a household in which there wasn't really a connection with Judaism, so I have to come to it as an adult, brand new to it. I've been keeping kosher for about seven years now, and I'm still learning. I very recently learned that I'd been making a mistake, so I'll be having to learn a new way of doing certain things. It's a learning process.

I hope everyone has had a great Purim. I'm going offline now to prepare for Shabbat. I'll see you all tomorrow night about an hour after sundown. Take care! Shabbat shalom!

You didn't offend me a bit! I see it as an opportunity to educate, rather than as an opportunity to take offense. smile The reason we don't ask is so that we don't make a convert feel singled out or separated from the rest of k'lal Yisrael (community of Israel), or make them embarrassed, in case they have any negative feelings about things they might have once done, said, or believed. There are converts who never mention to anyone that they are converts, except when it comes to making a shidduch (marriage match) or when being called up to recite the blessings over Torah reading (in which you're called by your Hebrew name; converts are always , son/daughter of Avraham-our-father and Sarah-our-mother, instead of, say, Billy, son of Todd and Jennifer). Other converts are very proud to have come to Judaism by their own conscious choice rather than by birth, and will gladly talk about it with anyone. However, we let them initiate that conversation, since we don't know how a convert feels unless they talk about it.

Dinu amaru Anzullu Ziaru

Oddly there are 3 synagoges near by, but yet there seems to be know jews around, despite there are very few people in the area. I do know of one store in the area that has a kosher section, but it consists of very little.

Those synagogues may belong to Reform or Conservative congregations. Reform and often Conservative Jewish men will often wear their kippot (yarmulkehs, skullcaps) during prayer or on Shabbat, rather than all the time in daily life, so it's harder to identify them on the street. Also, Reform and Conservative women seldom wear head coverings, so they may also be harder to identify on sight. But if there are three synagogues there, count on it, there are Jews in town, or just outside town. That's the other thing -- usually, only an Orthodox Jew will refrain from driving on Shabbat. Reform and Conservative Jews will often drive to get to synagogue, so they don't have to live within walking distance. Therefore, even if there are large, thriving congregations that attend these three synagogues, there may not be Jews who live in the immediate vicinity.

If any of the synagogues' names contain the word Temple, they're almost certainly Reform. The other movements still only consider one Temple worthy to be called as such, and that's the destroyed one in Jerusalem.

Dinu amaru Anzullu Ziaru

Thank you that is what I need I will call about the book. Yes, I will try to start practicing some kosher rules, regardless it will not cause any harm.

Absolutely. smile Personally, when I was deciding to take on a little bit of observance, I started by avoiding pork. Since you're primarily vegetarian, this might be the easiest way to start out for you, too. If you're completely vegetarian by now, then you already don't eat any meat/fowl or fish/shellfish, so it's even easier -- just check the labels of all the products you purchase and make sure that they don't contain any stated meat or meat byproducts. Be careful, though. Even products that are certified vegan may not actually be vegan! Sometimes a product is vegan, but then it's put into a box or can which is sealed shut using animal-based glues. Kosher products don't have this problem, because it's not permitted.

Dinu amaru Anzullu Ziaru

Yeah, my family is mostly former military members, so I am familier with them, that is why I questioned the quality of those meals.

Yes. You can get kosher MREs, but they're just as bad as regular MREs. The LaBriute meals (translation: "For health") are a wee bit better. In a pinch, especially when you're driving through Alabama or Montana and there's nothing kosher for hundreds of miles, they're a lifesaver.

Dinu amaru Anzullu Ziaru

Yes, I never understood how one could be so lonely the plaace value or even make a thing such as a gaia relationship.

Sometimes it's about loneliness, which is sad. Other times, it's simply about the fact that people use Gaia as a forum for roleplay. They roleplay that so-and-so are married, or so-and-so is a villain in their little story; it means nothing, and it's not compensating for anything.

That's exactly what Judaism seeks to avoid. There are different laws for Jews and for non-Jews, but the Torah repeatedly mentions the kindnesses we are to show to the converts in our midst, the strangers who live among us, the orphan, the widow, the outcast.

Judaism cares so much about the feelings of others that even inanimate objects receive some consideration. For instance, every Friday night we have a glass of wine (or grape juice) and two loaves of bread on the table. While we are making the blessing over the wine, we cover the bread with a pretty cloth. Why? Because the rabbinical sages of older times didn't want the challah (the Shabbat bread) to be embarrassed at having to sit around waiting while we blessed the wine first! If we care so much for how bread 'feels', how much more should we care for the feelings of other living creatures!



Yes, indeed. The kippah is the normal headwear of choice for Orthodox men, many Conservative men (and some women), and even a handful of Reform men and women. The further one goes towards the more traditional end of the spectrum, the more men wear it, and the fewer women. In my neighborhood, I can't go outside without seeing some man in a kippah. There are also men who wear only the kippah when indoors, but when outside their homes, will also put on another hat -- a bowler, fedora, borsalino, or streimel. (Look them up, they're fascinating and cool-looking.) Two-hat guys are rare in most places, but in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Paris, (places I've been; I am confident there are many others), and all over Israel, they're common in Jewish neighborhoods.



The grand, over-arching rules are relatively simple:

1. We don't eat any land mammal except those which are cloven-hoofed ruminants. That is, they must have a cloven hoof and must chew a cud. Kosher mammals include cow, goat, sheep, deer, bison, giraffe. Non-kosher mammals include pork, camel, rabbit, cat, dog, elephant.

2. The flying creatures we eat must be fowl -- no flying mammals such as the bat. We may eat chicken and turkey, quail, guinea hen. We may not eat peacock, vulture, buzzard. We don't eat carrion-eaters or carnivores. We eat those fowl that eat grains, fruit, vegetable, and insects.

3. Anything that lives in water, we can only eat if it has both proper fins and proper scales for its entire life. Swordfish have scales for only a portion of their lives, and then they fall off, so swordfish are not kosher. Eels don't have proper fins, so they aren't kosher. Shellfish and crustaceans (oysters, shrimp) aren't kosher. Salmon, trout, bream, haddock, carp, sole, and snapper are kosher.

4. We don't eat reptiles and amphibians, such as alligators, lizards, snakes, turtles, or frogs.

5. Even in kosher mammals, there are parts we don't eat -- basically, anything from the back half of the animal. Even in kosher mammals and fowl, we don't eat it unless it has been slaughtered according to the humane kosher slaughter laws.

6. We don't allow any dairy product or byproduct to mix with any meat product or byproduct. No cheeseburgers; no beef crumbles on pizza; no Philly cheesesteak; no cheddar sprinkled on chili.

7. We may eat any vegetable, fruit, grain, or mushroom. However, if the plant was grown in Israel, it must be certified to have been tithed -- that is, a tenth of the crop must be given to one of the many charitable organizations in Israel, so that the poor may eat.

8. There are some insects that are fine to eat, but they all belong to the same species. I don't know what that is, off the top of my head. They're the type of locust that swarmed over Egypt as one of the Ten Plagues in the Passover story. I could find out which species that is, if you like. I think it's described, and even pictured, somewhere on http://www.zootorah.org/ -- possibly listed under Essays. Check out the site. It's very, very cool.

There are also some more subtle rules, refinements of the major rules listed above, but these are the very basics.



I'm very fond of MorningStar Farms. They aren't vegan, though. They're kosher-dairy, meaning that they contain no meat or fowl products or byproducts, but they may contain traces of dairy products or byproducts. They may also contain kosher fish products or byproducts (such as kosher gelatin, made from the bones of kosher fish instead of regular gelatin, which is made from the bones of cows or pigs). They're delicious, though. Unfortunately, not all MorningStar Farms products are kosher. Their corn dogs look great, but they aren't kosher, so I haven't had those.

You can get a list of hechsherim (that is, the little marks that tell you whether something's been certified kosher, and by which agency) at http://crcweb.org/kosher/consumer/Agency_List.html



You can find them at http://www.kosher.com -- but you don't want to live off of them. They're fine for a week or two out of town, but long-term it would get mighty boring to only have a choice of five or six different dishes to eat. Plus, they cost around $8 or $9 per meal, plus shipping, which can get very expensive over the long term.

I've posted a thread called Keeping Kosher, and put in some tips for how to begin to do so. I suggest checking that out. Meanwhile, go through the above list of the eight overarching rules of kashrut (the system of keeping kosher), and pick just one to start with. I suggest starting with the one about kosher fish verses non-kosher fish/shellfish/crustaceans, since that will have a small but possibly significant effect on your life. I also suggest not making a big deal out of it with your family and friends, so that they won't feel threatened by such a new thing for you. Just say "I don't think I want to eat that for a while. I'm just not into it right now," and leave it at that.