Eating Kosher

Eating Kosher is an issue most people on this World are unaware of.

Religious Jews eat Kosher food and even early Christians, including Jesus, who were religious Jews ate Kosher.

Even Muslims eat Halal food, which has much in common with Kosher food.

So what is this Kosher thing? In principle it is a set of rules that defines what a Jew may or may not eat. Pork meat is a big no, Rabbits the same, Giraffes and Camels likewise. A Jew may not mix meat and milk too.

My Grandfather who lived in Galicia, which was first Austro Hungarian, later Polish, than a part of the Soviet Union and now a part of Ukraine had to travel often. As he kept the Jewish law he couldn't eat just anywhere, so usually he ate only fruit and vegetables. I never knew my grandfather as he was killed by the Nazis, but my father told me about him. He always took a silver spoon with him when he was on the roads and would order a soft boiled egg to eat it with his spoon and that was Kosher.

Many years later my friend R. and I were young kids and members of the Zionist youth movement Habonim, a sort of a scout movement.

R.'s family were members of the Orthodox Synagogue and we were Liberals.

Once when we were on our way to a meeting we were hungry, so we bought something to eat. I am vegetarian, so I opted for French Fries and R. took an egg salad. We walked on and I noticed that R. was taking bites and than was spitting something. I thought that this is a special Orthodox way of eating, but it still intrigued me, so I asked him why he spits while he eats.

His answer struck me: There is Pork in the salad and that is not Kosher ......

Then I understood that Kosher for one is not necessarily Kosher for another and sometimes people make up their own rules.

R. is now a member of a Kibbutz in Northern Israel and I guess he is not too worried anymore about eating Kosher anymore.

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