Is Kosher Food Healthier?
This week's portion introduces the Torah's dietary laws.
I don’t know how or why but somehow there’s a prevalent notion that kosher observance is health related. Current marketing research shows, time and time again, that placing a kosher symbol on a product will bring more sales. The average consumer today simply believes it to be a healthier choice.
I often joke that if the kosher laws were for health, then all us rabbis should look REALLY trim and fit. Moreover, if a kosher diet were a health benefit, then why wouldn’t G‑d prescribe the kosher laws for all of mankind? Doesn’t G‑d want everyone to be healthy – not only Jews?!
So let it be stated clearly: though there may be health benefits to a kosher diet, keeping kosher is primarily for our spiritual health. It is not for our bodies as much as for our souls. It is a Jewish diet to help Jews remain spiritually sensitive to their innate Jewishness.
Additionally, our sages have enumerated blessings that kosher observance brings to our life. On the simplest of levels, when we keep kosher, inexorably, we wind up shopping, dining and celebrating together with Jews. We develop a stronger bond and identity as a Jewish family and help prevent assimilation.
I know that it sounds a bit daunting. Transforming a kitchen is overwhelming. But there are so many meaningful little steps we can take that are really simple.
For example: Trader Joes sells kosher chickens, turkeys, steaks, and ground beef. Why not start by buying kosher poultry and meat? Yes, it adds up to a few dollars more each month, but the immeasurable benefit in incomparable.
Additionally, so many products these days have kosher certifications. So the next time you’re in the supermarket and have to choose between two brands of tomato sauce or two chocolate bars, choose the kosher one.
Yes, it's important to have a mezuzah on our doors. It identifies our houses as Jewish. But what defines our homes as a "Jewish Home" – perhaps more than anything else – is what our grandparents meant when they said with pride "my children run a Jewish home" – a kosher kitchen; the nucleus of Jewish life.
Your favorite diet may build healthy bodies, but a kosher diet builds healthy souls. Give it a try!
Fruma and our children join me in wishing you and your family a Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Raleigh Resnick
