Keeping Kosher

By Mark Greenberg
KOACH Field Worker

I know we’ve all been there. That awkward moment when your non-Jewish friends say, "Hey, what’s fin any way?" and we’ve all tried to explain. We hit all the main points, no mixing meat and milk, waiting between meals, trying to explain every hekhsher under the sun and then explaining every reason you only accept certain ones. Then, of course, our non-Jewish friends, completely enthralled with the idea of eating only certain things, always ask, "Is it hard?"

Well for me (while in college) this conversation once became a fun little game at the local grocery store. I told my non-Jewish friends we were going on a scavenger hunt and I was going to show them that keeping Kosher wasn’t that hard. We started out at the traditionally very small section in the "ethnic" food aisle. We made up rules and I showed them what to look for.

After a couple of hours and some very strange looks from employees we reconvened. We quickly sifted through three carts full of different Kosher items. Someone even found Kosher laundry detergent, which was a tough one to explain. Once we got back to our apartments we had group dinners for about a week and half.

This little experiment was an eye-opener for me as well. Yes, keeping Kosher is tough and sometimes a pain, financially and socially. But I proved to myself that it can be done and that there are a lot of products out there. So the next time someone asks you about kashrut, just take a friendly stroll through your local grocery store and see what you can find.

[Posted 4/6/08]