BITE
A BITE OUT OF LIFE
by Erin Wisdom
For students, keeping kosher is no piece of cake.
It looked like an ordinary piece of cheese pizza. But when Overland Park freshman Matt Rissien flipped it over to inspect its underside, a stray pepperoni stained him in the face. For Rissien, who keeps kosher, this meant lunch was over before it began.
Maintaining Jewish dietary law is
no simple task in a dog and cheeseburger world. These rules, laid out in the Torah, the first five books of the Jewish bible, and the Talmud, a text containing rabbinical commentary on the Torah, can be especially challenging in a college environment. Away from the kosher-keeping households they grew up in, followers often struggle to find foods that meet their dietary needs, as well
A KOSHER QUICKIE
outside large metropolitan areas, many strict kosher-keepers become default vegetarians.
The law forbids not only the consumption of meat and dairy products together, but also the consumption of any meat that may have come into contact with dairy (or vice-versa) during preparation.
Approximate number of Jewish students at KU: 1700
Percentage of Jews nationwide who keep kosher: 20 percent
as to interact in social situations in which many items on the menu are off-limits.
Number of kosher-keeping Jews at KU, if national trends hold here:340
For those who are strict about keeping kosher, pork, shellfish and consuming meat and dairy products at the same time are all no-nos. Doesn't sound so difficult? Here's the catch: The regulations extend beyond the food itself to the way it's prepared. Meat is not kosher unless the animal has been slaughtered in accordance with Jewish laws that ensure its death was as merciful and painless as possible. Because kosher meat is expensive and not widely available
Some Jewish households go so far in maintaining this rule as to have separate sets of dishes and even separate refrigerators for meat and dairy products. But college students often have much less control over how their food is prepared. At restaurants and campus dining halls there's little they can do to ensure
correct meal preparation without stepping into the kitchen to supervise—and your finer establishments may frown on this.
What does this mean for Risslen, who avoids meat almost entirely and is no fan of leafy greens? Lots of cheese quesadillas, grilled cheese sandwiches and french fries, he says. He's well aware of the obstacle this places between him and a well-balanced diet.
"It's a big struggle, how to eat healthy and meet my dietary needs," he says. "I haven't figured that one out yet."
On top of the challenge of
simply finding food to eat is the added pressure social situations can bring, Michelle Domb, Dallas senior, says the greatest challenge Jewish dietary law presents is the barrier it places between those who keep it and those who don't. In any social situation with food, kosher-keeping people are faced with having to explain why they can't partake without making anyone feel awkward, she says.
good, she says. And because she doesn't mix meat and dairy, she often has to ask for dishes to be prepared specially.
Liz Cohen, Leawood sophomore,
identifies with this awkwardness,
especially when she is with a group
at a restaurant. It can be hard to find
something she can eat that sounds
Despite the practical and social difficulties of keeping kosher, Rissien says the tie it gives him to his faith justifies the effort it requires — even when friends jokingly flaunt their cheeseburgers in front of him.
"You feel like a burden," she says.
"it's a big part of my everyday life, like Judaism itself," he says. "It gives me a spiritual connection to my religion, my faith and our past."
Matt Rissien, Overland Park freshman, chows down on a veggie burger. For Rissien, maintaining a kosher diet at college means swearing off meat almost entirely.
LAYING DOWN THE LAW
The fundamentals of Jewish dietary law are found in Leviticus, a book in the Torah. Faith and obedience, rather than dietary benefit, have always been the primary reasons followers adhere to these laws. Modern science, however, has revealed health benefits that early Jewish followers could never have known.
"Leviticus 11 is profound. It's extremely logical and practical," says Lu Wing, who has a Ph.D. in biochemistry and is a professor at Calvary Chapel Bible College in Murrieta, Calif. and Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, Calif.
The chapter is divided into three categories:
Mammals
You may eat any animal that has a split hoof completely divided and that chews cud. Today, we know that ruminants — animals such as cows that chew cud have four stomachs. By the time their food has been through all four stomachs, any toxins that were in it have been removed before they can reach the parts of the animal people eat. Pigs, which are not kosher, don't have this multiple-stomach toxin-removing process.
Fish
Of all the creatures living in the water of the seas and the streams, you may eat any that have fins and scales. This law places a restriction on eating bottom-dwellers such as shellfish. While bottom-dwellers absorb toxins, fish that have fins and scales do not.
Birds
These are the birds you are to detest and not eat because they are detestable: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, the red kite ... The list goes on — taking a total of 20 birds off the menu. What do they all have in common? They
ingest rodents, which we now know carry rabies.
It seems these health benefits paid off for the ancient Israelites, whose life spans were significantly longer than those of others in the area.
"These guys knew nothing about microbiology." Wing says. "But through these laws, God protected them from the health risks they didn't understand."
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