Introduction
Who hasn’t heard of the Jewish kitchen? Its exquisite and diverse dishes have earned it a reputation in the culinary world. At first glance, it looks just like any other kitchen, Italian or French: the pots look the same, the utensils look the same, and even the sweet paprika is similar to that in other kitchens.
What makes a kitchen ‘Jewish’ can be summed up in one word: kashrut. This is expressed in the design of the kitchen and the food products in it, but above all, it is expressed in the conduct within it.
Indeed, there are ‘Jewish’ dishes like ‘gefilte fish’ or cholent, but any place where latkes are fried for Hanukkah or challah is baked for Shabbat – is called a ‘Jewish’ kitchen. Observing ‘kashrut’ is what makes the kitchen ‘Jewish’.
- Are you traveling abroad and a restaurant offers you Jewish food? It’s important to make sure it’s indeed food prepared under supervision according to the rules of kashrut, and not just a kitchen imitating Jewish cuisine but not maintaining the ‘content’ of the Jewish kitchen – the kashrut.
What is ‘kashrut’?
God forbade the Jew to eat certain things. A kosher kitchen is one where these things do not enter, and it does not produce food in it that is not in accordance with the rules of the Creator.
There are three types of prohibitions related to kashrut:
- There are things that are always forbidden to eat. For example, animals and livestock that are not kosher, are everywhere, in all situations, and at all times forbidden to eat.
- There are things that are forever forbidden but for which there are similar ones allowed – like orla fruits (fruits grown on a ‘new’ tree in its first three years, whose fruits are forbidden to eat) fruits exactly like them can also be allowed to eat (like fruits of the years afterwards and similar) or meat not slaughtered properly, meat just like it (the same part of a similar animal but that was slaughtered) is allowed to eat.
- And there are those temporarily forbidden, and by a certain action they are allowed to eat – like tevel (fruits or vegetables that did not separate a small percentage that the Torah commanded to separate from before eating) after separating the tithes and tithes from it, it is allowed to eat. And vice versa those that are permitted and by a certain action become forbidden, like a gentile who cooks a dish and so on.
The Challenge
It’s not always easy to keep kosher. If you live or travel abroad – not everywhere you can find a kosher restaurant. Even visiting the local supermarket, you won’t always be able to come out with a full cart.
But even if we live in a country where almost all products are kosher, and all restaurants have supervision, we should pay attention to these things, since sometimes we arrive at places that are still without supervision: local markets where you can always find cheap fruits and vegetables, supermarkets without supervision, the neighbor who slaughtered a sheep without knowing how to make the meat kosher, his apple tree, and other examples. These can pose an obstacle that one needs to be aware of.
And most importantly, even after we have bought the most kosher products, we still have a preparation process in the home kitchen until the food is ready to eat, and there are also details that are important to know, as we will see later.
Why Kosher?
All of this brings us to the big question, why do we need to keep kosher? Why does God want us to not be able to peacefully eat ‘anything that comes to hand’?
To answer this question, let’s embark on a short ‘lesson’ on body-soul relations.
Our body and the soul within it are not two autonomies, where one just ‘lives’ next to the other – but one unit that operates in full synchrony: the body influences the soul and the soul influences the body. A good physical state also gives space to the soul, and a bad state makes it difficult. A happy mood also gives the body release and energy, and its metabolites are better.
Therefore, it is clear that the food which turns after digestion into our blood and flesh affects not only the body but also the soul and spirit.
This is one of God’s purposes in preventing non-kosher foods: to protect us. Eating these foods can harm our soul – in our cognitive abilities, in the feelings in our hearts, and in the Jewish spirit within us.
This is the reason why kosher food is one of the cornerstones of our people throughout the generations: non-kosher foods and drinks impair the human soul and its traits, the holiness of the Jewish soul and love for Torah and its commandments.
Therefore, special emphasis should be placed on maintaining kosher for our children. Despite thinking they don’t understand enough yet and there is no need to be strict with them about ‘so what’ things – on this matter, strictness should be great. When they are young, and their bodies and souls are being built – keeping kosher is more important, so they will grow in the best way.
How to keep kosher?
In order for us to manage the kitchen in our home properly, let’s get acquainted with the existing kosher rules:
- Some of the concepts before us are not so current for the average person who buys his products from stores. It is presented so that we will recognize them and know what the kosher bodies that certify the products are dealing with. And who knows, maybe we will also need them in the future?
Meat and Dairy
One of the basic commandments in the world of kashrut is the separation between dairy and meat.
Here are the definitions for a ‘meat’, ‘dairy’, or ‘pareve’ (=neither dairy nor meat) food:
Meat – Foods made from meat (chicken or beef) and products mixed with meat or one of its ingredients (for example: schwarma, steak, wings, Bolognese pasta, meatballs in beef sauce, and the like).
Dairy – Foods produced from milk, and products mixed with milk or one of its ingredients (for example: milk, soft and hard cheeses, ice creams and dairy cakes, milk chocolate, and the like).
Pareve – ‘Neutral’ foods or those made from foods that are neither dairy nor meat (for example: all types of fruits and vegetables, all types of fish, eggs, rice, and the like. And yes, other industrial food products such as: pasta, crackers, cakes and cookies, snacks, dark chocolate, and the like).
Fundamental rules
The Torah mentions the commandment to separate meat from milk three times, from which we learn three rules:
- Do not eat food that contains milk and meat together.
- Do not cook food that contains milk and meat together, regardless of whether they will be eaten.
- Do not benefit from a dish of milk and meat that were cooked together, for example: selling such a dish (no matter who prepared it) and receiving money or any other form of benefit in return such as giving it to pets for food. Such a dish should be discarded or destroyed.
Why is meat and milk together forbidden?
- Like any commandment, we fulfill it because it is God’s will.
- In ancient times, most gentiles practiced idolatry and would cook meat and milk together during their festivals and other occasions. To distance us from their customs, God forbade us from cooking meat and milk together.
- God created the world in an orderly manner. Meat and milk symbolize two completely different approaches in the world, and their combination and mixture is not good for man or the world.
- However, according to some opinions, there is no clear reason for this prohibition, and it falls under the category of commandments that do not have a humanly understandable reason.
In conclusion, what does this mean for us?
- As we mentioned before, the first rule is that one should not eat food that contains milk and meat together.
- The second rule is that one should not cook meat and milk together. The prohibition applies to cooking, baking, frying, and even pickling together.
- Do not heat or bake dairy and meat foods together in the same oven (even not one after another), and one should dedicate the oven (or one of the compartments) for dairy or for meat.
- Also, regarding a microwave: do not heat dairy and meat in it (not one after the other, unless the food is covered with 2- wraps (foil) and sealed well).
- Do not cook milk and meat together even if you do not intend to eat it. Do you have a non-Jewish helper at home? You can prepare many other dishes for her… (but if she has a special pot for herself, she is allowed to prepare whatever she wants for herself).
- Do not cook a dairy dish in a meat pot and vice versa. Such a utensil in which meat and milk were cooked together is forbidden for use and requires koshering, (one should ask a Rabbi how to proceed with the continued use of the pot).
- A pareve dish cooked in a meat pot becomes meaty, and one cannot eat it with dairy foods, and vice versa.
- Two people who do not know each other and one of them wants to eat a dairy dish and the other a meat dish, they can sit at the same table to eat. But if they are good friends (let alone family members), they are not allowed to sit together because there is a concern that one might see something tasty on the other’s plate, extend his fork and take from it, and then eat dairy and meat together. Not polite? Correct. Therefore, the concern only exists with a good friend, as the comfortable atmosphere between them when sitting together does not always dictate behavior according to ‘protocol rules’ and if one of them eats on a separate placemat, or they place an object on the table that is not normally there in order to serve as a sign – it’s permissible, provided they do not eat or drink from the same utensil or the same food.
Eating Fish and Meat
When discussing meat and milk, there’s an important rule that relates to eating fish and meat:
Our sages, may their memory be blessed, prohibited eating fish and meat together, as it is harmful to health. Nowadays, this is forbidden to us because of a tradition followed by our ancestors.
It’s permissible to eat them one after the other, but one should eat or drink something in between to clean the mouth. Also, the utensil used for the previous food should be changed between them.
Eating Fish and Dairy
Sephardic communities have the custom to be stringent and not to eat fish with dairy. From a practical standpoint, this is similar to fish and meat, meaning: they can be eaten one after the other, and the utensil should be changed between them.
As derived from the need to separate dairy and meat, we try to create a distinction between them as much as possible throughout the entire food preparation process and its handling:
Sinks
In a kosher kitchen, it is recommended to have two sinks, one for meat and one for dairy.
When there is one sink in the kitchen, you can wash dishes in it but not place the dishes in it, as both dairy and meat dishes are poured there together – which makes the sink floor non-kosher.
Dishwasher
You should not wash meat and dairy dishes together in the same dishwasher, but you can wash them one after the other.
Countertops
You should designate separate work surfaces (countertops, etc.) for meat and for dairy.
Refrigerator
It is permissible to use the same refrigerator for dairy and meat foods. However, you should be careful that they do not touch each other directly or drip onto one another.
Kitchen Utensils
You should not use the same utensils for meat and dairy (even if they are clean and shiny). Therefore, there should be two sets of utensils in the house: a separate set of eating utensils and cooking utensils for dairy, and a separate set for meat. The set should include all types of utensils (cutlery, plates, cups, pots, scoops, salt shakers, tablecloths, and more).
- It is recommended to choose different shapes or colors for dairy and meat so that we can immediately identify to which category each utensil belongs.
- It is appropriate to designate utensils also for foods that are not included in the definition of dairy or meat (what is called ‘parve’), such as a knife for cutting bread or fruit, cutting board, pots, and the like.
- If a dairy utensil was used for a meat dish or for cooking meat (or vice versa), you should ask a rabbi how to proceed with these dishes and utensils.
Waiting Between Eating Dairy and Meat and Vice Versa
Another thing derived from our strong desire to keep the commandment of not eating dairy and meat together, is that we wait after eating one of them before we eat the other. The reason for this is because there are food residues of one type in the mouth and sometimes, in certain foods, the digestive system is ‘busy’ digesting even a long time after eating the food and it even brings tastes to the mouth and the like, and then it turns out that we are eating meat and dairy together to a certain extent.
Therefore:
- After drinking milk or eating dairy products, one should wait about an hour or drink and rinse the mouth before eating meat dishes.
- If a table has been used for dairy, and now meat is to be eaten on it, it should be thoroughly cleaned and a cloth should be spread over it.
- After eating meat, poultry and their products, one should wait six hours before eating dairy foods.
- One should also wait six hours after eating products that were cooked directly with the meat, and not only after eating the meat itself.
- ‘Parve’ products are permissible to eat together with meat dishes or dairy dishes, and do not require waiting before or after them.
- It is advisable to educate the children from a young age to maintain the wait between eating one meal and the next meal. Of course, the waiting time depends on his age and his level of patience (for example, there is no need to ‘struggle’ with a 4-year-old child who ate meat an hour ago, not to eat the cornflakes with milk that is in front of him).
What is ‘Treifah’?
An animal of the types permitted for consumption, such as a chicken, when it is prohibited to eat – is called ‘Treif’. This can happen in three cases:
- If it was not slaughtered according to law, but killed.
- In case it was slaughtered – but the slaughter was not according to all the rules of the Halakha (by the way: this is the reason why the slaughterer needs to be ‘God-fearing’ – one who truly fears God in Heaven who knows everything, even what happens in the hidden rooms, because sometimes only he can know whether his slaughter was exactly according to the rules of Halakha).
- When it was slaughtered according to law but something was found inside it indicating that it was not supposed to live much longer (example? see below).
So what do we do?
Therefore, when we buy poultry or meat, we need to pay attention:
- If they are frozen – we need to check that there is a sticker on their package with a good kosher stamp that attests to their being permissible to eat.
- If they are fresh, it is important to check that there is a good kosher certificate that attests to the products sold in the place. Do not rely at all on the seller’s words! (even if he looks ‘righteous’ as can be).
- Those who follow the customs of the Eastern communities, should be careful to buy only meat on which ‘Glatt’ is written – an inscription that attests that the lungs have been checked and found to be clean and intact according to the Sephardic custom.
