The Torah's dietary laws are quite specific. Animals must chew their cud and have split hooves to be kosher, fish need fins and scales, and a list of forbidden fowl is enumerated.
To those of us in Jewish education, it is a continuing source of disappointment that so many Jews still believe the kosher laws to be outdated. After all, they reckon, in the desert our ancestors needed to protect themselves from trichinosis and all sorts of diabolical diseases so some kind of dietary system was needed. But today, they argue, in an age of refrigeration, government inspection and modern hygiene standards, the kosher laws are archaic, anachronistic and quite dispensable.
How sad. The fact is that the kosher laws were never given to us for health reasons. If they happen to be healthy or provide good hygiene that is purely a fringe benefit. It may well be one of the perks but it has never been the reason.
I often joke that if the kosher laws were for health, then all the rabbis should look like Schwarzenegger! And those who don't keep kosher should look sickly. In fact, anecdotal evidence seems to prove the very opposite; your average religious type looks rather scrawny (or overweight) and the non-kosher guys are the ones with the big biceps!
So let it be stated categorically: kosher is not for our physical health but
for our spiritual health. It is not for our bodies but for our souls. It is a
Jewish diet to help Jews remain spiritually sensitive to their innate
Jewishness.
While the Torah actually records no official reason for these
laws, the rabbis and philosophers have speculated on their purpose. They act as
a bulwark against assimilation, we are taught. On a simple level, if we keep
kosher, inexorably, we will shop with fellow Jews, socialize with fellow Jews
and remain close to Jewish communal life. A rabbinic friend of mine once asked a
very high-profile Jewish businessman why he was about to marry a non-Jewish
woman. Couldn't he find a "nice Jewish girl"? His reply was very revealing. "I
just don't mix in those circles anymore, Rabbi." There is no doubt that had he
still kept Kosher his life choices may well have been very different.
On a deeper, more spiritual level, keeping kosher keeps our Jewish souls sensitive to things Jewish. This is clearly a mystical concept and imperceptible to our physical senses, but according to our sages it is a fact. Just as too much red meat or fatty foods are bad for your cholesterol, non-kosher foods are bad for your neshamah. They clog your spiritual arteries and prevent those warm, healthy Jewish feelings from circulating through your kishkes and your consciousness.
It's very important to have a mezuzah on your door. It identifies your home as Jewish. But what really defines your home as a "Jewish Home" - what your zayde meant when he said with pride "my children run a Jewish home" - is the kitchen. A kosher kitchen makes a Jewish home truly Jewish. It also extends a very warm and eloquent invitation to all fellow Jews. Here you are welcome. Here it is safe to come in and eat. Make yourself at home.
Your favorite diet may build healthy bodies, but a kosher diet builds healthy souls.