So now things are a bit different. I'm taking on these new, very specific practices that actually DO make me part of a community. I should talk a little bit about what exactly I do differently before I tell you how its affected my life...
So there is Kashrut which are the rules that govern food. I've started to notice that there are different levels of observance. "I keep Kosher" can mean a variety of different things but the main idea is to 'elevate' yourself by only eating certain types of foods i.e. making God first and food (or pleasure) second. This way they pleasure you enjoy is for God and thanks to God. Well that's my weird interpretation of it at least. Anyhow, the biggest rule is not to mix meat and milk. Being a vegetarian, this rule is not difficult for me. There are also rules about how to slaughter animals and which animals are not suitable for eating, like pigs and certain types of seafood.
One of the more modern ways of trying to regulate things is by putting symbols on packages that indicate whether a food is Kosher and whether it is dairy, meat, or parve (nuetral).
But just because something is not certified doesn't necessarily mean it's not kosher...it does, after all, cost money to certify things. This whole certification thing is pretty new too since before they didn't have the technology to be able to do this. But then there is the issue with Kosher dishes which does complicate things. You see, in the past the cookware that you used would many times absorb the flavor of foods and then this flavor would get transferred to other things that you cooked so to be very careful people started using different dishes for meats and milks. The rules get really complicated so I won't explain them here (and even if I tried I'd probably get them all wrong :P) but today people don't think that flavors get transferred and you should just wash your dishes really well and so some people don't separate and some do. Now this makes it difficult for just any restaurant to be Kosher. It would have to only serve meat or milk dishes and all the ingredients it used would have to be certified and none of it's cookware or dishes could have been previously used for whatever it is they don't serve there (meat or milk)...and i'm just simplifying things....i think...
So the results of trying to be an observant Jew I have come to see as this: for one thing I think it's neat because when you go out to eat, you must go to a Kosher restaurant which there aren't that many so you end up seeing the same people and you all have this bond that you choose to eat this type of food. Which is neat. However, the fact that you are "limited" to these restaurants and also 'limited' in accepting friend's invitations to have dinner at their place is a little frustrating. It makes things a little exclusive which, coming from a non-Jewish background, is troubling to me. I mean, if I really want to be strict in my observance I wouldn't be able to eat my own mother's home cooking :-/ However, at this point in my conversion that is not the case... and I hope that it won't be later either. But I probably should talk to my rabbi about it.
Food
Then there is Shabbos! I'm really amazed by people who keep Shabbos. It is so much fun and really relaxing. I like having a day out of the week where you don't think about work at all and you hang out with a lot of other people who aren't thinking about it either. Because of all the specific rules it's hard for observant Jews to get around having to be together. I feel like this part of Judaism is what brings people together the most in a very consistent way. No driving, no electricity, no writing, ect. The closest I can do to do work is read and think but without being able to write anything down to remember these things, it really doesn't get me very far. So I should explain where the rules for Shabbos come from. So a long long time ago, the Jewish people sat down and had to decide what doing work meant, this being because in the Torah God commanded the Jews to keep the Sabbath day holy or basically to not work. So the Jewish people at the time agreed that work would be defined by the 39 actions described in the Torah of the building of the temple. These included lighting fires, carrying things, ect. And for modern times, all these rules have to be made to fit the things that we do today. Some of the funnier ones include not ripping things on a seam, not turning lights on and off, and not biting your nails. Right before Shabbos starts one should light candles and say a blessing. There are also lots of different prayers that you do on Shabbos including Kiddush which you do over a glass of wine before starting your Shabbos meal. The meal is always prepared before Shabbos starts since it is a rule to not cook during Shabbos and it usually includes Challah which is a braided type of bread that is really yummy but can use other types of bread too. All these rules give Shabbos a certain spirit that makes it so much more different than any other day of the week.
My personal experience with Shabbos is mixed. While I love everything we do, especially when/if we sing, I find it difficult to keep Shabbos completely. It can be frustrating to other people who do not want to keep Shabbos (but who I am with on Shabbos) because I don't want to drive places. When I used to go to church it was a lot simpler since it was just one hour out of the day. So I would go and come back and could do whatever. But Shabbos is about 25 hours long and on the weekend when everyone else is off too and wants to go out and do things. This makes me a little sad because I do not want to distance myself from people who I love who are not Jewish but I am suddenly more burdensome for them because I am keeping what seems to them very strange practices. But I think and hope that they will come to love Shabbos too because there are so many things you can do on it like play boardgames and just sit around and talk or read or eat or sing. Or take walks together...
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