How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household

by Blu Greenberg

  So there is an art to buying kosher. The easiest way is to “let Chaim Yankel do it.” To save any hassle, some Jews will shop only in a store that sells kosher products exclusively. One doesn’t have to read fine-print labels; even the words meat, dairy, or parve are stamped in legible letters on all prepared foods.

  The alternative is to buy in regular supermarkets but to check all prepared foods for the seal of rabbinic supervision. What it means is that there is a reliable independent supervisor (mash-giach), a person who is knowledgeable in laws of kashrut, who spends time at the plant overseeing the entire process from receipt of the new foodstuffs to shipment of the finished products. There are a number of registered kashrut symbols to look for. Among them are:

  —the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, New York, New York. (Inasmuch as the is under the aegis of a large communal organization, this is the best known and most widely used symbol of kashrut.)

  —O.K. (Organized Kashrut) Laboratories, Brooklyn, New York.

  —(K.V.H.) Kashrut Commission of the Vaad Horabanim (Rabbinical Council) of New England, Boston, Mass.

  —Rabbi J. H. Ralbag, New York, New York.

  —Kosher Supervision Service, Hackensack, New Jersey.

  —Kosher Overseers Association of America, Beverly Hills, California.

  —Vaad Hoeir of St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.

  —Board of Rabbis, Jersey City, New Jersey.

  —Vaad Hakashrus of Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland.

  None of these symbols should be confused with ®, which does not mean Orthodox rabbis; it means registered trademark. For reliability of the above certifications, one should check with one’s own rabbi.

  In addition to the symbols above, there is the ubiquitous K. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration law permits the K to be used where there is rabbinic supervision. However, the K is no more reliable than the individual rabbi who grants it. K on some foods is fine according to Orthodox standards, but not on others. The local rabbi—or the individual—will write to the company to get the name of the supervising rabbi, and then take it from there. Within the Orthodox community there are differences of opinion among rabbis as to whether on certain breakfast cereals is adequate. Some say yes, some say no.

  There is also a range of response as to what kinds of items need rabbinic supervision in the first place. Some will say anything that is packaged, for even the food containers for vegetables and fruits could contain derivatives of non-kosher monoglycerides. At the other end are those who say any uncooked product whose listed ingredients are not unkosher is okay. For most Orthodox Jews the answer lies somewhere in between. Generally speaking, we look for rabbinic certification on all baked goods, cheeses, cake mixes, candies, desserts, puddings, breakfast cereals, dressings, frostings, ice creams, relishes, condiments, preserves, sauces, ground spices, pastas, canned fish, margarine and all prepared foods (for example, French fries and soups).

  The tricky things to look for in seemingly harmless foods are monoglycerides and diglycerides, shortening, gelatin, and stearic acid, which could be derived from non-kosher animals or from dairy sources. That is why rabbinic supervision is needed on so many processed foods. Happily, today there is little of any given type of food that is not available in strictly kosher form. Even kosher “bacon,” (made of soybean derivatives), parve cheesecake, and kosher paté de fois gras. Thank God no one has come out with kosher pork. However, it must be noted that the Rabbis of the Talmud said that for every forbidden food, including pork, there is something exactly equivalent in taste that is kosher. (How did they know??)

  Another restriction of kashrut, which is followed very strictly by some Jews, less so by others, is the law concerning wine produced or handled by a non-Jew.

  The Torah prohibited use of any wine which a non-Jew produced for idol worship libations. The Rabbis extended this ban not only to wine produced by a non-Jew, but also to any Jewish-made wine that was touched or handled by a non-Jew. This was done to discourage social contact.

  In the medieval period, when the Jews of France were deeply involved with their non-Jewish neighbors in the wine industry, many of these laws were reexamined. Moreover, by that time the use of wine for idol worship was very rare. Thus, certain rabbinic authorities permitted Jews to deal in stam yainam, as non-Jewish wine was called.

  Nevertheless, the restriction on drinking still obtained, for the social reason. The Shulchan Aruch (sixteenth-century code of law) stressed that the prohibition is enforced to prevent drinking and social contact between Jews and non-Jews. This, it was felt, would lead to intermarriage.

  Today, some authorities permit use of Jewish wine handled by non-Jews as long as it has been pasteurized (boiled during its production process). The reason for this is that the original prohibition exempted boiled wine, which was not used for libations or social drinking. On the other hand, some authorities forbid wines that are touched even by a non-Sabbath-observant Jew. Most Orthodox Jews drink only kosher wines, which are simply wines produced by Jews under rabbinic supervision. These wines are generally packaged under double seals to prevent any prohibited form of handling.

  The prohibition extended to any by-product of grapes—such as grape juice or grape jelly. However, it did not extend to whiskey, for whiskey is a grain product; it wasn’t used for idol worship purposes, so there was nothing on which to peg a prohibition. Thus it is that there are times when Orthodox Jews drink kosher wines and regular whiskey in “mixed” company, but you won’t catch them eating pure grape candies that have no kosher label.

  There is also debate as to extent of rabbinic supervision over dairy products. Most modern Orthodox Jews drink milk and use butter and creams from Gentile-owned farms that are not rabbinically supervised, because the danger that the milk comes from a non-kosher animal no longer exists. It is against U.S. law to sell as “milk” anything other than what comes from a cow. However, some Jews will drink only milk that is produced by a Jewish-owned, rabbinically supervised dairy.

  On hard cheeses, however, there is little debate; the enzyme, rennet, that is used to harden cheese comes from the lining of a calf’s stomach. The enyzme is considered a meat product and may not be used together with cheese. Moreover, since it is a powerful chemical, it is considered not to be diluted, so that even a minute amount (less than one part in sixty) is still prohibited. However, some rabbis ruled that the rennet is so treated chemically (isolated and purified) that it is no longer considered a meat product. Others disagree with this ruling, arguing that the rennet is not denatured in the course of preparation. Almost all Orthodox Jews will eat only hard cheeses (such as Swiss and Gouda) that are rabbinically certified. Many of the soft cheeses (cream cheese, cottage cheese) are prepared by physical separation, not rennet. In such cases, certification would not be needed. The marginal case is American cheese—some Orthodox Jews eat American cheese without kosher labels based on the rennet ruling mentioned above or because much American cheese is prepared by nonchemical process. Most, however, insist on certification for American cheese as well—if for no other reason than to avoid a situation in which the kashrut of their home would be questionable or inadequate in the eyes of others.

  Regarding bread: one of the three special mitzvot assigned to women is the law of challah, removing a token amount of dough (the size of an olive) from a yeast batter, and throwing it into the oven fires while reciting the proper blessing (see p. 482). This is a residual practice, symbolic of ancient Temple rites of gift offerings to God from nature’s bounty. The law of challah is binding only upon Jews; thus, the bread of a bakery owned by non-Jews, whose products are kosher and have rabbinic supervision, does not require challah to be taken. A Jewish-owned and rabbinically supervised bakery will take challah as will a woman or man baking bread at home.

  One of the bonuses of living in an intensive Jewish neighborhood is the presence not only of a kosher bakery but of a Sabbath observant (Shomer Shabbat) one as well. This means the owners are personally
observant of halacha. Accordingly, they close the bakery before sundown Friday and don’t reopen until early Sunday morning. There is never any worry whether or not challah was taken or whether Sunday morning’s bread or Monday morning’s cookies were baked by another Jew on Shabbat (which would not be permitted).

  FISH

  In all but very intensive Jewish neighborhoods, the fish store will sell both kosher and non-kosher fish. However, if there is a Jewish clientele, the fishman will keep two sets of knives for cutting and cleaning.

  The most common kosher fish in the United States are:

  Anchovies

  Bluefish

  Carp

  Chubs

  Cod

  Flounder (and Sole)

  Herring

  Mackerel

  Red snapper

  Salmon

  Sardines

  Sea bass

  Shad

  Smelts

  Striped bass

  Trout

  Tuna

  Whitefish

  Whiting

  Yellow perch

  Non-kosher fish include:

  Clams

  Crabs

  Crayfish

  Lobster

  Oysters

  Scallops

  Shrimp

  Sturgeon

  Swordfish

  There has been some debate among the denominations over swordfish. Swordfish is deemed non-kosher by Orthodox authorities while many Conservative rabbis rule that it is kosher. Swordfish are born with fins and scales, but as they mature, they lose the scales. The Orthodox maintain that the kind of scales swordfish are born with could not be removed without damaging the underlying skin and therefore do not qualify for the Biblical criterion of scales.

  TRAVEL

  Now that Orthodox Jews travel more than ever before, kashrut has moved into the jet-setting scene. There is a kosher hotel in Majorca and one in Aruba, a kosher restaurant in downtown Amsterdam, and even a small kosher sandwich shop in Creve Coeur, Missouri. There are many books on Jewish travel, and most Orthodox organizations can supply the get-up-and-go types with a list of places to dine.

  Still, what to do if you are strictly kosher and your travels take you to a place where there is no kosher restaurant?

  One can manage even under the most dire circumstances. In 1976, Yitz and I traveled to the Soviet Union to visit refuseniks, Jews who are held in a state of limbo once they have applied to leave. Allowed neither to emigrate nor to live as free citizens, they are very much dependent on each other and on visitors from abroad for emotional support.

  Our plans were to stay for two weeks, traveling to different cities in the U.S.S.R. As far as food went, it didn’t matter, one city or another: there would be no kosher food anywhere. So we packed some staples and figured we’d fill in with fruits and vegetables. Russian bread, which is not considered kosher by our Free World standards (a Sabbath-observant bakery or kosher-certified packaged bread), was, under the circumstances, deemed permissible by Israeli and American rabbinic boards. (We didn’t know how delicious Russian bread would be—I felt the urge to hop on the counter of the Moscow bakery every morning and shout, “Have some more, friends, it’s on us!” knowing that we Americans were heavily subsidizing the only thing that “works” in Russia—bread!)

  At any rate, into our suitcases went an immersion heater, two mugs, two sets of cutlery, a can opener, several dozen instant soups in foil packages, and a Kiddush cup. In a separate, compact overnight bag, all prepared so that all I’d have to do was take it out of the refrigerator at the last minute, I packed two salamis, two bottles of wine for Kiddush, six large cans of tuna, a large jar of peanut butter (protein), and a dozen bars of halvah (I married a halvah freak; and besides, it, too, has protein).

  As one might expect, halfway to the airport I realized who would be eating the salami in a day or two—and it wasn’t us. We managed to pick up two bottles of kosher wine at a package store en route, but when we got to the airport, I didn’t even have time to attack the candy counter. The airline officials, of a national carrier that shall remain forever nameless, made us hurry onto the plane so that we could sit on the runway for the next six hours locked in a noisy, nonair-conditioned cabin, and marvel at the periodic lies that came over the PA system as to how soon this or that “minor” problem would be repaired. Three A.M.: we hadn’t even taken off and I was starved. I contemplated drinking the two bottles of wine on an empty stomach and spending the next two days in a blessedly drunken stupor, but my dear husband wouldn’t allow! “Pull yourself together,” he said gently, for the fortieth time, as I threatened to bite the flight attendant.

  So! Forty packages of instant broth and two hungry kosher Jews in Moscow with two weeks to go. But we didn’t starve. And we didn’t drink only tea and instant soups. Food was not the main item on our agenda, nor did we want to spend time or money in restaurants where we couldn’t eat much anyhow. We quickly found out what we could eat inexpensively and easily. Every morning for breakfast we ate in the workers’ cafeteria. For a few pennies we filled up on a delicious sweet buttermilk drink, a staple in the Russian workers’ diet. At the bakery near our hotel, we bought fresh Russian pumpernickel, better than Rat-ner’s. Next door we purchased butter, and sour cream and yoghurt and fresh milk—and no long lines. A few times we boiled eggs in our mugs, using our immersion heater. Fresh fruits and vegetables, a staple in our diet at home, required waiting on long queues with not much to buy when your turn came. On day two, I waited twenty minutes, only to get to first place in line when 2:00 P.M. struck and the farmer closed his street stall in the middle of my sentence. We never waited again; juices and fruits and fresh salads we ate in our hotel dining room, not much of a selection, but more than the average Russian gets from a street stall. To my great happiness, I lost five pounds during those two weeks, but it was because we ran all day long and not because there was nothing for us to eat. A kosher Jew can manage anywhere in the world.

  The principle in dining out is the same principle that operates at home: the food must be kosher, it must be prepared in a kosher way, and it must be served on kosher utensils. That would not allow one to eat any meat in a non-kosher restaurant, nor any forbidden fish, nor any permitted food cooked in non-kosher pots and served on non-kosher dishes. Does that mean it is possible to eat nothing in a restaurant that serves non-kosher food? Some say one should not enter a non-kosher eating place because of the principle of marit ayin—the prohibition of giving the wrong impression to someone else. I must admit that I get a little rattled when I see—as I’ve seen—a man wearing a kepah (skullcap) sitting near the windows of a McDonald’s. I say to myself:

  1. The fellow wears a kepah as a sign of belonging but not of commitment to the tradition.

  2. He’s just drinking a coke and nothing more.

  Marit ayin is an important principle, but it is also a relative judgment. When parve margarine was first introduced, it was always served in its wrapper at a meat meal so that no one mistakenly would think it to be butter and draw the wrong conclusion or follow the wrong example. Similarly, when parve cream first came on the market, we all served it in its original container because of marit ayin. Now, one can go to a meeting at an Orthodox home or a dinner at a kosher restaurant and everyone knows that the cream-looking liquid served in the small crystal pitcher after a meat meal—is parve. As more and more Orthodox Jews dine out—on business and vacations—and as more of them wear kipot (with women you can’t tell), eating in a non-kosher restaurant does not mean one is not keeping strictly kosher.

  Marit ayin aside, then, there is another principle that makes it possible to eat certain things in an eating place that is not otherwise kosher. The principle is that food absorption is transferred through heat and not through cold: a fresh vegetable salad or fresh fruit, a mound of cottage cheese, a glass of milk, a bowl of dried cereal, an individual can of tuna or salmon, kosher-brand ice cream (many of the large ice-cream companies have rabbinic c
ertification), fresh juices, liquor: these are some of the things that an Orthodox Jew will feel comfortable eating or drinking from a cold clean plate or glass or disposable ware. The larger the establishment is, the safer it is, because it is more likely that the knife used to slice the tomato is not the same knife used to cut the bacon—something which would make the tomato inedible for a kosher Jew. However, in a small establishment it is easier to ask and to oversee what the staff is doing. Even in a large restaurant, one can ask, for example, if the salad preparation counter is separate....

  Many restaurants are quite willing to accommodate the special dietary needs of any person, including a kosher one. Once, on a business lunch with a young woman, I ordered an avocado vinaigrette. I asked the waitress to find out what the dressing was made of, since wine vinegar, undoubtedly made of non-kosher wines, was not in my kosher repertoire. Wine vinegar it was, so she brought me lemon and Italian olive oil. The woman I was with, a non-Jew, was curious about the whole thing, but we didn’t have time to talk about it. A week later I received a bottle of champagne from her, celebrating our mutual success. It was kosher champagne, with this note: “If you can’t eat their vinegar, you sure as hell can’t drink their champagne!” It’s a lot easier to take a non-kosher friend to a kosher restaurant, but if that’s not possible, with a little care, one can do more than nurse a glass of ginger ale the entire time.

  There are some Orthodox Jews who take matters a step further—eating fish in non-kosher restaurants or hotels. This process is not as complicated as it seems:

  1. Order a kosher fish, that is, one of the permitted kinds, let us say red snapper.

  2. Ask the maître d’ or the chief cook to rinse the fish well and to wrap it tightly in two separate layers of aluminum foil, completely closed, and then bake it. It can be baked with seasoning such as butter, sour cream, lemon juice, salt and pepper, cloves (wonderful with baked fish).