Through out my time in the restaurant business I’ve run into customers looking for kosher foods. At one restaurant I worked in, Cher had ordered food to go and the employees were told to make it kosher for her.

This restaurant was not, however, “kosher”. The best that could be done was providing veggies, meat and absolutely no cheese on her entrée.

Many people have this wacky idea that kosher foods are foods blessed by rabbis. As a student of history and religious studies, this always makes me giggle. Rabbis don’t say a magic blessing and suddenly the food is kosher- food is kosher when it is prepared in the way that meets specific Kashrut laws. These laws follow specific guidelines as to what foods a Jew may eat, how these foods are to be prepared and even the surfaces on which the food is prepared must meet specific guidelines.

Surprisingly, there is no actual health benefit to eating kosher, other than not consuming pork like way back in the day before anyone knew about trichinosis. But seriously, no there are no health benefits to eating kosher. The benefit of eating kosher comes for those who are and practice Judaism: eating kosher is a reminder of who you are and where you came from. In Rabbinic literature the dinner table is compared to the Temple alter and therefore something so simple as eating can become a religious ritual. It’s more than just one of those “because the Torah said so” things- its a way of life, a way to preserve a history and a legacy.

All of us could take a lesson from this in that food is a common heritage that every living thing on this planet shares. It is our history, our preservation, our future. We should view eating as a “religious” act- sustenance is a gift and should be revered as such.

Be thankful for your food, share what you have that is extra and remember, clean your plate.