Abusch-Magder's reflection on the holiness associated with--even implicit within--baking hallah has me thinking. If food is rendered kosher based on how it moves from "raw" to "cooked" (i.e., made acceptable for Jewish consumption) why isn't there more rabbinic concern about the sanctity of food preparation (as distinguished from from production)? It can't only be about gender, can it? Or can it?
What blessings do you find missing from the repertoire of vine, tree, ground and coming into being?
Rabbinic (and post rabbinic) blessings privilege some foods over others (e.g., wheat over barley, fine over everyday). Do you agree with that privileging? Would you re-distribute the "values" of foods (not just types but genres) if you could?
What is gained--and lost--in claiming Yom Kippur as the primary (if not only) day Reform Jews fast?
And, finally, the one that continues to plague me...why do Reform Jews keep kosher? Why should they? (Another way to think about this question is: what is this elusive tradition thing our writers keep claiming?)
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It is ON!
Welch's for Pesah? " Welch's Teams With Manischewitz in Battle Over Kosher Grape Juice " (NPR, 10/10/17)
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I am also troubled by trying to come up with a good reason that Reform Jews as a collective should keep kosher. What is meaningful for one person might be totally irrelevant or create a sense of distance for someone else. I have come to keep kosher in a very unique way. While I don't mind explaining my version of Kashrut to my future congregants in order to help them think about their own relationship to Judaism and food, I also don't think my practices will be universally appealing. For instance, I gave up eating all pork product when I entered rabbinical school and have found that the self-prescribed restriction fosters greater restraint when eating. It's easier now to say "no" to other things that are unhealthy for me because I have managed to cut bacon (which I loved) out of my diet. Conversely, it was easy to cut shellfish because I have never eaten shellfish in my entire life. If someone grew up keeping kosher, would the aspect of restraint be a compelling reason to keep the dietary laws? I think Reform Jews should always be encouraged to experiment and learn about Kashrut, but the nature of our movement and contemporary society doesn't give us the latitude to push it on our congregants or enforce it within our community.
Bennet Miller Argues that "Several Generations of youths have shared in the JOY of reciting birkat hamazon after meals... Birkat has become a staple of Reform Practice." (p 422)
What is the source? There is no citation for this argument. Again, I think we're touching on one of our favorite subjects, the elite vs. common person. I don't know as it IS actually a staple of Reform practice.
Should Reform Jews bless? Sure, but that's because I think of God as the source. But what about the person that does not. Again, in Bennet Miller's article we find the statement that "Saying motzi or one of the other blessings before eating should heighten our sense of social justice regarding our responsibility for the care of the earth and the workers who have labored to take the raw products from the earth to the table." (p421) Here, God is taken out. I think this might do a disservice to the original meaning/reason for the blessing, but it might bring in those that don't believe in God.
To tackle the fasting issue, there is something to be said for having only one for-realsies 24 hour fast. There's something special about only doing it on the one day and by the end of it you literally feel like the gates are closing and you may or not make it. And when you do, and you get to eat again, it's amazing.
To add in 4 more fasts in the year, might detract from that experience.
Is it ironic that Reform Jews are the ones seeking rational reasons to keep a mitzvah that traditional Jews consider as on of the mitzvot that does not necessarily have a rational answer? I wonder sometimes if we get so carried away with our deliberate, focused search for meaning, we miss the meaning one could find if we just simply engaged with the commandment.
I know that Reform Judaism prides itself on commitment though choice but I’m not sure much comes out of the experimentation as suggested by Kosher Nostra unless we give people a set of guidelines to work within. And if we are uncomfortable with the traditional guidelines, don’t we owe it to our community to provide an alternative?
I haven't yet found anything on PREPARATION rituals. I did, however, run across this little gem...
"The dietary laws must find their first expression in the home, and the Jewish woman must be their exponent. The observance of these laws should be a matter of importance and peculiar pride to every mother who seeks for her family those moral values that their observance tends to produce. To neglect them is to ignore an effective aid in character building..."
Deborah Melamed, The Three Pillars: Thought, Worship and Practice for the Jewish Woman (New York: The National Women's LEague of the United Synagogue of America, 1927), P. 41
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