Why Bother To Keep Kosher, to Eat Kosher

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                        

                Myself and my brother back a few years, Dr. David Alan Goldfoot, psychologist, who I was very proud of.  He had also been the Jr.  Rose Festival Prime Minister at age 10, and I had him on our Lewis & Clark float for the parade as the future football player..I was the 8 years older big sister.

I'm a Conservative Jew, brought up in Conservatism at Neveh Zedek Synagogue in Portland, Oregon, a middle of the road type of Judaism, not really Orthodox to the letter nor only the barest of Jewish history and practice.  Conservatives have been known to lean either way.  Coming from only Sunday School education and very little from my mother who converted to Judaism since she had married a Jewish man who had a very Orthodox-immigrant from Lithuania mother and deceased father who died here in Portland, it's a wonder I even stayed Jewish in today's world, let alone follow kashrut or not.                          

Elements reminding us of our duty:  2 candles, Challah, grape wine, torah, kippah, apples, honey, pomegranates:Pomegranates are native to the region and are celebrated as one of the biblical Seven Species of the Land of Israel. Tradition teaches that a standard pomegranate contains 613 seeds, which matches the 613 mitzvot (commandments) in the Torah. When eating it during the holiday meal, it is customary to recite a prayer asking that "our merits increase like the seeds of a pomegranate." All ritualistic food is used to teach us a moral lesson. We have large seders (dinners) the lesson, soup to nuts.   

   Time to make sure you have asked others to forgive you for ???

Rosh Hashana is coming to us on the 11th of September. Being 92 on the 5th does have it's drawbacks and it's accomplishments, too.  I may not make it to a Synagogue, but there are things I can do otherwise, even find much on TV like a service or two, at least a Reformed one.  Here he is, blowing a code announcing to come to the Synagogue.                           

Shlomo Goren was a Polish-born Israeli rabbi and Talmudic scholar. An Orthodox Jew and Religious Zionist, he was considered a foremost rabbinical legal authority on matters of Jewish religious law.

                   from Rabbi Shlomo Goren:  Rabbi Shlomo Goren (1918–1994) was a leading Israeli Orthodox rabbi, Talmudic scholar, and the founder of the Israel Defense Forces Military Rabbinate. He served as the Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1973 to 1983 and is famously remembered for blowing the shofar at the Western Wall during the 1967 Six-Day War. 

I was fascinated with our religion, our history and our holidays.  I stayed in Sunday school until about age 15 when they decided to make me a teacher.  My father, Moses "Moshe" Goldfoot,  had been a kosher butcher before I was born, and then continued with this skill by opening his own slaughter house which led to his own business called Lincoln Wholesale Meats.  Dad had even become a boxer at the Neighborhood House in his early days, well known in the community for that and for meats.  For a man who only finished his junior year in high school, he had a fantastic head for business, so put me to work as his accountant as soon as I could drive at 16.  We never considered kosher food in our house;  my dad was not following the precepts, never was bar-mitzvahed since he had entered school at age 4, trailing his 6 year old brother, Charlie, and the teacher had kicked him out, both, I believe ! That's when their father, Natan, was killed in a horse-wagon accident.   Today that would not have happened. 

I finally had come to realize, while making my way as an Elementary School teacher, who I was and what I was to become, eventually.  I made aliyah to Israel and lived there for 5years and a few months, becoming  a dual citizen;  returning for personal reasons, and started blogging when I retired to defend Israel.  I researched and wrote of the deepest elements I could go into our great history, as well as modern day events and issues pertaining to Israel. That's been my life;  sharing with others the cool facts that I've found about our historic epic being on this planet that goes back so far, that was written by Moses himself, says our rabbis that is found as the Old Testament, the Bible, what we call the Tanakh.   

I realized how clever it was that Moses had us follow such kashrut laws about food;  how it kept us for over 2,000 years keep the the laws which kept us practicing Judaism and being Jewish, and when I say that, I think of the Golden rule, Don't do to others that which you don't want to happen to you, and all the rest is commentary.  

By giving up on the kosher laws, we let go of Judaism's morality.  That's how we differ from other religions;  we were given moral precepts to follow  that kept us mentally hooked into Judaism.  Let go of the first and you lose eventually the second, or your children will lose it.  Then they will see themselves as not being any different from others eating a hamburger with a milkshake or having a ham sandwich.  And hopefully there will not be much difference, but eventually, like in these days, I am seeing a lot of differences. So naturally, living in an Assisted Living Center and being the Jewish Bubba of Portland, I follow as best as I can and as much as I can humanely as I can do.  Yes, it does keep me on my toes!  

The proof is that most all immigrant Jews to the USA were Orthodox, but their descendants have a large number of Reform.  Reform Judaism is the largest denomination of American Jews, with roughly 33% to 37% of the estimated 7.5 million U.S. Jewish population identifying with the movement, translating to about 2.5 to 2.8 million people  .About 9% of U.S. Jews identify as Orthodox, equating to roughly 675,000 individuals out of an estimated total U.S. Jewish population of 7.5 million.  According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 1.5 million adults in the United States identify as Jews of "no religion" (unaffiliated with a specific religion, but identifying as Jewish ethnically, culturally, or by family background).

What I feel is that we were given these laws that had a long term affect on us and our mind and attitude toward people and life itself, the value of life, the purpose of life.   It also gives me a sense of accomplishment.  

So if there are any readers out there who I have slighted or hurt in any way, I am truly sorry. I will work on improving.