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Many years ago I studied Judaism at a reform congregation. I am considering resuming studies and attending services. Over the years I have met and asked many Jewish people their thoughts on the dietary laws today - none of them Orthodox, though. Some kept kosher pretty strictly, some only kept kosher at home but ate whatever they wanted outside of the home, some didn't care at all and ate whatever they wanted, some only observed the dietary rules at Passover.
What are your thoughts and experiences on the function of the dietary laws today? Do you observe them strictly, loosely, at all?
For all Jews, the laws are obligatory. Some Jews meets their Torah obligations, and as you noted, some do not.
With regards to the "function" of dietary laws, they do not need one. G-d told us, so we do it. To assign a "function" to any of the 613 mitzvahs runs the danger of becoming a heretical activity. But some will say the "function" of dietary laws is to keep the Jews from marrying non-Jews. There is clearly a correlation between keeping kosher and avoiding intermarriage.
I keep kosher, and find it to be quite fulfilling. I don't know what the purpose of it is (the dietary laws belong in a group of laws without explanation), but I get a lot out of it.
And my recent move to Long Island has made it much easier to do. I drove out to a customer site in Brooklyn this morning, and passed through several Jewish neighborhoods including Crown Heights. There were kippot and kosher food everywhere.
I keep kosher, and find it to be quite fulfilling. I don't know what the purpose of it is (the dietary laws belong in a group of laws without explanation), but I get a lot out of it.
And my recent move to Long Island has made it much easier to do. I drove out to a customer site in Brooklyn this morning, and passed through several Jewish neighborhoods including Crown Heights. There were kippot and kosher food everywhere.
I keep kosher, and find it to be quite fulfilling. I don't know what the purpose of it is (the dietary laws belong in a group of laws without explanation), but I get a lot out of it.
And my recent move to Long Island has made it much easier to do. I drove out to a customer site in Brooklyn this morning, and passed through several Jewish neighborhoods including Crown Heights. There were kippot and kosher food everywhere.
I didn't know you had moved. Mazel tov! I bet it's quite the change, for the better!
I didn't know you had moved. Mazel tov! I bet it's quite the change, for the better!
Thank you! And it is quite a change. I took a promotion at work that is based on Long Island, and we moved the family up here. It was time for me to get out of the field, and this is a career move within my company.
Our second day here, the friends we're staying with took my wife and I to a kosher grocery store in Queens; it's the first time I've ever gone into a building (other than a synagogue) and not been the only person wearing a kippah. I still think I'm in shock.
the Jews were given the Torah after all the other nations were offered it and refused because they didn't like what it told them to do. the jews said "na'aseh v'nish'ima" we will do and we will hear. We will do what the Torah asks us to, and after doing so we will hear and learn more about the many benefits of observance
the key part is doing first
we keep the mitzvot, including the dietary laws, because that is what we agreed to do when we were given the Torah on Har Sinai
yes i keep the dietary laws i am an observant Jew. i trust G-d, I trust the Torah, I trust that whatever the mitzvot tell me to do is for the good of my Jewish soul, for the good of the Jewish people, and brings G-d great delight. i will only ever know or learn a tiny sliver of all the depth and richness and beauty of Torah. but the dietary laws (like all the mitzvot) bind me to G-d, and that is where I want to be
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