Do you know what Kosher means?

Do you know what Kosher means?

All too often, when we speak of Spirituality, we do so using terms and ideas which are common in the society around us, but which are far-afield from  traditional Jewish thought.

For example, let’s take how we talk about food and eating ( and drinking, too) .  Since we know that these are patently-physical acts,  and hence they cannot be spiritual, our common language reflects that attitude.  We “pig out (oink-oink)”, we get “sloshed”, “smashed”, or “bombed”, and search for the smorg “to kill for”.  When we speak like this, the act of eating or drinking cannot but be craven.  For to sanctify something, we must think of it, and then describe it, with expressions of holiness.  Only then will we be able to embue the acts themselves with holiness.

When one of my mentors, Rav Eizik Ausband, shlit”a, would eat with the boys in the Rabbinical College, you knew that food was part of a Divine act.  The Rav never ate a sandwich.  Never did he put a large amount of food in his mouth at one time; the entire act of eating was conducted with circumspection and awareness.  Rav Eizik was mindful of his behavior and endeavored to make the physical  into something simultaneously spiritual.

And what kind of food did Rav Eizik eat?  Kosher food, of course.  But what did that mean? 

So many people think kosher means holy, or blessed.  Isn’t that what the rabbis do when they go visit a factory—bless the food, to make it kosher?

Of course, the answer is no—the Rabbi doesn’t bless the food.  (Actually, he’s an auditor, pure and simple.)  So what does kosher refer to?  What does it mean?

Kosher means ready for its purpose.  It is fit to be used for the mission for which it was created by the Almighty.  Kosher is something which each and every person should strive to be.  It’s not about having accomplished already, its about being prepared to fulfill the goal. 

In Jewish understanding, food is not an end in itself—for it was, eating would be a piggish activity, to die for.  Food is a means to a higher purpose, providing the energy to allow me to rise above my physical body.  Food in Judaism, then, is never the end-in-itself.  It is always there—would our Jewish Grandmother’s ever not let us have another piece of—whatever!—but its raison d’etre is fuel for greatness.

To be kosher is to be ready to blast-off.  Any wonder our food preparations for the overwhelming holiday of Passover take so long?!