Non-Observant Jews Try Going Kosher For A Week

The title says it all. And because this is a BuzzFeed video, the opportunity to promote knowledge and understanding was sacrificed for the sake of LOLs. Basically, BuzzFeed got a group of 6 Jews to agree to spend a week eating only Kosher food. To help them along they provided a two-page guide on the laws of Kashrut. The results were predictably ridiculous of course. I mean, first of all, this took place in New York City – a place with almost endless kosher options, unprecedented in history and yet instead of eating in a Kosher restaurant, these folks ate in regular restaurants while trying not to eat anything blatantly unkosher. Of course anything cooked in a restaurant that isn’t certified kosher, is not kosher. The guy trying to get the kosher menu at Starbucks was also ridiculous. Jews that keep kosher know that most of the drinks sold at Starbucks as well as some of the food, is actually kosher. Check out kosherstarbucks.com for more details.

But what really got lost in all this, was any understanding of what Kashrut is all about. I like to believe that all the rules are there for a reason. Two pages of rules doesn’t even come close to the actual width and breadth of discussion and regulation regarding kosher dietary laws as well as the reasoning behind them and their application. Whatever the case may be, everything related to the consumption of food in Judaism systematically allows one to be more thoughtful about said food. Followed properly, the laws of Kashrut allow one to contemplate the origin of the food, the method of its production and even the amount you eat. Once you take all this into account, you can’t help but be awed by, well, everything! About all the effort that went into bringing the food to your table, the natural order of things that even allows for the existence of food – and everything else! Your average Jew that follows the laws of Kashrut will, by definition, be more thoughtful about his or her consumption and will ideally make more informed and ethical decisions regarding food consumption.

You don’t get any of that in this video. But it is kind of funny so… yeah.

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