Notes From The Great Kashrus Experiment

Funny how things come full circle.

I grew up in a kosher home and struggled with a more liberal definition of what I could eat. 

I remember the first time I ate pizza from “the outside.” It “tasted” so good to be “free,” but you know what it wasn’t even good! (Ben Yehuda pizza fresh from the oven – WOW!)

So my kids grew up in a kosher home, but we weren’t “fanatical about hechshers” if the ingredients were kosher. We ate out, just kept it vegetarian and no trafe fish.

Of course all this hassle is partly because outside NY/NJ your kosher choices are limited. Super limited. But it’s also a bit of rebellion.

Now it seems worthwhile to keep more strict kashrut at home. So that my kids can eat with us.

Oh and also because my daughter Rebecca said to me, flat out, “I don’t want to hear about any more ‘613s’ unless you do something to be more religious.” 

In the big scheme of things, what exactly is so hard about labeling one pot milchig, one fleishig and one pareve again?

Nothing unless you have the mindset of a kid: “Nobody gonna tell me what to do.”

Uh, that ship has sailed! Lots of people do in fact tell me what to do every day and that my dear is called LIFE.

So, at this time we have achieved partial victory, in the form of a kashered oven & microwave. (Even if we have to re-kasher the microwave after reheating food from the outside.)

Next up: THE GREAT TOIVEL. 

Thank you HaShem for the great blessing of life and the chance to learn on this Earth.

I enjoyed making Shabbos food last night.

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By Dannielle (Dossy) Blumenthal, Ph.D. All opinions are the author’s own. This blog is hereby released into the public domain.

– By Dannielle Blumenthal, Ph.D.