Jewish Inconsistency
Blogger SarahK, who is a Christian, has discovered Jewish inconsistency:
buy pork, get a free Hanukkah card
this is not a joke.
i was at Publix today, and i noticed the man behind me in line was buying a Hanukkah card. then i noticed he had a big package of pork ribs. right next to the card. in fact, i think the two were touching.
i wanted so badly to burst out laughing. i looked at the man with a suppressed grin on my face. he didn’t look amused, and i thought he might be packin’, so i just said hi and turned around.
I’d think it was funny too, if it weren’t so sad. The sad fact is, a disturbingly small percentage of Jews actually keep kosher. A generous estimate would be 20-25% — it could be lower. If I wanted to put a positive spin on this, I’d say that at least the fellow was “connected enough” with his Jewish heritage to be sending a card for a Jewish holiday — even if Hanukkah cards themselves are somewhat of an adaptation of a non-Jewish tradition. (Traditionally, if Jews send cards we send them for Rosh Hashanna, not Hannukah. No doubt Hannukah cards exists merely because there is a Christian tradition to send cards around that time of year.)
Before any Christians reading this get too smug about Jews not being so “Jewish,” don’t forget that a lot of the people who’ll be celebrating Christmas this year are thinking more about presents and days off than about “the reason for the season.” A lot of “Christians” are no more Christian than a lot of Jews are “Jewish.” (The only difference is where we put the quotation marks — we Jews still consider a Jew to be a Jew even if he or she doesn’t actually believe in or practice Judaism, whereas — if I understand correctly — one who is born into a Christian family and celebrates Christmas is not considered a Christian unless he or she actually believes in the doctrines of Christianity.)
It’s a sad thing all around — at least for those of us who take our respective religions seriously.
(See also my next post.)
December 8th, 2005 at 12:29 am
Is SarahK sure that he was Jewish? Perhaps he was a Christian buying a Hannukah card for a friend or a co-worker..
Which would also explain why he didn’t get the joke.
December 8th, 2005 at 11:09 am
I suppose that is possible. If we wanted to know, the question would be, are more Hannukah cards bought by non-Jews, or by Jews who eat pork? Given the rates of kosher observance, I’d guess it’s the latter — but I admit that’s just a guess.
The overall points I was trying to make are (1) that Christians generally assume that Jews observe the basic, well-known precepts of Judaism — and that while that ought to be a realistic assumption, it unfortunately isn’t. And (2), Christians are more likely to spot the inconsistencies in Jewish behavior than (at least non-observant) Jews are.
Two more cases in point: My college roommate, an American-raised Hindu, was traveling in India after visiting relatives, and he encountered some Israeli tourists. After much conversation, he asked what they were doing for kosher food in India. They were shocked at the question.
Second: A non-Jewish co-worker just yesterday told me about a Bar Mitzvah she once attended at which the food was quite obviously (even to a non-Jew) non-kosher. She saw the irony in this, though apparently the hosts didn’t, or they would have served kosher food.
In a certain sense, serving non-kosher food at a Bar or Bat Mitzvah is even worse than serving it at other times. Why? Normally, Jews who eat non-kosher food are probably doing so out of ignorance (either of what’s kosher or of how important keeping kosher is), or mere laziness, since it takes some effort to check your food. But everyone knows that a Bar or Bat Mitzvah is supposed to be a celebration of a child reaching the age of Jewish adulthood, at which he or she is personally responsible for observing the commandments — and to celebrate that by immediately and publicly violating those commandments is not just laziness or weakness, it’s hypocrisy — if not outright rebellion.
The fact that (religious) non-Jews are more likely to spot the contradiction than Jews are is one of the great Jewish tragedies of our times.
December 8th, 2005 at 2:03 pm
Could it be that the man is indeed a religous Jew, but is also an inteligent human being who, though thankful that the ommission of pork from the diet of his ancestors has allowed his very existence, is now fairly confident in current technologies and practices that will protect him from Trichinosis, the food-borne disease caused by a microscopic parasite that the now obsolete tradition of not eating pork was designed to protect him from.
December 8th, 2005 at 2:10 pm
Dave: On what basis do you claim that the tradition of not eating pork was designed to protect him from trichinosis?
December 8th, 2005 at 2:46 pm
Religions besides being explanations of our origins are most often acompanied by a set of rules by which to live our lives. That set of rules is in almost all cases writen during a time when the masses derive nearly all of their knowledge from the books or clergy of their religion. The wise men who compiled this knowledge would see problems in society and write this set of rules accordingly. “People are killing eachother so we will say g-d would prefer they did not.” “People are stealing so we will say go-d would prefer they did not.” etc.
By delivering these messages in the name of the almighty the problems of society could be controlled. Luckily these writers were also historians and scientists of sorts and could infer trends such as; people seem to be getting sick when eating particular foods or improperly prepared foods. And so with G-d as their “Surgeon General” they issued warnings in the one place they knew everyone would read/hear and follow them.
“Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth.”
It was smart and probably saved millions of lives and was largely what religion was for… to protect and control “the CHILDREN of Israel.”
December 8th, 2005 at 3:04 pm
Dave: That’s all the standard atheist explanation of how religion came about, but in this case you have (at least) one problem: When those rules were first promulgated, no one had ever heard of trichinosis. There no “germ theory of disease.” It was something like 3,000 years before Louis Pasteur. Furthermore, trichinosis may well be associated with pigs, but it’s not associated with shellfish, birds of prey, camel meat, or any of the other foods prohibited by those same rules. Plus, even if you claim that all non-kosher meats are (or were) unhealthy, what about the prohibition of eating meat and milk products together? Even if a burger is perfectly kosher, and a piece of cheese is perfectly kosher, once you put them together to make a cheeseburger, it’s not kosher anymore. What disease (ancient or modern) is prevented by prohibiting cheeseburgers?
(This is, of course, putting aside your claim that the clergy generally do not believe in their religions. Is there any evidence you can cite to back this up?)
December 8th, 2005 at 3:52 pm
You are making the classic mistake of assuming that ancient people were not inteligent. They were infact more inteligent than most of us. You do not need any knowledge of biochemistry, germ theory of disease or sterilization to spot trends. Give the “creators” of the religion more credit. They were smart enough to make docile a rabble of diseased, murdering thieves (I kid, mostly.) Why are the other meats thrown in? Perhaps a byproduct of their inexact science. Perhaps they decided better safe than sorry.
As far as meat and dairy here is a quote from http://www.jewfaq.org:
“For example, there is some evidence that eating meat and dairy together interferes with digestion, and no modern food preparation technique reproduces the health benefit of the kosher law of eating them separately.”
Remember, this is not black and white. I am NOT saying Rabbis got together and said “we will make a fake book to rule the masses.” I am saying they incorporated rules into writings they held in very high regard to help their community. These rules of course also serve other non-health related purposes. They teach discipline and test faith and provide an every day reminder of the religion itself.
Most importantly give the ancients more credit. The Egyptians(and their slaves) built the pyrimids, the Babylonian’s did Calculus and the founders of judaism knew pork could kill you.
December 12th, 2005 at 2:42 am
actually, i assumed that he was not Jewish but was buying a Hanukkah card for a Jewish friend or relative. i just thought it funny that he was buying both items on the same ticket.
December 12th, 2005 at 2:52 am
SarahK: Thanks for clearing that up.
And, in a very odd way, I’m flattered that you took time out from your post-wedding bliss to comment on my blog! Either that, or I’m worried you’ve gone completely bonkers!
Congrats to you and FrankJ!