The Kosher Laws

You may wonder what makes these recipes Jewish because, at first glance, they don’t appear any different from similar Greek, Turkish, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish recipes. What sets them apart is that although they are the dishes of these countries, they are made in accordance with kashrut, the dietary laws that govern the kosher kitchen. The story persists that these dietary laws came about as a health measure, that they were to prevent the Jews from eating foods that were unclean. This was not the primary basis for them, however. The rabbis of the Talmudic period were content to cite the Bible when explaining the dietary laws, making holiness the only reason for adherence to them. The twelfth-century philosopher Maimonides, in seeking a rationale for the dietary laws, surmised that they “train us to master our appetites, to accustom us to restrain our desires; and to avoid considering the pleasure of eating and drinking as the goal of man’s existence.” Those of us enamored of the world of food and wine might find it hard to accept this point of view. Others of us, who believe in total permissiveness in the kitchen, see kosher laws as a kind of culinary strait-jacket. But this is a very contemporary point of view. In fact, subscribing to kosher laws brought about great creativity in observant Jewish cooks. Indeed, they joyfully embraced the opportunity to prepare traditional recipes with local ingredients and at the same time stay within kosher boundaries.