I f you think your refined Jewish soul isn’t influenced by what you eat think again. Every time the Torah speaks of kashrus it always includes additional words pertaining to the concepts of holiness and elevation. Because you really are what you eat.
“And the rabbit because it chews its cud and does not have a cloven hoof it is tamei… and the pig because it has a cloven hoof… it is tamei….” (Vayikra 11:7–8).
These two pesukim selected from the Torah portion that spreads out a chart of the animal kingdom and classifies the various species as permissible or forbidden food sources lay the underpinnings for the mitzvah known as kashrus.
Yet the typical member of modern Western society is not comfortable with this mitzvah. “Come on ” he says. “You want to tell me that eating shrimp keeps me from being a good person? Avoiding pepperoni pizza is going to make me more of a mensch? My Jewish identity depends on these ancient laws and rituals that just imprison the human spirit? Shouldn’t religion dwell on loftier matters than what’s for dinner? Isn’t it true that man is not defiled by what enters his mouth but rather by what comes out?”
