Scribe, ut possis cum voles dicere: dices cum velle debebis (Pl. Ep. 6.29)

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

People Speaking - Bread

— "Say, the kosher supervisor at the dining room downstairs ... is he there all the time?"

— "He's not there all the time, but he's there when it's necessary. Why, did you see something ... ?"

— "No. I just can't keep eating nothing but bread all the time."

— "Yes. It is not healthy."

— "That's right. I'll add some vegetables."

There you go: Concern over religious dietary laws indeed makes some people quasivegetarian.

There's also another serious side. The interesting thing is that the person in question is concerned not with the kashruth of the food proper but with the big picture: According to him, the kashruth supervision itself is mostly fine as far as the food goes, but the community of eaters is sinful. And he's not talking about sinners like me, but about the strict orthodox Jews who will go a long way to only eat chicken that was slaughtered under the supervision of their favorite rabbi, but wouldn't care if - just for example! - the employees of the kitchen would me mistreated by the employer. This makes the whole kitchen non-kosher. If you ask me - this is orthodoxy at its very best (inter-believer feuds notwithstanding).

N.B.: I'm not claiming that any employee is mistreated in this company, this was just a hypothetical example.

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