God’s Diet: More or Less

Rabbi Dr. Jana L. De Benedetti
Most people are amazed at all the rules I follow when deciding what to eat. I am not talking about watching my calories, or being careful about cholesterol or salt. How can I live in Louisiana – where everyone eats EVERYTHING – when I can’t eat shellfish or pork? Do I really have two sets of dishes, one for dairy and one for meat? (Actually I have four sets, if we count the dairy and meat sets for Passover, but that is something that happens immediately after Lent.)
It is true. I do “keep kosher.” Every time I buy food, or eat food I have to think about it. I have to check the information on the package for everything. Most of the time I have to drive 3 hours each way to Dallas, or all the way to New Orleans to get meat. I won’t have anything dairy with a meat meal, and I won’t cook anything dairy in the same pots as meat, and won’t eat anything dairy on the same dishes that ever had meat on them. I have to remember when I finished my last meat meal before I can eat dairy (and vice versa).
That sounds like an awful lot of trouble for thinking about what food to eat every time I want a meal or even a snack. It doesn’t feel like trouble to me. I do it because “God says so.”
Some people look at the food restriction in the Scriptures and realize that everything that God prohibits is less healthy to eat than the things that God allows. For example, pork and shellfish are more likely to get you sick than chicken – especially before refrigeration, and ovens that allow us to regulate temperature. Animals who scavenge and eat only dead animals have digestive systems that deal with that well – by our digestive systems are not designed for that kind of food. Many people think that God commanded us to eat healthy foods and avoid unhealthy foods. I believe that is obviously true – everything that God commanded was the better alternative and healthier. However, that is not what I think is the reason for the laws about the Scriptural dietary restrictions. I don’t believe that God wanted some people (those who follow the commandments) to eat healthier and everyone else should eat unhealthy food.
I think that if we are dedicating our lives to living a life that God shows us is “holy” then every moment of our lives should be guided by being holy. As a living creature I have to eat to survive. As someone in covenant with God, everything – even basic sustenance – is guided by what God has taught is holy.
I don’t feel deprived by having a restricted choice about what to eat and how to eat. I feel enriched by knowing what I am doing is holy.
I am proud to have been invited to participate in this Lenten blog, but obviously I am here to represent the Jewish part of the Mudhouse Sabbath experience. I wouldn’t presume to teach about the Lenten part. However, it seems similar to think that by giving up something for Lent, each person feels that they are giving of themselves to God. By sacrificing something, each person is showing what is sacred – it is not about the chocolate or alcohol or texting or whatever that someone is giving up, it is about having all of the opportunities when someone would have been reaching for the chocolate, and they now are thinking about God’s involvement in their lives. It is not supposed to be an opportunity to give up something bad (like making a new year’s resolution to be a better person, or exercise, or give up smoking). It is about finding something in your life that takes up your time and your focus, and using that time to focus on God. That is how I feel about keeping kosher. By keeping “God’s diet” I am eating more by eating less. It doesn’t feel like a limitation, but rather an increase. I don’t think about the limitation of foods, but rather the increase of opportunities in my daily life to be thinking about God and doing God’s will.
Another aspect of eating in a holy way (and there are many) includes thanking God for providing our sustenance. Most people who bless the food, or more accurately, thank God for providing the food, say a blessing before they eat. That is wonderful. In Deuteronomy 8:10 we are commanded to also thank God after we eat. It turns out to be a much mellower, thoughtful opportunity to talk to God. Before you eat, you are hungry and thinking about the specifics of how good it will feel to eat the food. After you eat, you can sit back and reflect on food, and living creatures, and comforts, and wishes and desires… and God’s role in the world. Enjoy your food. Try to make God’s diet your own by including God in every food choice you make. You may not decide to abide by the specific restrictions that God gave, but by being aware of God each time you eat, you are making eating a holy thing.