Beth Shalom
Oceanside Jewish Center

A Lament for Rabinowitz
Kashrut, Community and Jewish Identity

Parshat Sh'mini
April 17, 2004  /  26 Nisan 5764

By Rabbi Mark B Greenspan

Many of us were shocked and dismayed this past week to discover that Rabinowitz, our local kosher butcher had gone out of business quite suddenly. After brisk sales on the eve of Pesach, we had no idea that the owners were struggling to make ends meet. This week we found ourselves scurrying to make other arrangements for our pre-Shabbat and post-Passover shopping.

While this may be an inconvenience for some, for me the closing of the only kosher butcher in Oceanside is nothing less than a disaster. While there are many other places to shop on the South Shore of Long Island, I considered Rabinowitz to be an important Jewish institution in our community, no less significant than OJC, Temple Avodah, Young Israel or the JCC. Having a successful kosher butcher in Oceanside was a sign that we are still a thriving Jewish community that can afford to support all the amenities of Jewish life.

While the closing of the butcher may be a product of good old fashion competition and free market enterprise more than anything else, it is also a statement of our lack of support for the Jewish institutions right here in our own community. Brock's or Super Sol in the five towns may have a wider array of kosher products, but I've always felt that we have a responsibility to support the kosher businesses close to home rather than seeking the best price elsewhere.

It's interesting to note that Mordechai Kaplan, the founder of the Reconstructionist Movement, and one of the great Jewish visionaries of the last century, suggested that Jewish communities have a responsibility to support the basic needs of Jewish traditional practice including Kashrut. In his classic work written seventy years ago, Judaism as a Civilization, Kaplan suggested that federations must provide funds for services such as Shochtim, ritual slaughterers, Mashgichim, Kashrut supervisors, and even kosher butcher shops. These institutions are as much a part of Jewish life as support for Jews abroad or providing counseling services here at home. Ironically Kaplan held up the Jewish federations of Pittsburg and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (my former community) as an example of such communal support. Today there is no kosher butcher in Harrisburg.

Of course in the 1930's when Kaplan wrote his great work he believed that Kashrut would soon disappear. Although he was an observant Jew himself, he saw "the writing on the wall.' Only a small minority of Jews continued to observe these traditions in the early part of the twentieth century. Kaplan could not imagine that the kosher food industry would become a profitable and a multimillion dollar industry some day. Today you can get almost anything you want in kosher food from Chinese cuisine to Oreo Cookies.

In the end, however, Kashrut begins at home and it must be supported right here in our own community. I believe the lesson to be learned from the closure of Rabinowitz's is that it takes more than just the Orthodox community to support the Kashrut institutions necessary for a Jewish communal life. Conservative Judaism is committed to Kashrut in theory but we are far too lackadaisical about this important aspect of our tradition. Those who keep Kosher assume that Orthodox Jews will maintain these institutions. The truth is Orthodox Jews can't do so without our support. If we believe Kashrut is an important aspect of Jewish life, then we have to be willing "to put our money where our mouth is.' We must become actively involved in supporting and promoting Kashrut!

Those who belong to Conservative Congregations who don't keep kosher need to think hard about this important aspect of Halachah, Jewish law. Too often they assume that this is something "Orthodox Jews" do, not Conservative Jews. And this is a terrible and a damaging mistake too many of Conservative Jews make.

Did you know that Conservative Judaism began over the issue of Kashrut? Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the infamous "Treifa Banquet" took place which led to the creation of the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Conservative Movement. It was all about Kashrut. The story is that the first graduating class of Hebrew Union College (the bastion of Reform Judaism) was celebrating its ordination in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1885. These were the first ordained Rabbis in America. Rabbi Isaac Meir Wise arranged for a celebratory dinner at a local French restaurant to mark the occasion. When the meal turned out to be unabashedly un-kosher several of the students and professors got up and stormed out shouting, "Treif, treif!" And so the Jewish Theological Seminary was born in New York a few years later!

It's no accident, then, that we're called the Conservative Movement. We are Conservative Jews not because we aren't Orthodox, but because we were trying to conserve and preserve Jewish traditions that fell by the way side in the nascent Reform Movement. We are Conservative Jews because we are committed to Jewish tradition!

Today, of course, some of my best friends are Reform Jews who keep kosher so we are left wondering "Mah Nishtana," what makes us different from them? Indeed, Rabbi Paul Menitoff, the Executive director of the CCAR, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the rabbinic association of the Reform movement, recently suggested that within the next decade or two, Conservative Judaism will disappear as our laity either joins modern Orthodoxy or Reform Judaism. He argued that there is no longer any need for a centrist movement. Beside the fact that Rabbi Menitoff showed tremendous Huzpah in making such public judgments of his sister movements, I think he is completely wrong.

For us, Kashrut is not a convenience but a commandment. The fact that all Conservative Jews don't keep Kosher doesn't mean that they don't feel deep down that this is so. And I know any number of Conservative Jews who now keep kosher homes who did not necessarily grow up in such homes.

What Conservative Judaism offers that I think is lacking in both Orthodoxy and Reform Judaism is a way to aspire toward Kashrut. Judaism need not be all or nothing. There is a ladder of observance that we can climb as a way of constantly increasing and improving our personal observance. Being a Conservative Jew, then, means that you have a commitment to stand on the ladder. Some may be higher up than others but we all hold the standards as something to aspire towards.

In our new Humash, Etz Hayim, we find the following comment: "The dietary laws are given incrementally in the Torah, forbidding boiling a kid in its mother's milk; then prohibiting the ingestion of blood; then declaring certain species of mammal, fish, and fowl unfit for consumption. Similarly, many Jews who begin from a position of limited observance can commit themselves to sanctifying their mealtimes in an incremental manner. "No one need feel like a hypocrite for not keeping all of the commandments immediately." What is important is to be on the path of observance, to be, in the words of Emet Ve-Emumah, a "striving" Jew.

So we Conservative Jews need to get serious about Kashrut. Or in the word of Nike, we need to "Just do it!" If you are not there yet, that's OK; you shouldn't feel threatened or judged. All I ask is that you remain open minded and willing to wrestle with our tradition. What makes Conservative Judaism dynamic is that we're constantly in transition, constantly growing and measuring our lives by the standards of Jewish living. In the words of Franz Rosensweig we are "Not yet" there. We are "not yet" fully Jewish.

And if you're looking for a spiritual discipline to enrich your life, then there is none more powerful than Kashrut. There is no instinct more common than the biological need to consume food. We all do it every day. Kashrut allows us to sanctify the act of eating; it allows us to turn the dinner table into an altar; it gives us the ability to truly embrace the gifts that God has given us so that we take nothing for granted. And keeping Kosher is the single most powerful tool for creating a deep and abiding sense of Jewish identity. Kashrut sanctifies our daily lives and puts us in the presence of God.

Most of all, the more people who keep kosher, the stronger we become as a community. Orthodox Judaism is strong today but without the support and involvement of committed Conservative Jews who keep kosher, I just don't think there are enough people to maintain the institutions necessary for an observant Jewish community. We need to stop demeaning our role and importance in this regard. We have much to contribute and we should keep Kosher on our own terms.

Rabinowitz is gone and I can only hope that we will lure a new kosher butcher into our community. But that depends on you and me.

We need to recognize that this is a fundamental and basic step on the ladder of Jewish life.

Shabbat Shalom

"All it takes to study Torah is an open heart, a curious mind
and a desire to grow a Jewish soul."