Late night...Phone?
*yawns* I was up until 3:00 AM again on the phone, a rather non awkward conversation, that seemed to take a twist into the disturbing realms of...disturbinglikethings.
Anyway, I woke up today, and I began my daily dose of education, and about 10 minutes into it, my father tells me that we are going into town for something. To which I am fine with, I stop school, pack everything, and after I am nearly through packing, he changes his mind, and here I am :<.
Anyway, tonight is some dinner thing at a new restaurant my sister is working at. Apparently employees' families can come and eat for free at this establishment for the grand opening. Or maybe it isn't open yet, and we get a sneak peak, who knows. To continue my actual point, I do not eat out obviously. There are some serious codes of eating that I apply myself to, which cannot be applied at restaurants. Unless of course they were certified kosher, which I guarantee they are not ;). Not even the restaurant entitled "Lamed" is kosher, and it has a Hebrew letter on the front of the place! Anyway, putting aside the laws of not eating pork, and other unclean related items; The food must be slaughtered a certain way (Laws of Shechita). This includes the least painful method possible of slaughtering, and it is fairly cleanly, and least detrimental to the animal. We are commanded to "Slaughter the animals by which I have commanded you", so that's what we go by. You can read more about Shechita here.
Now not only to put those aside, there are the laws on separating meat and dairy from each other. They cannot be cooked together, they cannot be on the same plate together, and they cannot be eaten together. There are endless reasons why eating out at a restaurant is just not something I can do, so therein lays my dilemma. I couldn't eat meat at a restaurant, I couldn't eat dairy products, and I couldn't eat anything if they were cooked or designed in the same section/compartment as meat and dairy are.
Yet my sister wants me to attend this event.
She informs me that the salads they make are for vegetarians, so they are made in a separate section, and no meat or dairy touches them however. So this is relieving, I may actually eat a salad. However that leads me to another problem: The dishes. If the dishes had ever been used for some other purpose that was unclean, that would render the dishes unclean, and my food unclean.
Not to mention that, but my parents want me to invite a friend, and the only rurally close friend I have keeps the same laws I do. I can see where it would be different for me to eat the food, having been referred that it was clean, 100% as my sister tells me, but for ME to refer someone else, would take that guarantee that I have not personally inspected, and then I would have to tell my friend that I know it is kosher, when I don't know firsthand.
This is an example of how my life goes everyday, for those of you interested. Living in a religious, but not strict household, whilst trying to keep the Torah is not something I would wish on the weak hearted. It's also rather interesting, to be able to have a discussion every day with someone who has studied Torah for over thirty years. But I don't understand how things end up being so one dimensional. A congregation that has lessened in numbers down to merely two and a half families, from nearly 70 people, moving in a direction that seems to be walking backward for me, where do I fit? Where are the people that I know? That I can agree on, that love me for me, and don't think I am some oddball who always wears a knee length suit and a black hat? I just explained last week that everyone is in their own stage, according to Romans 14. So for them, they may be just fine where they are at, because they just can't go any further right now. But for me, where is my path? When do I take the next step and decide what is right for me?
The Talmud lines out clearly what has happened in my life.
According to the Talmud, a father should teach his son a trade, so that he would not have to learn it on his own. Which seems logical, would you not say?
It's a mirror image for what has happened to me, and I have been told that is how I was raised. I was placed decisions in front of me, and expected to choose the right ones. I was never told to pick this or that, and when I made the wrong ones, I learned from that, and I gained the insight and logical not to do it again.
So that is what has happened here. Well over ten years I observed what was happening around me, and I decided to take the next step. And once I have done that, I have stepped out of my house, and I have stepped out of my place. It's not a wrong place to be, it's just a difficult road to walk.
Anyway, I woke up today, and I began my daily dose of education, and about 10 minutes into it, my father tells me that we are going into town for something. To which I am fine with, I stop school, pack everything, and after I am nearly through packing, he changes his mind, and here I am :<.
Anyway, tonight is some dinner thing at a new restaurant my sister is working at. Apparently employees' families can come and eat for free at this establishment for the grand opening. Or maybe it isn't open yet, and we get a sneak peak, who knows. To continue my actual point, I do not eat out obviously. There are some serious codes of eating that I apply myself to, which cannot be applied at restaurants. Unless of course they were certified kosher, which I guarantee they are not ;). Not even the restaurant entitled "Lamed" is kosher, and it has a Hebrew letter on the front of the place! Anyway, putting aside the laws of not eating pork, and other unclean related items; The food must be slaughtered a certain way (Laws of Shechita). This includes the least painful method possible of slaughtering, and it is fairly cleanly, and least detrimental to the animal. We are commanded to "Slaughter the animals by which I have commanded you", so that's what we go by. You can read more about Shechita here.
Now not only to put those aside, there are the laws on separating meat and dairy from each other. They cannot be cooked together, they cannot be on the same plate together, and they cannot be eaten together. There are endless reasons why eating out at a restaurant is just not something I can do, so therein lays my dilemma. I couldn't eat meat at a restaurant, I couldn't eat dairy products, and I couldn't eat anything if they were cooked or designed in the same section/compartment as meat and dairy are.
Yet my sister wants me to attend this event.
She informs me that the salads they make are for vegetarians, so they are made in a separate section, and no meat or dairy touches them however. So this is relieving, I may actually eat a salad. However that leads me to another problem: The dishes. If the dishes had ever been used for some other purpose that was unclean, that would render the dishes unclean, and my food unclean.
Not to mention that, but my parents want me to invite a friend, and the only rurally close friend I have keeps the same laws I do. I can see where it would be different for me to eat the food, having been referred that it was clean, 100% as my sister tells me, but for ME to refer someone else, would take that guarantee that I have not personally inspected, and then I would have to tell my friend that I know it is kosher, when I don't know firsthand.
This is an example of how my life goes everyday, for those of you interested. Living in a religious, but not strict household, whilst trying to keep the Torah is not something I would wish on the weak hearted. It's also rather interesting, to be able to have a discussion every day with someone who has studied Torah for over thirty years. But I don't understand how things end up being so one dimensional. A congregation that has lessened in numbers down to merely two and a half families, from nearly 70 people, moving in a direction that seems to be walking backward for me, where do I fit? Where are the people that I know? That I can agree on, that love me for me, and don't think I am some oddball who always wears a knee length suit and a black hat? I just explained last week that everyone is in their own stage, according to Romans 14. So for them, they may be just fine where they are at, because they just can't go any further right now. But for me, where is my path? When do I take the next step and decide what is right for me?
The Talmud lines out clearly what has happened in my life.
According to the Talmud, a father should teach his son a trade, so that he would not have to learn it on his own. Which seems logical, would you not say?
It's a mirror image for what has happened to me, and I have been told that is how I was raised. I was placed decisions in front of me, and expected to choose the right ones. I was never told to pick this or that, and when I made the wrong ones, I learned from that, and I gained the insight and logical not to do it again.
So that is what has happened here. Well over ten years I observed what was happening around me, and I decided to take the next step. And once I have done that, I have stepped out of my house, and I have stepped out of my place. It's not a wrong place to be, it's just a difficult road to walk.
that conversation was so unawkward it isn't even funny. And that totally sucks about your family and kosher and such. But as they say...what doesn't kill ya makes ya stronger. :p
It should have at least been mildly awkward. Oh well.
Yeah, I mean I give them props certainly for at least not eating pork and unclean animals.
And you're right. :).