WOODCLIFF LAKE, N.J.—Fourth-grade religious school students of Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley took to the road in advance of Purim and Passover to visit Acme Markets and learn firsthand how to select products that are kosher for the home.
Food that may be consumed according to halakha (Jewish law) is termed kosher. The word comes from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term for fit, proper, or correct—as in fit for consumption.
The dietary law harks from the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy and is an important element in the foundation of Orthodox Jewish life.
(We’ve got you, fellow word lovers: The opposite of kosher is treif, which derives from the Hebrew for “torn.”)
Rather than learn this law only from books and lectures, the kids experience kashrut, the act of keeping kosher, via an active curriculum devised by Rabbi Shelley Kniaz, the Temple’s director of Congregational Education.
According to TEPV spokeswoman Simone Wilker, once the children have learned which animals the Torah deems kosher and which non-kosher, they sort stuffed animals accordingly—one group sorting land animals and the other water animals.
Next, she said, they examine how rabbinic law developed based on Torah verses—such as the separation of milk and meat deriving from the prohibition against seething a kid in its mother’s milk, or how to slaughter an animal as painlessly as possible—and discuss the philosophical underpinnings of these rabbinic enactments.
“For example, they learn an aspect of kindness to animals, being aware of their feelings and needs,” she said.
Focusing on the Torah’s only explicit reason for keeping kosher—that it makes the practitioner holy—the students discuss the benefits of self-discipline in other arenas, such as training for a sport or learning to play piano, she added.
Wilker said the children, prepared with a shopping list and budget, put their lessons into practice on a field trip to Acme to look for kosher symbols on common products to identify kosher-certified ingredients.
(There are dozens of symbols that indicate something is kosher. Each symbol, known as a hechsher, comes from a different organization or rabbi.)
Then arguably the best part: They prepared and cooked a Sunday brunch for their parents.
Food features prominently in Jewish traditions. Passover, which has its own food and product rules, was celebrated April 19–27 this year.
The holiday, which centers on the seder—a feast that includes reading, drinking wine, telling stories, eating special foods, and singing—involves a retelling of the story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt.
According to Judaism 101, approximately three-quarters of all prepackaged foods have some kind of kosher certification and most major brands have reliable Orthodox certification.
The process of certification does not involve a rabbi “blessing” the food, the site says; “rather, it involves examining the ingredients used to make the food, examining the process by which the food is prepared, and periodically inspecting the processing facilities to make sure that kosher standards are maintained.”
According to Acme Store Manager Mike Winschuh, “It’s very helpful for the young children to see how many regular items already are kosher.”
He said young shoppers—and their parents and grandparents—sometimes are surprised to learn that they’re paying too much for products—and fine products though they are—that are playing up the Passover or kosher appeal.
“Some brands you think of as kosher—for example, Manischewitz, Kedem, and Streit’s—have the exact same kosher certification that other brands have, and those often cost a lot less,” he said.
“In reality, 90 percent of the grocery department comes in kosher. You just have to look for the marking on the can, the box, or the bottle,” he added.
For many families, however, the brand is part of the tradition. Manischewitz is the wine; Kedem is the grape juice; Streit’s Matzos are the unleavened bread of the Torah.
But take it from the fourth-graders: Shop around for extra credit.