Sarah Kirsch 
What is Kosher? 

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject American Studies – Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1, 7, Ruhr-University of Bochum, course: Jewish Immigrant Culture & Literature, language: English, abstract: In most germanic languages the word “kosher” is used very often and a common word. In German for example, something that is not kosher, is something that is not trusted in or does not seem to be right. On the other hand most people seem to have heard, that kosher has something to do with eating rules in Judaism, but do not know many further details. In fact the word means in hebrew “clean” and “pure”. Jews, though, do not only use the term “kosher” in connection with their eating rules. So the question is, what does a Jew mean when about talking about this purity? In order to understand the eating rules better, we first need to look at a part of the jewish religious philosophy.

Compared to Christianity Jews do not have any kind of asceticism. That means there is no celibacy in Judaism. They do not have monasteries or monks. In Judaism everything is seen as a gift given to us by God. Jews try to enjoy these gifts by making them holy thrugh certain rules. Jews try to make things, which are part of the human nature and which are done everyday, holy and something special. They do not only do this in order to serve God, but also to draw a line between humans and animals. The rules for a kosher living help Jews to make common things holy in everyday life.