GEN1544 Eating is a visceral experience. It not only sustains our bodies, but also leaves an imprint on our psyches. Eating is obviously a basic necessity to sustain life, yet eating is also deeply connected to identity. What we eat and what we refrain from eating says a great deal about who we are and how we understand ourselves in relation to other Jews and other human beings. In Torah we have clear regulations about which animals and fish may be consumed and which are prohibited (Leviticus 11, Deuteronomy 14). Historically the dietary laws (kashrut) have been a way of encouraging Jewish social intercourse and limiting interaction with non-Jews. Dietary rules create boundaries. This is well illustrated when Joseph eats with his brothers before he reveals his true identity to them. The text says [this verse]. Kashrut has played a significant role in connecting Jews to one another and achieving a sense of common identity. However, disputes about kashrut have created divisions within the Jewish community regarding the creation of boundary lines distinguishing one stream from another or one school of interpretation from the other. Decisions about dietary restrictions are often grounded in the philosophy of a particular stream. The best and clearest example comes from classical Reform Judaism and its 1885 Pittsburgh Platform with its thoroughgoing universalism and its rejection of bodily mitzvot. In rejecting peoplehood, the rejection of kashrut makes complete sense. Classical Reformers understood how important the dietary laws had been to the past formulations of Judaism and that the new Judaism they were creating required a radical change to symbolize the new philosophy: “We hold that all such Mosaic and Rabbinic laws as regulate diet, priestly purity, and dress originated in ages and under the influence of ideas entirely foreign to our present mental and spiritual state. They fail to impress the modern Jew with a spirit of priestly holiness; their observance in our days is apt rather to obstruct than to further modern spiritual elevation.” [“The Pittsburgh Platform,” 1885, www.ccarnet.org.] (By Peter Knobel, “What I Eat Is Who I Am: Kashrut and Identity”)