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Recovering Judaism And Living Kosher

[additional-authors]
August 22, 2014

By Rabbi Mark Borovitz

WHAT IS FITTING AND PROPER?

This question haunts me each day, each week, each month and each year. It is especially present today as I reviewed the Weekly Torah Portion and read about Kashrut.

Kashrut is usually associated with food and, in my search for recovering Judaism, I know that it means what is Kosher, fitting and proper, in all aspects of living. This is so hard at times when I have forces competing for my time. These include family, work, community, self, etc. To truly live fully, which is the ultimate in living fitting and proper, I have to be engaged in all of the above. Yet, it seems so difficult at times.

What is the Kosher way of relating to Israel? What is the Kosher path of relating to my daughters, my wife, my siblings, my mother? What is the Kosher amount of time and energy I put into my work, my studies, my students, my friends, etc.?

While there are no stock or pat answers to these questions, what I have come to realize is that asking them is paramount to finding the solutions. Engaging in questions and learning allows me to be constantly invigorated and nourished, as well as less frustrated with my limitations and the limitations of others.

Living a Kosher life is what I am always striving for. I don’t always get there, nobody does all the time, and each day that I am engaged in recovering Judaism, I find that I am more and more Kosher.

It is hard to live with questions of what is fitting and proper in each moment and each situation. It is hard to not give in to my/our need to be right, belief that we should control and/or just quit. I have given in to all of these ways and I have uncovered a deep truth. I have to be in the struggle of the question: What is Kosher in this moment/situation in order to have clarity, connection and love for myself and others?

What are your ways of living Kosher? What have you recovered/discovered in living a fitting and proper life?
 

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