Rules and customs in world religions

Interpretation of Jewish laws

Mary Douglas offered probably the most cogent interpretation of these laws in her book Purity and Danger (1966). She suggested that these notions of defilement are rules of separation that symbolize and help maintain the biblical notion of the distinctness of the Hebrews from other societies. A central element in her interpretation is that each of the injunctions is prefaced by the command to be holy. This distinction between holiness and “abomination,” Douglas wrote, enables these restrictions to make sense: “Holiness means keeping distinct the categories of creation. It therefore involves correct definition, discrimination, and order.” The dietary laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy exemplify holiness in this sense. The ancient Hebrews were pastoralists, and cloven-hoofed and cud-chewing hoofed animals are proper food for such people; hence, Douglas maintains, they became part of the social order and were domesticated as slaves. Pigs and camels, however, do not meet the criteria of animals that are fit for pastoralists to consume. As a result, they are excluded from the realm of propriety and are deemed “unclean.” People who eat food that is unclean and “out of place” are themselves unclean and are prohibited from approaching the Temple.

There is, however, another dimension to the food customs enshrined in the Torah. In addition to expressing Israel’s separateness as a nation—membership in which was ascribed by birthright—Israelite food customs also mirrored their internal divisions, which were castelike and were inherited. Although the rules of separation referred primarily to the priests, they also affected the rest of the population. The priest’s inherent separateness from ordinary Israelites was symbolized by the prescription that he had to avoid uncleanness more than anyone else. He was not to drink wine or strong drink, and he had to wash his hands and feet before the Temple service. Explicit in the prescriptions of the Torah is that an offering sanctifies anyone who touches it. Priests were often the only people permitted to consume it.

These rules symbolizing the priestly group’s castelike separateness also validated a system of taxation benefitting them, couched in terms of offerings, sacrifice, and tithes. The religious rationalization of taxation is illustrated in the Hebrew Bible by the “first-fruits” ceremony. Fruit trees were said to live their own life, and they were to remain untrimmed for three years after they were planted. But their fruits could not be enjoyed immediately: God had to be given his share in the first-fruit ceremonies. These first fruits represent the whole, and the entire power of the harvest—which is God’s—is concentrated in them. Sacrifice is centred around the idea of the first-fruits offering. Its rationalization was that everything belonged to God; the central point in the sacrifice is the sanctification of the offering, or the surrender of it to God. Its most immediate purpose was to serve as a form of taxation to the priests; only they were considered holy enough to take possession of it.

Elaboration of the Jewish laws

After the exile of the Jews from Palestine following the conquest by Rome in the 1st century ce, a remarkable elaboration in their dietary laws occurred, probably as a result of the Jews’ attempts to maintain their separateness from nations into whose midst they were thrust. Many customs evolved that have taken on the force of Torah for those Jews who have sought to maintain a traditional way of life. For example, the Bible does not prescribe ritual slaughter of animals, yet this practice has taken on the same compulsion as the taboo on pigs and camels. A permitted food (e.g., cattle, chicken) that has not been ritually slaughtered is considered to be as defiling as pork. Similarly, one of the hallmarks of the Passover holiday in Judaism is the eschewal of all foods containing leaven, the consumption only of foods that have been designated as Kasher la-Pesach, “kosher for Passover,” and the use of special sets of utensils during the seder dinner that have not been used during the rest of the year. But these too are postbiblical customs that have been given the status of law; the Bible prescribes nothing more than eating unleavened bread during the Passover season.

Further elaborations on the Torah in regard to food can be observed in the dietary customs of certain groups of modern Jews in their daily lives. In the pre-World War II eastern European Jewish community (or shtetl), behaviour in regard to food not only included the biblical prescriptions and proscriptions but in many ways resembled the behaviour of people in the corporate communities of tribal societies. The major life crises were celebrated by feasts or other uses of food. Wine and other foods were integral parts of circumcision ceremonies and of a boy’s attainment of ritual majority (Bar Mitzvah). Weddings were also celebrated with huge feasts that required weeks, if not months, of preparation, and guests were seated at the wedding feast according to their social rank. Following the wedding celebration, grain was sprinkled on the couple’s heads, apparently to promote fertility. Those who visited mourners were to eat hardboiled eggs or other circular food because roundness symbolizes mourning.

Aside from the daily requirements of following the Mosaic dietary laws, which apply to everyone, the heaviest burden for maintaining these observances falls on the women; their ritual and secular statuses are always inferior to those of men. It is the task of the housewife to be sure that meat and dairy foods are not mixed, that ritually slaughtered meat is not blemished, and that cooking equipment and dishes and utensils for meat and dairy are rigidly separated. The only personal states of ritual pollution relating to food in shtetl culture also refer only to women. For instance, a woman who has not been ritually cleansed after her menses must not make or touch pickles, wine, or beet soup. It is believed that if she violates this customary rule, these foods will spoil.

Hasidism

A further illustration of the idea that dietary rules and customs are inextricably associated with the maintenance of group separateness is provided by the sect of Jews in the United States whose members refer to themselves as Hasidim (Pious Ones). The extremity of Hasidic strictures with regard to food must be viewed in the context of their setting in the United States as well as in light of their Jewish sources. Because the Hasidim regard the growing secularization of American culture as the greatest threat to the perpetuation of the ancient traditions of Judaism, they have erected a ritual wall to stave off the danger of assimilation. The Hasidim live in self-contained enclaves. In addition to preserving their distinctiveness from surrounding non-Jewish communities, they are equally devoted to preserving their distinctiveness from other Jews, who, no matter their degree of piety, are regarded by the Hasidim as nonreligious.

This attitude is clearly reflected in Hasidic behaviour with regard to food. The Hasidim assert that the larger Jewish community (and its rabbis) do not meet kosher standards and qualifications in the manufacture, preparation, handling, and sale of food. Even non-Hasidic ritual slaughterers are classed with assimilated Jews who do not observe dietary laws at all. Hence, the Hasidim forbid the consumption of any food product that was not produced by their own community. Even such neutral foods as vegetables are defined as nonkosher if handled by a non-Hasid, since there is always the possibility that it may have come into contact with nonkosher—and thus contaminating—matter. For example, only milk that the Hasidim designate as “Jewish” may be drunk, and only noodles prepared by someone from the Hasidic community may be eaten, because of the possibility that eggs containing a drop of blood (which are forbidden) were used in the noodles’ preparation.