Written By: Arielle Feit and Sarah Kay

Making Meaning of Kashrut

Written by: Arielle Feit and Sarah Kay

1. Intro- Grabber

A. Staff reads out a list of 10 food items and ask them to divide each of the items into groups. Wheelniks use the back of the text sheet to write out their categories. They should be aiming to split the ten items into somewhere between 2 and 5 groups, but the ways in which they categorize are completely up to them.

10 items:

· Pizza

· Teriyaki salmon

· French fries

· Cheeseburger

· Apple

· Tuna sandwich from subway

· Popcorn

· Milkshake

· Carrots

· Hot Dog

B. After the items have been read and categorized, ask for volunteers to share their categories and what items they put in each.

C. Share with Wheelniks- “While there are many ways to categorize food in each of our lives, on this trip we will refer to certain common food groups: meat/fleishig, dairy/milchig, pareve. Let’s take a look at where these three categories came from.”

2. Torah Text

A. Have the Wheelniks flip their paper over to see the texts.

B. Have a Wheelnik read each text aloud over the microphone. After each one, explain its implications for kashrut.

1. Meat- chew cud and have split hooves

2. no pig

3. fish must have fins and scales

4. Vegetables are kosher

5. You can’t eat anything alive

6. Do not eat milk and meat together.

C. Have wheelniks share their reactions to these laws.

3. What does this mean for us?

A. “On USY on Wheels we spend our summer learning about Judaism and its various mitzvot. As a community we will learn how to, and get a chance to experience keeping kosher based on these laws from the Torah.”

B. Here is what this will look like on Wheels.

Making Meaning of Kashrut

Source Sheet

Kashrut on USY on Wheels during freetime:

1. All food provided by USY on Wheels is Kosher.

2. When you are on free time, you may eat fish, dairy, or vegetarian options provided they meet these criteria:

A. You must wait 3 hours after eating a meat meal before eating dairy.

B. All foods must be prepared with vegetable oil, not lard.

C. Any heated food must be prepared on foil, so it doesn’t touch a non-kosher surface

D. The food cannot have ever touched any surface, utensils, pans, or pots that are being used to prepare meat.

E. Any fried foods must be fried separately from meat and shellfish.