Sanhedrin
Forget ‘Kosher Cheeseburgers,’ Let’s Focus on Rebuilding the Temple
Rabbi David Bar-Hayim thinks Israel’s Orthodox Jews are debating the wrong things. By way of example, the rabbi points to a few silly questions that have been posed to him about food:
Whether religious Jews should eat anything that looks non-kosher
Whether the desire for kosher cheeseburgers indicated a character or spiritual flaw
Whether one should eat in a restaurant at all
Whether one should stick to eating “Jewish food”
He points to these narrow arguments about diet as evidence of an “Exilic” mentality that is hostile to innovation and “incapable of providing the intellectual and spiritual leadership necessary for the flowering and growth of Jewish life in Erets Yisrael today.”
So what should Jews be debating? The rabbi has some suggestions: