Halal and Kosher

Recently, some of my family engaged in a discussion about Kosher foods. We wondered what is meant by Halal? What is meant by “Kosher?” Are these the same? Do they relate to each other? Are these foods healthier than others? Who “keeps Kosher?”

A couple of wikipedia sites (see footnotes) provide general answers some of these questions, and I urge you to explore them more fully if you’re interested in this topic. “Halal (Arabic:حلال, ḥalāl; means lawful or legal) is a term ... used to designate food seen as permissible according to Islamic law.“ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halal Permissible foods exclude pork, blood, carrion, and alcohol; plus “...an animal that has been strangled, beaten (to death), killed by a fall, gored (to death), savaged by a beast of prey...” and “Food over which Allah's name is not pronounced.”

Kosher food, on the other hand, is “fit for consumption by Jews according to traditional Jewish law.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosher The complex rules are set forth in the Torah. There are three categories of Kosher food – Meat, Dairy and Parve (or neutral). Meat, for example, can only come from mammals which have cloven hooves AND chew their cud. So, pork is forbidden. “Non-kosher birds are listed outright (Deuteronomy 14:12–18).” “Fish must have fins and scales to be kosher (Leviticus 11:9–12). Shellfish and other non-fish water fauna are not kosher.”

Both Islam and Judaism prescribe ritual slaughter methods, which have been called inhumane by some animal rights organizations; and both faiths’ representatives have denied it.

Who “keeps Kosher?” About one-sixth of American Jews maintain the kosher diet. Many Jews observe the Jewish rules governing food preparation and consumption partially, by abstaining from pork or shellfish, or not drinking milk with a meat dish. Some keep kosher at home but will eat in a non-kosher restaurant.

Jews comprise only about 20% of the market for kosher food in the United States. A sizable non-Jewish segment of the population views kosher certification as an indication of wholesomeness. Strict vegetarians, Muslims, Hindus, and people with allergies to dairy foods, consider the kosher-parve designation as an assurance that a food contains no animal-derived ingredients, including milk and all of its derivatives.

Americans have long had some choices of Kosher foods in major supermarkets, and now Halal foods are increasingly available as well. We can expect that to become more widespread, for, in Surah 5:5 of the Holy Qur'an it is written: "The food of the People of the Book [Jews and Christians] is lawful for you [Muslims] as your food is lawful for them." As you say your blessing for/over your next meal, you might want to give thanks for these choices.

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Give All You Can Give

A few weeks ago we celebrated the March 30 birthday of Vincent Van Gogh, born in Zundert, Holland (1853). Garrison Keillor (The Writer's Almanac for March 30, 2010) told us that,

"As a young man, he was deeply religious and went off to do missionary work in a coal-mining region in Belgium. One day he decided to give away all of his worldly goods and live like a peasant. But his religious superiors thought he was having a nervous breakdown. They kicked him out of the mission and he had to go home."

Wait a minute! He did exactly what Jesus told the rich young man to do: "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." (Matthew 19:21) And so for following Jesus’ teaching, Van Gogh’s “religious superiors” made him leave the mission. Lucky for us who have seen his art, because that’s when he began to paint. Perhaps he was having a nervous breakdown. Still, was being “kicked out of the mission” to be Van Gogh’s “treasure in heaven?”

The online Wikipedia has an interesting discussion of tithing, with several references to the new or old testaments and the Qur’an, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tithe. Some Christians are taught to tithe, e.g., give 10% (of their wealth, or their income) to the church. Jewish practice has usually included some form of tithing. And the so-called “alms tax” (zakat) is one of the five pillars of Islam. But I’ve only found the “sell all you have” advice in Jesus’ answer to the young man’s question.

John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, is credited with saying, “Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” As a young man, I heard the first part of the quote at every turn. Later, as I became an adult, I dimly heard the second part. But it’s much later in my life that I came to hear and understand the third part. Doesn’t this “give all you can” sound like a practical, modern version of Jesus’ teaching?

And now I read Suzanne Herel’s article in the San Francisco CHRONICLE (“Backing Good Causes Provides a Return.” Sunday, April 11, 2010, page D2) about Lily Kanter, age 45, who retired from Microsoft, “a multimillionaire at the age of 35,” who has started a new business. Herel writes, “Lily Kanter makes money so she can give it away.” In fact, her goal is to “be able to give away a million dollars a year.”

So, on the one hand, we have Jesus teaching that we should give it all away, (as Van Gogh did, and look what that got him); and on the other, a millionaire following the advice of John Wesley to make as much as you can (so you can) give as much as you can. Perhaps therein lies a lesson for the curriculum designers at the top MBA schools.

Rules? Or Love?

In his introduction to THE BOOK OF RUMI, Johnathan Star writes, “The goal of Sufism is to know love in all of its glorious forms; and every prophet, every practice, and every form of worship that leads toward love is, in essence, Sufism.” He subsequently quotes philosopher Ibn Arabi who wrote:

I follow the religion of Love
and go whichever way His camel leads me.
This is the true faith;
This is the true religion.

“...the religion of Love...” What an interesting way to put the view that Love is the god, the “true faith” and “true religion.” As a boy in the Lutheran church, I was taught that “God is Love.” How many of us define our faith by the love we show? Conversely, how many of us define our faith, or others’ faith as we perceive it, by the required behaviors and rules, and how they’re followed?

Last year, during Ramadan, I had lunch at a Persian restaurant, and I asked how it was that Muslim restaurateurs could serve meals during the time of fasting. I received the obvious answer: Some Muslims do not observe the rules that would prevent them from doing their work. Others, Muslims and non-Muslims, may judge that behavior as disobedience of the rules.

I thought about some of the other religious rules I know. For example, according to the Torah, Jews are supposed to avoid all work on the Sabbath: “Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.” (Exodus 35:2) Heard of any such deaths lately? Perhaps this rule is too strict to be enforced rigidly?

Then there’s the rule about selling your daughter into slavery: “If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as menservants do.” (Exodus 21:7) Know anyone who’s sold his daughter, or even been permitted to sell his daughter, into slavery? What loving father would ever do such a think?

Christians learn that women are to be silent in the church, and be obedient to their husbands: "Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in church." (I Corinthians 14:34-35) I prefer that women NOT keep silent in church, as some of my best teachers in churches (and out) have been women. As for obedience, both the Bible and the Qur’an contain rules about that.

More important, Christians are to love God and one another. "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:36-40) I know that I don’t obey these commandments completely. And I suspect that many of us make judgments about our neighbors’ love for God and one another too.

My point here is simply this: Ibn Arabi’s writing that, “Love is the true faith and true religion” is quite obviously what Jesus commands us to do. I’m sure Jesus would have endorsed Arabi’s words. Perhaps, after all, Jesus was a Sufi?

Homosexuality in the Abrahamic Traditions

Loved or hated? Accepted or rejected? The story of Lot and the destruction of Sodom is told in Genesis 19, in Judaism’s Torah. Moreover, Leviticus 18:22 reads (in the Contemporary English Version), “It is disgusting for a man to have sex with another man.” This is repeated at Leviticus 20:13, but in that verse, the death penalty is added: “...and those who do will be put to death, just as they deserve.” Recall that Leviticus was written about 1400 B.C.E. when the Israelites were in the desert, having just escaped from Egypt. “In practice, the death penalty has not been practiced in Judaism for over 2,000 years.” (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_views_on_homosexuality retrieved 3 February 2010)

In Islam, homosexuals (called qaum Lut, the "people of Lot") are condemned in the story of Lot's people in the Qur'an (15:73; 26:165). Of the four legal schools in Islam, at least two would punish homosexuals as adulterers. In fact, since its Islamic revolution, the Iranian government has executed more than 4000 people charged with homosexual acts. (See http://www.religionfacts.com/homosexuality/islam.htm, retrieved 31 January 2010)

While many Christians welcome gays, others definitely do not. Perhaps you saw this news story: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/world/africa/04uganda.html?scp=1&sq=uganda%20homosexual&st=cse ((retrieved 31 January 2010) “Last March, three American evangelical Christian preachers, whose teachings about ‘curing’ homosexuals have been widely discredited in the United States, arrived here in Uganda’s capital to give a series of talks...The theme of the event, according to Stephen Langa, its Ugandan organizer, was ‘the gay agenda — that whole hidden and dark agenda’ — and the threat homosexuals pose to Bible-based values and the traditional African family.”

Those American preachers said they never meant to “help stoke the kind of anger” that led “a previously unknown Ugandan politician, who boasts of having evangelical friends in the American government, [to introduce] the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009, which threatens to hang homosexuals...” Perhaps they didn’t mean it, but the connection between their presentations and the Ugandan bill looks quite direct.

From my personal perspective, those three Americans, and the Ugandan, hold extreme views, and preach and act on those extreme views. I don’t understand what “threat” homosexuals pose to Bible-based values and the traditional family, but I do understand the threat extremists pose to homosexuals.

Apparently some American Christians want to put homosexuals to death too. Frederick Clarkson describes one movement or philosophy, called “Christian Reconstructionism, whose founders favor executing (exterminating) homosexuals.

“Reconstructionism is a theology that arose out of conservative Presbyterianism (Reformed and Orthodox), which proposes that contemporary application of the laws of Old Testament Israel, or ‘Biblical Law,’ is the basis for reconstructing society toward the Kingdom of God on earth...Generally, Reconstructionism seeks to replace democracy with a theocratic elite that would govern by imposing their interpretation of Biblical Law...So severe is this theocracy that it would extend capital punishment beyond such crimes as kidnapping, rape, and murder to include, among other things, blasphemy, heresy, adultery, and homosexuality." (http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v08n1/chrisre1.html, retrieved 31 January 2010)

Homosexual people continue under threat in some branches of Islam and Christianity; and their status in Judaism varies, depending on whether the group is Orthodox, Conservative or Reformed. We must be watchful, ready to act to prevent the application of “Biblical Law” against gay and lesbian citizens.

The common ground? The liberal subgroups of each of the three Abrahamic traditions express more tolerance for homosexual people and homosexuality than do the conservatives.

Helping "Them"

“When poor people or orphans cried out for help, I came to their rescue.” (Job 29:12)

Decades ago, when my wife was a graduate student, she met and befriended another young woman student who, it turned out, was (and is) married to a delightful man of Turkish origin. Being a student, and wanting to be prepared for her first encounter with someone from the exotic land of Turkey, my wife did her research. She reports learning from an encyclopedia (perhaps Britannica?) that most Turks are Muslim, and are dour, and are teetotalers, who eschew pork. Soon thereafter she visited her friend’s home. I can imagine her surprise when she was greeted at the door by a laughing young Turk, with a drink in one hand and a bacon-laced hors d’oeurvre in the other!

Each of us has ideas about what “they” – whoever they might be – are like. Sometimes we learn about “them” from our friends or parents, and sometimes from other authorities, like encyclopedias, or nowadays, Wikipedia. Sometimes we’re lucky enough have our knowledge base challenged, enlightened or informed, when we meet some of “them,” and come to know just how similar we and they are.

A few days before Christmas last year, a good friend invited my wife and me to come for Christmas Eve dinner. It would be informal, with another couple and their daughter. “They’re Jewish, you know,” she said. “They don’t have much to do on Christmas Eve.” And we’d finish well before the start of the late service that evening.

So there we were, gathered around the Christmas Eve table. Seven friends, two races, three generations, three religions (Jews, Christians, Agnostics) enjoying Dungeness crab together. (By the way, I learned a long time ago that Jews don’t eat shellfish! Right!) And afterward, we sang and played some lovely Christmas music together.

Our friends have been working together to publicize part of a huge problem in the world: Helping those many orphans of AIDS parents in Africa. This appears to be entirely appropriate to our friends’ Jewish and Christian traditions. In fact, the Holy Bible instructs the people to address the needs of, and to protect, the widows, the poor and the orphaned. Exodus 22:21-24 admonishes us to “not mistreat widows or orphans.” Deuteronomy 14:28-29, instructs us to “give food to the poor who live in your town, including orphans, widows and foreigners.” Job defines the sinner as one who oppresses those who need protection (Job 24:21).

Our friends are acting on the Old Testament teachings. They are ignoring the differences some would have us notice between Jews and Christians, and between Americans and foreigners. When we focus on the differences between us and others, we often lose touch with just how much we -- whether rich or poor, widowed or orphaned or not -- share as humans who live together in God’s/Allah’s/YHWH’s world. In fact, we need and depend upon each other to rescue us when we cry out.

What Our Faiths Really Teach

In a recent NEW YORK TIMES article, I read of Muslim extremists attacking a mosque in Pakistan. It ended with this: “They have taken the lives of innocent worshipers,” he said. “Does Islam teach the killing of innocent people?” (“Mosque Serving Pakistani Military Hit by Attackers”)

How often does it happen that we hear about the actions of “extremists” in our news media. Well, it’s not always that way, and sometimes we actually read about people of different faiths sharing basic values, and supporting one another in these views. In another recent NEW YORK TIMES article, (“Three Clergymen, Three Faiths, One Friendship”) we can read about how three thoughtful and scholarly religious leaders interpret their scriptures and deal with their differences.

When asked what they most valued as “the core teachings of their tradition...the minister said, ‘unconditional love.’ The sheik said, ‘compassion.’ And the rabbi said ‘oneness.’”

While the news media seem to emphasize the differences among our many faith traditions, we can see much common ground among these three statements of core teachings. For example, Muslims believe that Allah is the only God; they say in their belief statement, “There is no God but Allah.” Surah 112, entitled “Oneness,” begins, “God is One, the Eternal God.” The rabbi in this story says “oneness" is the core teaching of his tradition. Quoting Deuteronomy 6:4, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one."

Jesus of Nazareth demonstrated unconditional love in the way he lived and in the messages he taught. In particular his Sermon on the Mount describes how to live out a life of unconditional love, having compassion for those around us who are less fortunate, regardless of their circumstances or their beliefs.

These three (liberal) leaders also declared what they regard as the “untruths” in their faiths. The minister said, “Christianity is the only way to God.” The rabbi said it’s the notion that the Jews are the “chosen people.” And the sheik said it is the “sword verses”, like “kill the unbeliever,” in the Qur’an.

Few amongst us in 2010 believe, for example, that Christianity is absolutely the only way to God. Surely some Christians do believe that, but many do not. (And probably most who are NOT Christian don’t believe this either!) In my opinion, only the more conservative believers embrace belonging to an exclusive group, i.e., they seek to exclude certain others from their groups. Words like "the only way" and "the chosen people" represent statements about exclusive groups. The so-called "sword verses" in the Qur’an also point to the exclusion of others, referring to them as "unbelievers."

I cannot accept or condone extremists’ behaviors, like “the killing of innocent people.” Still, I have to include other people's beliefs in my spiritual world view. Their concepts of God and the nature of relationships among peoples help me see other ways of understanding and interpreting God's messages to us humans.

Isn't that act of including – loving our enemies – how we can demonstrate unconditional love in our day to day living? Isn't that inclusion what compassion really means? Won’t it be a joyous day when these messages translate to actions of inclusion that fill our news media? Perhaps it will come to be in this new year, if we all can agree that we will settle for nothing less.

The Christmas Story

Christians now begin to celebrate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Many of us Christians don’t know that the Holy Qur’an (the holy book of Islam) includes a story of Jesus’ birth.

“The angels said to Mary: 'Allah bids you rejoice in a Word from Him. His name is the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary. He shall be noble in this world and in the next, and shall be favored by Allah. He shall preach to men in his cradle and in the prime of manhood, and shall lead a righteous life.' (Qur’an 3:45-46)

Here’s one translation of the Christmas story, from the Qur’an 19:16-33. Allah is speaking through the Prophet:

“And you shall recount in the Book the story of Mary: how she left her people and betook herself to a solitary place to the east.

“We sent to her Our spirit in the semblance of a full-grown man. And when she saw him she said: 'May the Merciful defend me from you! If you fear the Lord, leave me and go your way.'

“'I am the messenger of your Lord,' he replied, 'and have come to give you a holy son.'

“'How shall I bear a child,' she answered, 'when I am a virgin, untouched by man?'

“'Such is the will of your Lord,' he replied. 'That is no difficult thing for Him. "He shall be a sign to mankind," says the Lord, "and a blessing from Ourself. This is Our decree."'

“Thereupon she conceived him, and retired to a far-off place. And when she felt the throes of childbirth she lay down by the trunk of a palm-tree, crying: 'Oh, would that I had died and passed into oblivion!'

“But a voice from below cried out to her: 'Do not despair. Your Lord has provided a brook that runs at your feet, and if you shake the trunk of this palm-tree it will drop fresh ripe dates in your lap. Therefore rejoice. Eat and drink, and should you meet any mortal say to him: "I have vowed a fast to the Merciful and will not speak with any man today."'

“Carrying the child, she came to her people, who said to her: 'This is indeed a strange thing! Sister of Aaron, your father was never a whore-monger, nor was your mother a harlot.'

“She made a sign to them, pointing to the child. But they replied: 'How can we speak with a babe in the cradle?' Whereupon he spoke and said: 'I am the servant of Allah. He has given me the Gospel and ordained me a prophet. His blessing is upon me wherever I go, and He has commanded me to be steadfast in prayer and to give alms to the poor as long as I shall live. He has exhorted me to honor my mother and has purged me of vanity and wickedness. I was blessed on the day I was born, and blessed I shall be on the day of my death; and may peace be upon me on the day when I shall be raised to life.'

So there’s the Christmas story as told through the Prophet Muhammad in the 7^th century. Muslims don’t worship Jesus as the Son of God. They don’t worship Mary as the mother of Jesus. They don’t worship Muhammad, or Abraham or any of the other Prophets. However, Muslims do revere all these, and many more, including all the prophets of the Old Testament.

So in that spirit of reverence, let’s celebrate the blessings of Christmas with all whose spiritual heritage descends from Abraham: Let’s work for peace and good will among all our neighbors. Merry Christmas!