Parshat Shemini: The List

"It's on the list".

I remember the first time I heard that statement.  It was in the mid to late 1970s and I was standing in the playground of my Jewish primary school in the heart of Golders Green.  One of the children had uttered this cryptic message to another child.  At the time, I had no idea what this 'list' was.  Occasionally, my friends would claim that some item of food was either 'on the list' or off it.

I was brought up in a traditional home where we ate kosher and observed Shabbat.  My mother didn't cover her hair but neither did the majority of her friends whose kids also attended the same school.  One of the ways we could tell how 'frum' a classmate was by observing the mothers in their sheitls (or not for that matter) coming to pick them up at the end of school.

These were the days before the glossy ‘Really Jewish Food Guide’ and its companion ‘Is it Kosher?’ app existed.  In my childhood era, the 'list' was literally a sheet or two of paper that those in the know could acquire from specific locations such as Jewish bookshops.

When I reflect on those times, I remember how scrupulous my friends were when checking the 'list'.  If it was ‘on’, the food was permitted, if not, they kept well away.  I think I may have seen it a few times when visiting a mate over Shabbat but that was as close as I got to the treasured and rare manuscript.

With the transformation of the list into a book form, a new game began for us newbies.  I would peruse its contents to see what I could and could not eat.  Every time an update was published (in the days before email), I would carefully look through the book and either add the newly qualified products to an existing line or sadly add a bolded 'NK - not Kosher' label in front of previously approved entries.  It always seemed to be the chocolate bars that ended up being dropped!

I distinctly remember the first few editions of the aforementioned guide which came out when I was in my late teens.  Suddenly, the 'list' was available and soon became ubiquitous in our homes.  The science and complexities involved in the production of food now made more sense and the bizarre E471 and E120 codes were to be avoided at all costs (especially the latter as it signified the product contained cochineal, otherwise known as ants' blood.  Yeuch!

What had started life as a list was now presented as a thin tome that could sit comfortably in my mother’s car glove compartment or on a bookshelf.

On the flip side, every now and then, a product I had chalished (longed) for eons ended up being relisted.  I can't really describe the thrill I got, and still do, when something I really wanted to eat re-joined my special ‘kosher club’.  Bounty used to be kosher and then it wasn't and then it was!  Sun-Pat Peanut Butter took the same trajectory...and I won't even mention the ongoing saga of Marmite!

In the last few years though, something has happened that makes certain product addition to the lists more and more exciting.  Whereas in the past, I was only aware of the KLBD's efforts to make the edible world as open as possible (in conjunction with American Kashrut Authorities such as the OU and Star-K), their previous virtual monopoly on deciding what we can and cannot eat has been challenged by an exciting new horse in the race.

I give an extremely warm welcome to the Sephardi Kashrut Authority, otherwise known as the SKA!

I have a personal debt of gratitude to the Spanish and Portuguese Community,not only because I received my Semicha through their network via the Montefiore Endowment, but also because they really opened up the kosher world in a way that would have been unthinkable two decades ago.  Dayan Amor (ztl), who was the Rosh Bet Din and head of my Kollel, certified Kingsmill Bread.  The KLBD followed suit a few years later by certifying other companies that manufactured bread such as Hovis and Warburtons.  Need I say more?

For the kosher consumers such as myself, that mysterious list had borne fruit that I could have never envisioned back in the day.  As of writing, I am rubbing my eyes in disbelief in the knowledge that a few feet away from me, numerous packets of specifically labelled and certified McVities biscuits are waiting to be consumed.  McVities biscuits I'll have you know!

In considering the 'list', I should have realised that the origins of the document I had thought to be secretly available to a chosen few was in fact exceedingly old.

It was based on another detailed list - the one we read in this week's Parsha which described the animals, fish and birds that we are and are not permitted to consume.

What differentiates its contents lies in the lack of specific detail.  Unlike the aforementioned lists, the Torah's description provides limited information about what makes an animal or fish kosher.  Ruminant animals with completely split hooves, check.  Fish with fins and scales, check.  Any type of pig meat being prohibited, check.  Shellfish are out, check.  Certain types of locusts, crickets and grasshoppers, check (they may be kosher, but I'll pass on them, thank you).

No mention of mono-diglycerides of fatty acids, stearates, polysorbates or gelatine in the Torah or references to E120, E422, E570 et al.

It seems as though, just like the Torah's list of what was permitted or prohibited, the manufacture, preparation and consumption of food was much easier in the day.  You couldn't boil a kid in its mother's milk, but that didn't prevent the consumption of steak tartare in cheese sauce either.  Our Rabbis wisely put paid to this dish when they forbade the mixing of meat and dairy in all of its forms.

Compared to the recently published Kashrut Guide, the 1970s list was considerably more compact.  The times they are forever a-changin'! I have no idea what our lists will include in a decade's time and, like us, they are constantly being updated to fit the times in which they are being consulted.

I fervently look forward to their contents...and with that in mind, hope that they will at least include the standard size of Marmite!

Shabbat Shalom.