Passover the Fish Sticks, It’s Time for Lent

By Nick Chowske

If you eat a bacon-cheeseburger on a Friday during Lent, you could be sinning in four religions at once. Depending on your faith, meat and dairy never touch (sorry, no cheeseburgers!), pork is dirty (but that bacon smells so good!), you never eat meat on Fridays (aww, fish sticks again?!), oh, and cattle are sacred (Holy Cow!). But why does it matter what we eat, or when we eat it, as long as we’re good people? As it turns out, it doesn’t; sort of.

Whether Catholic, Jewish or Muslim, all of these rules come from the same place: the Torah. We’ll get to Hindi a little later. For those unfamiliar, the Jewish Torah is the book of Moses, the Old Testament for Christians, and the Tawrat in the Qur’an for Muslims. In Hebrew, Torah translates to “teachings,” in Arabic, Tawrat translates to “law” and in English, testament translates to, well, testament.

Just as these religions started the same and then diverged, so have the rules. But while the rules may be different, they are similar at heart. The Jewish time of Passover, the Catholic time and the Islamic month of Ramadan are all times to fast and reflect.

The Jewish faith probably has the strictest set of dietary rules. Almost everyone has heard of Jewish people being kosher, but generally the understanding begins with the little K on food packaging and ends at the idea of not eating pork or shellfish. There’s actually quite a bit more to it than that.

“The books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy tell us what we are and aren’t allowed to eat,” says Rabbi Andrew Goodman of Plattsburgh’s Temple Beth Israel. Goodman, who was ordained in 2008 at the age of 29, teaches Introduction to Judaism at SUNY Plattsburgh, besides his duties as a Rabbi. “The idea is that God set up these commandments and we want to make sure we’re following them right.”

To be as cautious as possible, Rabbis set up the kosher system to make sure things are done right. Oddly enough, the spirit of the kosher system is very similar today’s organic, vegetarian and vegan movements.

“We’re supposed to eat meat with a respect for life,” Goodman says. “We have to make sure our food is made to suffer as little as possible. Because the humane treatment of animals is such an important piece, all kosher animals must be slaughtered under the supervision of a Rabbi.”

Cows make the short list of edible animals in the kosher system. “We’re only allowed to eat ruminants, which are animals that have split hooves and chew their cud, fish that have both fins and scales, and fowl,” Goodman says. This includes cattle, goats, sheep, and deer, most fish, and fowl, which are chickens, turkeys, and ducks. “Kosher meat isn’t only permissible by the Bible, but also has been slaughtered in the most humane way.” What’s not on the list? Pigs, catfish (they have fins but no scales) and shellfish, and any predatory birds or mammals.

Just eating the right animals isn’t enough. The kosher diet also requires that meat and dairy must be kept separate. “The Bible says we’re not allowed to boil a calf in its mother’s milk,” Goodman says. “From that we get this idea that all meat and milk should be separate.” Anything that isn’t meat or dairy is considered neutral, and is called Parve. This can be chicken and fish, fruits and vegetables, and so on.

“A meat meal has no dairy and a dairy meal has no meat. I don’t eat pork or shellfish, but I consider chicken and fish to be Parve,” Goodman says, “I always say, show me a chicken that lactates and I’ll stop eating chicken.”

As far as being sinful, not following the rules isn’t going to send your soul to hell, necessarily. “There’s no Rabbi on high saying you’ve done wrong. If you violate an ethical law, you and God will know, and it will sit on your conscience,” Goodman says. “These rules were written 3,500 years ago and not everyone buys into it. There are a lot of people for whom not eating shrimp or pork, just because, isn’t a good enough reason.”

The kosher system is a lot to digest, but it’s the spirit of these laws that is important, which is why Passover is such an important time of year. “For Passover, we’re not supposed to eat any leavened foods so we eat Matzo instead,” Goodman says. “When the Jewish people were slaves, they had to move quickly and they didn’t have time to let the bread rise, or leaven. The Matzo is a symbol of that slavery and Passover is a time to remember what it was like to be in those horrible conditions.”

In the same spirit of self-sacrifice to reconnect with faith, the Catholic Church follows an age old tradition called Lent. Lent is a 40 day observance leading up to the Easter holiday that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday, the day after Good Friday.

“The Lenten holiday starts the Easter Vigil and is meant to recognize the 40 days Jesus spent alone in the desert with no food,” explains Ronald Rene, the pastoral minister at SUNY Plattsburgh’s Newman Center, the official church of SUNY. “In this spirit, those of the Catholic faith are called to fast, give alms, and pray.”

The tradition used to call Catholics to fast much longer and give up more. The regulations have become less strict through the ages, and now the Catholic Church only asks people between the ages 18 and 59 to fast for an hour before Sunday Communion, which is the eating of blessed bread and wine. This sacrament represents Jesus’ body and blood the way he gave it to his disciples at the last supper.

“Fasting goes across all religions,” Rene says. “It’s a way of self-mortification that allows us to refocus our beliefs and reaffirm our faith.” The typical Lenten fast replaces meat with fish on Fridays, but as it turns out this tradition has nothing to do with meat or fish at all. “I love fish, so it’s more of a treat for me on Friday,” Rene says. “So I try to find another form of penance, like giving my time instead.” In the Catholic Church, penance is about giving up something you enjoy to reconnect with your faith, not just about food.

You wouldn’t know that from the media though. Just listen for that catchy little tune: “Give me back that fillet-of-fish, give me that fish.” Yes, McDonalds, Wendy’s and Burger King will start pushing their oil-soaked fish sandwiches to remind us all that Catholics don’t eat meat on Fridays.

The world’s largest religion, Islam, also has the one of the most in-depth fasting traditions. The ninth month of the Islamic calendar, Ramadan, requires that Muslims fast for the whole month. This practice calls upon devout Muslims to abstain from eating, drinking, smoking or indulging in any other potentially sinful act from sunrise to sunset. The idea is to teach patience and spirituality. Just as in the Jewish and Christian faiths, this time is meant to purify the soul and bring you closer to your faith.

Much like Judaism, Muslims consider pork to be off limits. The general belief behind this is “we are what we eat” and the pig is a “filthy” animal which is not fit for humans to consume.

While Islam is the world’s largest religion, Hindi is considered to be the world’s oldest. Far removed from the teachings of the Torah, Hindi is the main religion of India, and worships many gods and goddesses. Often referred to as the religion of “feasting, fasting and festivals,” there are many times to fast throughout the year depending on which god or goddess one follows.

Hindi has more in common with Judaism and Islam than just fasting, though: it too forbids the eating of pork, along with beef, fish, fowl, or any animal flesh. The Hindi religion is completely vegetarian.

“I came from India to Nebraska 30 years ago to study nutrition,” says Dr. Enamuthu Joseph. “Nebraska is the heart of beef country, and when I told them I was a vegetarian they thought I was from the moon.” Joseph is a registered dietitian who has been teaching human nutrition for 34 years and is the chair of SUNY Plattsburgh’s food and nutrition department.

“The vegetarian lifestyle is much healthier,” Joseph says. “It is much higher in fiber so there is no chance to get colon cancer or diverticulitis.” According to Joseph, an adult human body only needs 4-5 ounces of meat a day. “The smallest hamburger at McDonalds is about 3 ounces,” she says. “No one needs a 16 ounce steak every day.”

Aside from worshiping cows and not eating any flesh, there are safety reasons involved for not consuming meat in India. “There is no meat industry like there is in America,” she says. “There is little or no refrigeration and no federal inspection system in India.” Although Indians don’t eat meat, they do eat dairy products, such as cheese, butter, yogurt and milk. “We all drink milk in India,” she says.

When it comes to the world’s various religions and their dietary the rules, they can be as complicated as they are diverse. No matter what you believe, we all have one thing in common: We are what we eat.