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Offering Kosher Food to Idols

See this recent post on Hirhurim which asks the question: Is Hinduism Avodah Zarah, which raises questions about whether Hinduism is to be considered a full-fledged form of idolatry (it seems to involve many gods, and idols) or not (a deeper examination of Hindu theology reveals that they may believe in one overall God, and their worship may be directed at the same time to one of the gods as well as the supreme God).

Though the post does not come to any conclusion (while raising an interesting question), it does remind me of a story that I heard from two different people. The same incident happened to these two people, one in a kosher Chinese restaurant in Israel, and one in a Indian Vegan restaurant in New York City: They were sitting in a position so that they could see the waiters as they were leaving the kitchen with food that was to be served to the patrons. Right next to the kitchen was a small shrine with little buddha statues. The waiter would take the dish, put it down in front of the idol, either offer a prayer or a little bit of the food to the idol, and would then pick up the food again and bring it to the patron who had ordered the food. When the people then proceeded to eat their food, they were eating food that had been used as an offering to idolatry, something that at the very least violates a Torah-prohibition.

So just remember, even if all of the ingredients are kosher, the food might be completely forbidden. (After the the incident was reported to the local rabbanut, the Chinese restaurant was closed down while the entire place was completely kashered, all of the dishes were replaced, and presumably the wait staff was given some stern instructions on what is and is not permitted to bring into a kosher restaurant).

This entry was posted on April 27th, 2009 at 10:15 by Yaakov and is filed under Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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