Response to Jordan Rosenblum

I found this presentation to be very interesting. Jordan hit on a point that is integral to Judaism, food. Just about every major Jewish event has to do with food, be it special for the occasion or fasting from it for a short time. His analysis of the absence of pork from Jews and some of the different reasonings behind this practice was well researched and presented. I especially liked the fact that he took us back through the different sources, the Bible, Rabbinic texts, texts of the middle ages as well as some contemporary ideas so that we were able to understand not only the idea now, but also where it comes from. This lecture made me interested in the topic and I would now like to study some more and examine food as a par of identity. There are so many different foods and traditions that could be examined, everything from whitefish salad to noodle kugel to Manischevitz. Food is such a mainstay in our daily lives that it is not always associated with identity and I was very pleased and intrigued with the lecture bringing up this point.