Why Jews Don’t Eat Shrimp: It’s Not What You Think - Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein

for the Jewish people. They are toxic. They are poison. Why? We don't know why. God gave us the order. We are so limited seems to be with what we can eat and cannot eat. So why is that? If shrimp is so delicious that it's a delicacy that that's much sought after, but yet are the Jewish people being deprived of such a delicious dish. Now, I wouldn't know because I've never had it. It reminds me the time I was in Israel. There was a Kentucky Fried Chicken. Now, growing up in New York, we have always seen Kentucky Fried Chicken and the advertisements of the Great Colonel, and we never understood what it tastes like, what it would what is it really like, what what does the rest of the world enjoy in Kentucky Fried Chicken? So, here in Jerusalem, they finally opened up a kosher Kentucky Fried Chicken. So, I brought my family to Kentucky Fried Chicken, which is certified kosher in Jerusalem. And we thought for the final opportunity, we could actually get in and taste what does the rest of the world enjoy that we haven't enjoyed until now. So, we order a bucket of chicken and uh we begin eating it. And we see someone who's sitting next to us, a gentleman who's dressed with a black hat and a black jacket and sidelocks. And he takes a bite into it. He says, "Oh, this tastes just like the real thing." So I couldn't hold myself back. I looked at him. I says, "How would you know what the real thing tastes like?" He says, "Well, I wasn't always religious in my life. I became religious later in life. When I grew up, I used to eat Kentucky Fried Chicken all the time. And yes, this does taste the same. So, I thought about that and thinking to ourselves as Jewish people, are we really being deprived of these foods that were unable to eat? I mean, we don't eat fried bacon, we don't eat pork chops, and we don't eat ham, and we don't eat cheeseburgers. There's a whole list of things that the rest of the world enjoys but we don't. So are we are we actually being deprived from these tastes? The answer to that is that we are not being deprived of anything. God Almighty when he gave us the ten commandments on Mount Si, he embraced the Jewish nation and he chose the Jewish nation to be a nation of priesthood. And those were the words quoted straight from the Bible. I will be a God and you would be for me my nation. Now that being said, God revealed to us the ten commandments together with the Torah, the Bible, the five books of Moses. So when God has embraced us, he has given us a mission statement. He has written a constitution that okay if you are going to be a nation who's going to be a light unto all the other nations of the world then this is going to require a certain conduct. This is going to require certain guidelines to live by. this going to be a lifestyle that's going to be very different than the rest of the world. And at that moment, God literally separated the Jewish people from the rest of the world. He didn't say that you're going to be greater than anyone else. He didn't say that you are going to be superior to anyone else. No, he said, I'm giving you a mission. It's like when a person enlists in the army. It's the same exact person who could have been a baker a day before. But now that you enlist in the army, you are a soldier. You have a mission to accomplish. It doesn't make you better. It just gives you a different mission in life. And that is what Judaism is all about. And that is what God has given us as the Jewish people. When we refer to it that we are the chosen people. Yes, God chose us at Mount Si. There were three million of us there. Yes, God chose us and says, "Okay, I'm going to give you a responsibility. I'm going to enlist you in my army and I am going to give each one of you responsibilities and a mission what to accomplish on this world for the betterment of the whole world. So that the rest of the world can learn from you so that you can be an example for the rest of the world. So you can be a light unto the nations. So you can be a blessing unto the nations. And that's what Judaism is all about. So part of the guidelines that God taught us how to conduct ourselves, how to maintain a spiritual body and how to maintain a godly body and how to stay on mission is from the moment we wake up until we go to sleep. There are guidelines. Those guidelines represent everything that we do in life. What we do when we wake up, what clothes do we wear, how to dress ourselves, modesty, what words comes out of our mouth, how to talk to people, how to treat people, what food we ingest. And God made it very clear in the Bible. He gave us a list of what foods are permissible, what foods are prohibited. Just like we do not take foods that are toxic or poison, they may look tempting, but if they are toxic and poison, we do not touch them. And we teach that to our children. I remember growing up in the cat schools in New York, my mother used to say, "You see those mushrooms? Don't eat those. They're toxic." But they say, "But they're mushrooms. Mushrooms. We have them in mushroom and barley soup." No, but those are toxic. So you know what you can eat, what you cannot eat. So God made it very clear in the Bible that the only amphibious food we can eat are fish that has fins and scales. That's it. That's the only fish that we are allowed to eat. Anything else that does not have fins and scales are toxic, are prohibited. So in other words, no lobster tails, no shrimp, no crab, and no swordfish. And go down the list of some very famous popular delicacies that are out there for the Jewish people. They are toxic. They are poison. We cannot ingest those. Why? We don't know why. God gave us the order. We follow the orders. We are soldiers and that is why we did not eat shrimp. Now, do we feel deprived? I don't. Do I feel deprived that I've never tasted lobster tail in my life that I I don't know what the taste of bacon is? I don't feel deprived at all. You know why? Because there are so many delicious kosher foods. One of the most tasteful, delicious foods we enjoy every single weekend. And yes, we do have a weight problem because every single weekend is like Thanksgiving Day. Every Friday night we sit around the table. We have our five course meals with the most famous delicious dishes that has been handed down from generation to generation. The most delicious foods known that you can find either at a Jewish deli or a Jewish at a kosher meat shop. Kosher food is extremely tasteful and delicious. But what's beautiful is that when we eat kosher food, we know we're eating God's food. We are not violating any of the violations that God told us what not to eat. We don't know why God told us not to eat shrimp. But you know what? It's irrelevant. It's okay. God told us not to have pork. That's okay. We can live without it. We have lived without it for 3,300 years. Although in this day and age, life has come a very long way. They actually have on the market what's called facon. They find very fine strips of pastrarami and they're able to season it to taste like bacon. For those who miss the taste of bacon, you could have kosher bacon. They have kosher bacon bits. And they even have nondairy cheese to make your favorite cheeseburger. I have had many opportunities to order a kosher cheeseburger, but I have no desire for it. I have grown up not having any desire for any food that's not kosher. And you grow up like that and you know it. Then you realize you're not missing anything. I my cholesterol problem and my weight problem is doing just fine without all of the foods that are available out there. I often joke because there are no kosher restaurants where we live. We have to travel about a 100 miles to get to our closest kosher restaurant. And I would always tell my wife, just imagine if all these restaurants were kosher, what life would be like for us. So even without being able to go out for dinner at a local kosher restaurant, we do not feel deprived, but we rather we feel privileged and we feel that we are part of God's army. We are fulfilling what God wants us to do. And if God tells us no shrimp cocktails, it's okay. No shrimp cocktails. We can live without it. God tells us no cheeseburgers, no cheeseburgers. That's okay. We can live without it. It's better for us. And that is the reason why Jews don't eat shrimp. And this is why Jews don't eat all the foods that we are prohibited to eat because we are a holy nation. We are on a mission and we want to fulfill this mission. Life is very short and we go through our journey in life and we realize that we are the one who chooses right from wrong and we are the ones who could decide what is appropriate to ingest, what is not appropriate to ingest. And we have learned that there are so many foods out there that are harmful to us physically. We ought to think about that spiritually as well. If you are Jewish, the next time you are tempted to have non-coosher food, whether it's a shrimp cocktail or pork chops or cheeseburgers, think for a moment, is this toxic to my soul. Is this what God wants me to do right now? And you think about it, and perhaps you may realize that you could live without it just like we lived without it for 3,300 years. And every time you make a sacrifice, every time you refrain, you abstain from ingesting non-cosher food, you are jumping a tremendous amount of leaps and bounds spiritually. You are gifting your soul a gift. Just by abstaining that you would be spiritually blessed to give you health, to give you peace of mind, and to give you a spiritual dimension to your life. And this is why Jewish people keep kosher and this is why we do whatever we can to be able to enjoy life and eat the foods that are permitted because they are very delicious. Kosha food is absolutely delicious and there are so many varieties of varieties that are available nowadays that were never available. When you go to the supermarket, you can find so many products that are certified kosher. You can find them in the freezer section, in the fresh section, and we could practically make any delicious food you want to serve your pallet, to serve your taste, to satisfy your hunger to be very satisfied. Remember, you are what you eat. A Jew doesn't want to become a shrimp or a pork. We want to remain dedicated to God to be a beautiful person, a godly person, spiritually connected so that you are creating a vessel where God's presence will rest in it in complete love and harmony. Your body and soul will be synchronized. God bless you. God loves you.