Jewish Dietary Laws

I have spent the past 22 years as a vegetarian. Here is why I became a vegetarian. When I was seven, I went over a friend’s house one afternoon and they served me a snack with some meat. I didn’t think anything about eating it then. When I came home, my mother was serving ice cream to the family. But she told me I couldn’t have any because I had meat. It was the first time I ever heard of the idea of being ‘fleishig’ and not being allowed to eat dairy for 6 hours. I was upset and threw a tantrum and got spanked and sent to my room. I was so traumatized by being deprived of ice cream when my siblings all were having it that I decided I would never eat meat again. At first my parents started to force and threaten me to eat meat, but when they saw how resistant I was, they finally gave in and let me be a vegetarian and started to accommodate me. From that day on, I ate fish, but never anything fleishig under Jewish law. After I grew up, I remained a vegetarian. I now work in the plant-based food industry and travel a lot for business, which has forced me to spend some Shabbosim away from home. And when I do, I try to get invited out for meals. Wherever I go, I explain to the host that I am a vegetarian and they gladly accommodate me. Very recently, I had my Shabbos meals with someone who happens to be an ordained rabbi in the place where I was staying. As usual, I told his wife in advance about my vegetarianism. She sounded very pleasant on the phone like she would gladly accommodate me. When I got there, the rabbi told me it is forbidden to be a vegetarian for the reason of avoiding being fleishig. Not just that, but except for a slice of gefilte fish with each meal, all the food they served was fleishig. They served chicken, meatballs, potatoes with meat gravy, and rice cooked in chicken broth, to name a few. Nothing was pareve except the meager amount of fish and some snacks. And they wouldn’t give me extras of anything to make up for the meat I wouldn’t eat because they said it is unfair to others to have unequal portions. They were quite hostile to me about it. The rabbi told me that I am depriving myself of simcha by not eating meat, and failing to keep the mitzvah of refraining from eating dairy after meat by never being fleishig. He tried to convince me to eat meat by saying they would serve no dairy all of Shabbos. That still didn’t make me eat meat. As I said, I haven’t eaten meat in 22 years, and don’t feel I ever can again. He said if I ever come over his house again for Shabbos, I am required to eat meat. I was so happy to be out of there when... Why is it that he would be so insistent I eat meat?

Hello! I heard that according to the Yalkut Yosef, Sephardi Jews can't have fish and dairy together but I also heard that this was a typo by his students. Is it more along the lines of fish being cooked with dairy or also cold fish and dairy? Do these rules apply to Mizrahi Jews as well? Thank you!

I am vegan, but not for religious reasons. I have a business associate who is an Orthodox Jew. I had lunch with him recently, and considering the limited number of kosher restaurants in town where he could eat, he took me to one that he said had some vegan dishes. As I know well, kosher restaurants can only serve dairy or meat but not both, and the one he took me to serves meat. And at the entrance, there was a sign on the door from the agency of certifying rabbis stating that all cooked food served at the establishment, including vegan dishes, require a 6-hour waiting period that Orthodox Jews follow between eating meat and dairy, and the only exception was fish, which I don’t eat. I am very familiar with that waiting period. What bothers me is this restaurant is labeling some of its food as ‘vegan’ when it actually does contain some meat, albeit small traces. For me as a vegan, that is not acceptable. All I was able to eat at this restaurant was a salad.

Hello! I read on chabad.org that one needs to wait six hours after having meat to have dairy because bits of meat can be stuck in between the teeth or that the taste of the meat is still in the mouth. If that is the case, what if I just brush my teeth right after and use mouthwash to rinse out my mouth to get rid of the taste/bits of meat? Wouldn't that solve it since there will be no more remnants? Also, why do we not wait between dairy and meat if either way the dairy food will still be in the stomach when having meat (as in, I had macaroni and cheese and now want a hot dog)? They did mention its best to wait around 30min-1hour after having dairy but why isn't it six hours like meat before dairy?

If a Jew eats any unclean animal or any foods forbidden in Torah for a Jew to eat, does it make the person who eats it ritually impure or unclean?

If I need to separate into different sinks and dish washers between milk and meat, why would I not have to separate washing machines? Meaning, if I have a tablecloth that had spilled a meat dish on it, and I go and wash it, and then a day later I have a tablecloth with milk spilled on it and I come to wash it, is this not the same thing as the sink/dish washer? How do we paskin between the sink/dish washer and the clothes washing machine?

It seems strange that we have to go through unusual measures to search for bugs in our fruits and vegetables. Some fruits/vegetables are not permitted at all, some we can only eat if an expert examined them and certified them kosher, and others I can eat if I use a thrip cloth, light box, etc. Is this something new? (Did the Rambam eat fruits and vegetables? He didn't own a light box.) Or have some groups within the Jewish community taken this to an extreme level and these restrictions are not totally necessary? Thank you.