How does Kashrut (the dietary laws) affect the everyday lives of the Jewish people?
Well, they apply to everything we put in our mouths – so it can have a profound effect on our everyday lives, or an infinitesimal one, depending on where we live and how available kosher food is. Observant Jews who live in a close-knit Jewish community have almost as many kosher grocery stores and restaurants to choose from as people who don’t keep kosher, so for them it isn’t a very big issue in their lives at all – just something you take for granted (other than the cost, which I’ll get to later). Observant Jews who live more “in the world” may find it harder, because there are so many ways that keeping kosher can interfere with what to everyone else is a “normal” life: if everyone in the office works late and the company orders sandwiches or a pizza, chances are the food isn’t going to be kosher so you’re stuck fending for yourself (or bring from home ahead of time), going to the movies without getting popcorn, and not having the shared references with everyone else (never having ea
