Roots in the desert; My Jewish Conversion Story

In my journey of self-discovery and spiritual growth,  I embarked on a transformative path that led me to make a profound decision: to embrace Judaism and my personal faith. As part of my commitment to living a fully observant Jewish life, I felt a strong need to start eating a kosher diet. That was my first movement, I did that months my introduction to judaism and Hebrew classes began. This decision has brought about a significant shift in my eating habits and lifestyle, and here are  my experiences and insights with others who may be considering a similar journey.

Let’s start from the end and move backwards, changing my eating habits and shopping experiences was surprisingly easy for me, especially considering how much I love cooking and eating!

My husband and I had a conversation, and let him know I will start a kosher a diet, and at home we will be following it, it is true, he make the joke, you will be having  shard time without pork, you are from Spain, however a year later here we are, both of us following a kosher diet, well since i am the cook at home he does not have a choice! My husband and I had a conversation, and I let him know I would start a kosher diet. We would follow the diet at home. He joked that I would have a hard time without pork, since I am from Spain. However, a year later, here we are, both of us following a kosher diet. Since I am the cook at home, he doesn’t have a choice!

What does a Kosher diet mean? Kashrut is essentially the set of rules and guidelines you must follow to maintain a kosher diet. My introduction to a kosher diet began by following common known practices, such as avoiding pork, seafood, and shellfish, as well as refraining from mixing dairy and meat. The latter was easy for me, as I can’t consume dairy. Here and there I found myself googling when shipping my groceries and looking for recipes. Then when we started the classes, I read the book “Keeping Kosher a diet for the soul” from Samuel H. Dresener, and I highly recommend that in whatever stage you are on your journey about Judaism, to get that book and have it close to you! 

And what about shopping? You might be thinking, 99% of the time I found myself reading labels and trying to identify if the items were parve (foods that can be eaten with meat or dairy) or had been certified as Kosher. Since I am not an expert, and this blog is describing my experiences while discovering my Jewish soul, here is one of the sites that I constantly use to understand more about the kosher diet and more…

Do I shop all the time at a kosher supermarket? The short answer is no. While I try to find all the kosher items at my local supermarket, I occasionally go to a kosher supermarket to find whatever I can’t find locally. Since we shop at Whole Foods, they have a great variety of kosher items.

Eating out is part of life, and although I am careful about what and how I eat, I still enjoy going out as usual. Ultimately, keeping kosher is a lifestyle choice, and choosing between a bacon and cheese sandwich or a salmon bagel is easy because my well-being, spirituality, and state of mind are important to me. So I make the right decisions for me. It is true that last summer when I went to visit my parents in Spain, they had brought a very expensive Jamon, because their son was coming. I did not want to make them feel bad, so I ate a few bites here and there. The rest of my stay, my parents were asking me all the time what I wanted to eat, as they wanted to be sure I was eating while following my choices.

With this short post, here is my little introduction to how I started with the Kosher diet. It has been helpful on this journey, and I will be sharing more and more as this blog evolves! I will be sharing food recipes as well.

Shalom!