Food: A Halachic Analysis

Food: A Halachic Analysis

Rabbi Yehuda Spitz

Mosaica, 480 pp

I am unsure whether “outstanding,” “remarkable,” or “spectacular,” best describes Rabbi Yehuda Spitz’s sefer “Food: A Halachic Analysis”  -- though all three adjectives may not do justice.

In over 30 chapters discussing various food and kashrut related halacha, Rabbi Spitz, a sho’el u’meishiv at Yeshivat Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem, presents unprecedented clarity in explaining and demystifying the issues. Some of these issues include waiting between cheese and meat, using dishwashers for both milk and meat, fish and milk, eggs and onions left uncovered overnight, chalav Yisrael, marit ayin, and much much more. It is thorough, clear, and makes everything easy to understand. Definitely one of his flagship chapters is the appendix on the history of Gelatin and its kosher status.

These chapters are not merely regurgitations of what readers have certainly seen in so many other places, but rather, original compositions in the author’s unique style of history, academia, wit, and accompanied by the occasional corny joke: truly enjoyable reading. The exhausting footnotes make the sefer as ideal for the layman as it is for the scholar.

Be prepared to be wowed. I hope that my writing and sefarim will one day reach Rabbi Spitz’s standard.

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