Glen Medved

Professor A. Whitney Sanford

REL3108, Tuesday, 5:00PM

5 February 2013

Miriams Journey

Miriams Kitchen serves as a narrative that traces the authors journey through

spiritual development, as well as the authors involvement in her familys religious and

cultural heritage. However, many questions arisequestions regarding the reasons

behind the authors movement towards keeping a kosher kitchen, her decisions in the

process, and finally the meaning behind it all as according to her. The first question can

be answered through the concepts of tradition, history, culture, religion, and more

specifically, consistency. The next question inquires about decisionspatience, sacrifice,

and separation come to mind. Finally, what does keeping a kosher kitchen even mean to

Elizabeth Ehrlich (the author)? To her, there existed a fine line between religion and

culture, between commandment and desire.

As soon as she gets old enough to understand the value and importance that

tradition holds, she begins to look back and trace her family roots (by now, she is a

mother raising her own children). She traces her roots back in time to the peak of the

Jewish diaspora (the dispersion of Jews beyond their homeland), a time when many of

her grandparents and great grandparents had immigrated to America in hardship. She

begins to think of their ways, and if she shall let these ways be passed down to her

own present lifestyle. So should she connect her ancestors traditional values among the

family, values that had been the product of difficult assimilation? The movement towards
the kosher kitchen was merely influenced by a wondermust I, a parenting mother,

impose the history of my family upon my children must I present towards them a

religion and culture to be passed down and appreciated? The author declares her

movement towards the keeping of a kosher kitchen as being caused by three separate

entitiesidentity (as tied to Jewish culture), spiritual purpose (connected to the Jewish

religion), and rhythm (better understood as consistency) (Ehrlich 53-54). And so she

begins her journey, deciding she might as well move towards a kosher kitchen (frequently

thinking why not? to herself). Through her husbands mother, along with a couple

other mentoring family members (such as Aunt Selina), yet most importantly her mother-

in-law Miriam, she embarks on a culinary voyage that takes her above and beyond. The

authors curiosity, enthusiasm, and cluelessness is portrayed as she jots down recipe notes

while Miriam prepares her renowned apple cake (Ehrlich 66).

What decisions must she make in the process? First and foremost, there is

patience and organization. The author is overwhelmed with the implications behind an

idea so vast that it can make nearly anyone despair. What are these implications? The

idea of keeping a kosher kitchen is tremendously difficultseparate utensils, tools, pots,

and pans are necessary for everything that needs to be cooked (meat, dairy, and pareve).

She then has another issue to face, that of cooking itself, which, also through patience and

the avoidance of argument and altercation, she can possibly learn from Miriam (though

she rarely does get angry in the kitchen). On top of the sacrifices she has to take related to

organization, her next is the sacrifice she has to take in obeying the law, in feeling

obliged to observe. With that said, we ultimately have her final decision she is forced

to make; must she enter into this separate religious world, a traditional world accustomed
to and causally derived and decided from her heart? The authors possibility of moving

towards a kosher kitchen successfully is given to her (organization and cooking ability is

not the issue), but there still lies the feeling of entering into a separate world from the

secular one she normally exists in, the one she lives her everyday American life in. She

felt she needed to have assimilated into this everyday world in the first place, and to

throw away her old world and old past. This not being so dissimilar to the situation she

was in when she tried passionately not to regret the physical throwing away of the

notable suitcase and various other items which were for so long located in her basement

(Ehrlich 90-91).

So what does keeping a kosher kitchen mean to the author? This can be simply

answered through two means: the idea of religion and the idea of culture. The authors

intentions behind keeping a kosher kitchen involve the latter. There is a major difference

that is even expressed explicitly in the narrative, between that of the lesser-involved

religious means and the more involved cultural means. In the beginning, there was an

emphasis on the fine line between obligation and personal interest. A quote in the book

regards these claims: You dont keep kosher to honor emotion, or even for historys

sake. You do it to keep a commandment. You shouldnt romanticize. (Ehrlich 17). Thus,

the author, stuck between two familial extremes (the atheist ideological upbringing from

her own Marxist father vs. the polar opposite, strict orthodoxy of her religious mother-in-

law), is motivated towards the idea of a kosher kitchen mostly from personal interest,

desire, and affection.

Thus, our questions have been answered thoroughly and clearly. A tradition must

be passed down as accordingly to how the author experienced it herselfone of

historical appreciation, of cultural identity, of religious and spiritual purpose, and one out

of mere consistencys sake. Choices are madepatience is required for the author, the

need of it deriving from the stresses of organization, obligation, and observance, while

the sacrifice of secular separation still remains. Lastly, the fine line between

commandment and desire is brought up, where the author is caught between the need of

maintaining a completely religious take towards the idea of kosher, and the contrasting

want of maintaining a romanticized outlook. It is worth noting that Miriams Kitchen

serves (pun intended) a well-balanced experience (meal) of sweet and sour memoirs,

included along with them more than enough recipes to secure your taste buds future.
 Works Cited

Ehrlich, Elizabeth. Miriam's Kitchen: A Memoir. New York, N.Y., U.S.A: Viking, 1997.

Print.