kosher

What am I supposed to do? Never get married and build a family?
We both know there is no fairy-tale happy ending for us. Marrying him would be against my religion, which I will never do.
Yardena said.
She came back from a vacation with her current love of life Muhammad. It was the worst vacation ever in her 23 years of life. She and Muhammad basically cried for three days and nights without digesting any food: Yardena threw up everything out of her stomach every night after a round of crying.

What are you supposed to do? You ask me?
Never get married and build a family. Not exactly correct answer, my dear, but you may have mine: Do not get married with him but have a happy life with him for now.

Yardena is the most respectable, likeable, strictly kosher young woman I have ever met. She follows everything I could not imagine.
She never wears pants. Even when she is driving ambulance and moving patients in scrubs, there is a skirt covering her scrub pants.
She eats kosher food from a kosher kitchen with kosher utensils. One time when Millie the secretary bought a cake from a kosher bakery, Yardena did not take the chance to try it because she never heard of the bakery and was not sure if the kitchen was kosher enough.
She takes all Jewish holidays off. There are a lot Jewish holidays last and this months. But when she is at work, she is 200%. She goes home before sunset on Fridays to prepare for Sabbath. Sunset is pretty early in winter, like 3pm. She cannot use electricity, drive or ride motor vehicles during Sabbath (Friday evening to Sunday morning), and walks everywhere. New Jersey is not a pedestrian-friendly state. One time she had to walk to a patient's place to do follow-up tests. That was a one-hour walk from her place. What a wonderful RA.

Why?
Why are Orthodox Jews so serious about these rules made by people thousands of years ago in a place thousands of miles away?

They are just rules. Rules made by people. I said to her.
No. Not in my religion. She was implying that she believes those rules were made by god. She rather suffers in this state of forbidden love than evaluates what her religion has done to her and her people so unfairly.
Other peoples are loveable too! You youself love a man of the other people. It is not wrong. No, I didn't say those but wanted to shake her hard and wake her up to the world where she is allowed to choose whomever she likes to share a life with.
I know that I know nothing about her religion. But I know there is some fundamental failure in the strict law of hers. A religion that does not allow its believer to question, challenge, and modify its law over time is so out of fashion and against natural evolution. Well... do they "believe" evolution? Go to a zoo or aquarium! You will believe and accept it immediately.

Naureen is a new RA. She is kosher too, but only on meat and does not care about whether the kitchen is kosher. I have met many Jews who are not kosher. I have met many Jews marrying non-Jews. They do not encounter problems like Yardena's. They worry about things that make me worry too: Is this cake delicious or not? Does this person like Jazz?

I did tiny research on kosher:
The only kosher flesh foods are from animals that chew the cud (really!? because it's recycling and good to the economical concept?) and have cloven hoofs, such as cattle, sheep, goats, and deer (what about giraffes? ); the hindquarters must not be eaten (because they are too fat? But delicious.). The only fish permitted are those with fins and scales (save more lobsters, king crabs, octopus, and shellfish for me); birds of prey and scavengers are not kosher. Moreover, the animals must be slaughtered according to ritual, without stunning, before the meat can be considered kosher.

Pigs have cloven hoofs but do not chew the cud, so they are not kosher.
Camels chew the cud but do not have cloven hoofs, so they are not kosher.
Horses do not have cloven hoofs and do not chew the cub, so they are not kosher.
I don't care much about these meats. But no rabbit? No goose? No shellfish? No eel? I found that eel is not kosher because the scales on eel are not removable but part of its skin. I have to say that I shall not say anything right now that is not politically correct to Orthodox Jews. I have to express my unbelievable wordlessness. Unbelievable. Kosher rules may be why it is very rare for a Chinese to convert.

Will Muhammad convert?
Yardena never asks him to. She wishes he would do it by himself, but she knows it is out of her boundary to make such a request.
I love him for who he is. I did not love him because he is Jew. She walked away from my desk with those words flowing around in my cubicle.
Oh, my.
God please help her. Release her!
Release her to free love and the entire ocean of seafood.

Woody Allen could speak for me: (For the record, I didn't enjoy much the movie "Deconstructing Harry" for Harry is such an annoying guy although right-on on religious comments.)