Is that kosher?
Just ask Rabbi Mayer Kurcfeld. As Maryland's only kosher food inspector, he spends about 20 hours a week on his rounds in Baltimore County assuring that what is labeled or sold as kosher really is.
Neither God nor the Bible, he says, gave reasons for the Jewish DTC dietary laws that pronounce which foods are "kosher," and therefore fit to eat.
And that, he says, makes his job easier. "If there were reasons, people could argue over them," he says, and that could lead to changes in the laws. "God gave no reason, in his infinite wisdom."
Rabbi Kurcfeld's bearded face is a familiar one in some two dozen county restaurants, supermarkets, nursing homes and senior centers where food advertised as kosher is sold or eaten.
The slim, 38-year-old rabbi used to inspect Baltimore's kosher food outlets, too. But a recent federal court decision struck down the city's kosher inspection law as an unconstitutional mixing of church and state, raising doubt about whether the county's version is legally kosher.
The court decision doesn't directly apply to the county, but suggests that a challenge to its law -- as well as a state statute on kosher inspections -- could succeed. Twenty-one states have such laws on the books.
Baltimore County recently renewed a $21,800 contract with Star K Kosher Certification, which employs the rabbi, to continue making inspections -- although County Attorney Virginia W. Barnhart says she has sent word that Rabbi Kurcfeld should not issue any violation citations.
But Rabbi Kurcfeld noted that in eight years of work for the county, he has never had a case go to court anyway. Merchants who cater to people who buy kosher food are eager to correct any errors he finds, he says.
So from York Road restaurants serving kosher hot dogs to all-kosher supermarkets in Baltimore's growing Orthodox Jewish community near Pikesville, he makes his meticulous inspections.
For example, kosher laws require that meat and dairy products be kept strictly separate, and any place serving kosher meals must have separate kitchens, freezers, storage, cooking and eating utensils for each.
A careless worker who puts a non-kosher item in a kosher freezer or a milk item in the meat kitchen could cause the closing of the kitchen and a complete emptying and cleaning that could take days, the rabbi says.
