Blessed Food

[Ozarks]

Hello. This is my first post. My understanding of Sikhism is severely limited and so I hope that if I step on any toes that you understand that I do so out of ignorance not malice.

My question is about eating. It is my understanding that a Sikh should not eat (or maybe "not intentionally eat") kosher or halal food. As this food is blessed to/for another understanding of God. I hope I am right (or close to it) so far because here comes the questions.

If the food is blessed to another understanding of God, but it is the same God after all (per my understanding of Sikh teachings) then why would it be bad?

If you are at another persons house (of another faith) and they put food on the table and asked the blessing (for the meal) would it (the food) also become dedicated to another understanding of God and should be avoided?

Thank you.

 

[spnadmin]

Ozarks ji

There are some threads already in action on the question of halal that you can read. Halal is forbidden in the Sikh Code of Conduct called the Rehat Maryada. It is forbidden because animals killed according to Halal are sacrificed in a ritual way by stating Allah Akbar as the knife is drawn across the throat of the animal. The death of the animal is intended to be slow, draining all the blood, in remembrance of the sacrifice of Abraham to show his uncontested faith in his God Yaweh.

I am unaware of any formal prohibition by Sikhs against the kosher slaughter of meat by the Jewish people. And as a mater of fact, kosher slaughter is not a ritual (Jews do not consider it a ritual), but simply a method. There is no ritualized call to God, the death is expected to be quick and as painless as possible. The one who slaughters the animal must be trained by a rabbi to ensure that person knows how to do it.

The discussion regarding no halal meat is at this link in the Sikh Rehat Maryada

The Sikhism Home Page: Reht Maryada

Please chedk the other links.

 

[Ozarks]

aad0002 ji
(I hope I am using that correctly)
Sorry about the Kosher bit. I may have been off in my understanding of what I had read online. I will read the Rehat Maryada, thanks for the link. [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][/FONT]

 

[spnadmin]

Either aad002 or Antonia is fine Ozarks ji

Don't be concerned about the kosher practice. There is continual confusion about that. I was myself confused early in my forum membership and reading that halal and kosher are similar. I did some research and couldn't find very much. So I talked to people at a local rabbinical college about it.

There are major differences between halal and kosher - if you or I or anyone else are not an observant Jew why would we know - so it took some effort to find out -- and that is the story.