Sometimes an idea just gets under skin and won’t let go. Just like an Ohrwurm, that German phrase for a song or snip of a song, that keeps repeating over and over again in your head.

Well, it happened again this morning while scanning the morning papers. An article about kosher kitchens and cooking caught my eye. Since I am not Jewish, it was curiosity that spurred my reading interest.

The first thought that came to my mind was: Why bother? Exactly what is the motivation behind this collection of odd rules about food? Especially the dairy-meat divide . . . who cares if dairy touches meat or more importantly, why make an issue of it in the first place?

So this is where my Ohrwum becomes a Mindwurm or an idea that gets stuck in head and you think about it and reconsider and rehash, until you mentally shout, “Enough already!”

I give in. I’ll write the !@#$%^& idea on paper and hope it goes away.

But what you are actually doing only makes it worse. You are feeding it; giving it life; giving it form; giving it dimensionality. You hear the tinny voice of Dr. Frankenstein echo in your ears, “It’s alive!”

Soon you understand why wolves howl at the moon. They too must have Mindwurms stuck in their heads.

And the kosher kitchen?

From Houston Chronicle, Feb 15, 2006, page F5

The laws of kosher, or kashrut, stem from the Hebrew Bible and they are much too complicated to explain here….. among her daily chores, Jane Alexander must check “every item in every kitchen” to ensure that a dairy pot, utensil or plate hasn’t strayed into the meat kitchen. If the twain accidentally meet, Alexander “rekashers” the offender, according to established procedures. She may heat the item to a certain temperature, boil it in bleached water, plunge it in earth, immerse it in a special ritual bath, say a prayer."

I understand the heat to a certain temperature and boiling in bleached water as methods of killing germs, but what are the earth, ritual bath and saying-a-prayer things about?

What germs are they killing?

What parasites are they destroying?

Continue to part two