I sat down and ordered a large slice of chocolate cake from a tired-looking waitress. When it came, I thought of all the nonkosher things that could be in it: gelatin holding the filling together, made of boiled pig bones, colorings made from dead insects, beef lard to grease the cake tin, shellfish extracts added to the flour to make it softer. I saw the plate full of dead, decaying, unclean things. Things that the Rabbis tell us will harden our hearts and make us less able to hear the voice of God. I took a bite. The cake was dry, the filling greasy. I ate it anyway. Bite after bite.
