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Life Lessons While Buying Shabbat Groceries

The things you learn shopping at a crowded kosher supermarket

by
The Editors
March 15, 2013
(Shutterstock)
(Shutterstock)

Have you ever tried to navigate a packed kosher supermarket on a Thursday night? It’s nearly impossible. Over at Jewcy, Chaya Kurtz writes about the frustrations of pre-Shabbat shopping—and the surprising lessons one can learn at a kosher supermarket.

I do not shop there because the prices are good. They are unspeakable. I shop there because it’s kosher, and it’s convenient. Still, the crowded, chaotic experience of shopping for Shabbos groceries tests my patience each week.



I’ve gotten used to wearing a wig. I’ve gotten used to the extra chapters of Tehillim, and kindly explaining to people that although the restaurant they’ve suggested is kosher, it’s not kosher enough. I’ve even almost gotten used to walking through the fashionable neighborhood where I work dressed like somebody’s grandma in a mid-calf skirt and sweater set. But I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the slow pace of Hassidic life.



Nowhere is the unhurried cadence of life in Crown Heights more visible than at the supermarket on a Thursday night—and it’s where I learn how to really be a Hassid.

Read the rest here.

From the editors of Tablet Magazine.