The Icing in The Cake

Today I was off to do some work at Dunkin' Donuts. There is a 24/7 DD one block away from where I live and I like to go there to do some work over coffee late at night. Right next to DD there is a Papa John's pizza, where I decided I would get my dinner to save some time. Now I'm wasting all the time I saved writing this post and getting over what just happened.

I was having a very productive working evening, half the way through my third pomodoro, when I was interrupted by this Jewish looking gentleman who asked whether there was something inside the pizza box. (I obviously couldn't finish the large pizza and didn't feel like walking the left over back home before heading to DD since Papa John's and Dunkin' Donuts are right next to each other.)

-- Yes, sir. There is left over pizza inside the box.
-- Could you please leave it in your car? You could get these people [Dunkin' Donuts employees] fired if someone [the Rabin?] finds out they're allowing non-kosher food into the store.
-- Well, I don't have a car, but sorry for the trouble. Don't worry, I'm leaving [and taking my pizza with me].

What has anyone accomplished with this other than a grumpy, frustrated blog post? I feel like I might have just experienced a hint of Jesus' frustration with the religious establishment of his time, if one allows me the presumption. It seems---or at the very least that's how I feel---like nothing else mattered, except that the food I had brought into the store was unholy according to their standards.

You know, even that would have been fine, actually. Just tell me at the entrance you cannot bring non-kosher food inside. That's fine. Some places don't allow any food from other vendors and that's fine. Some places don't allow people on fur coats inside. I suppose we're all at our rights protecting our beliefs and idiosyncratic behaviors. But there wasn't such a sign!

On top of that, I'm pretty much friends with the employees in the night shift. I've shown them the picture of my possibly indian ancestors and all, and they have never complained about anyone bringing anything  from outside in there. I think they didn't even see the pizza box to be honest. Actually, I would have been perfectly comfortable with one of Dunkin' Donuts employees come to me and politely ask me to leave, otherwise they could loose their kosher certification and a big chunk of their market here in Highland Park. But that's not what happened.

I also wonder whether the Rabin would have really made such a big deal out of it. I mean, an uninformed non-Jew walks into a kosher certified place with a closed box containing food he has no idea whether it would be kosher or not, nobody sees it, nobody asks anything about that. How can that be bad? I would be really shocked---and offended---if those guys really lost their jobs because they are not sweating on what their customers are bringing into the store.

Enough venting, let's get back to work.