A Lesson from a Christmas Cup

Okay, so this might seem really random. But I had this "aha" moment a while back and thought I would share it with you. 

This past Christmas, my mom gave me a cup with the Hebrew alphabet on it. I was thrilled. It was just the kind of gift that I like. 

When I was a kid, I read everything I could. I read books as I was walking to school, I read during the day, I read at night when I should have been sleeping. You get the picture. I also read the packaging of food I was eating, from cereal boxes to canned goods. I guess the habit has stayed with me because I was reading the front of a bag of Garden of Eatin' Blue Corn Tortilla Chips. What did I find? The kosher symbol. No big deal, right? It is on a lot of products.



But my brain suddenly linked the kosher symbol to a letter in the Hebrew alphabet that I had just been looking at on my Christmas cup. It is the letter "kaf." It is similar to the English "k." Look at the two photos and you will see it too!

I have learned that there are about 700 companies that issue kosher certification! Each company has its own unique symbol, called a hechsher. The one shown here is the symbol of a kosher supervision company called KOF-K.