Cultural Interaction

Religious Clashes

In nuclear medicine, a Jewish rabbi had to be specially prepared with kosher scrambled eggs. So what’s the problem? He probably just wanted to eat in accordance with his religion. But, the problem arises when the scrambled eggs with radioactive isotopes are supposed to be cooked by an amateur “chef”.

The rabbi had a gastrointestinal test. Usually, people who have problems with peristalsis or digestion problems undergo this test. After ingesting the radioactive food (scrambled eggs), the patient is scanned to observe the path and regulation of the disgestion- whether the actions are abnormal or normal. It was funny how the technicians scrambled eggs in a room labeled and sealed with a biohazard and radioactive warning stickers.

I asked a techinician whether patients typically cooked their own radioactive eggs. She answered, “sometimes, the patient’s religion clashes with the idea of eating an egg but a patient has never gone this extreme of cooking their own eggs.” But religion is religion, and some people live strictly abided to it.

Another problem arose with the “chef” of the scrambled eggs. He did not know how to make scrambled eggs….at all. He was one of the jewish doctors at the hospital that was knowledgable in abiding the Jewish holy laws with kosher food. But because Judiasm is a patriarchal religion, the men are not responsible or preparing their own food. The women of the family must serve and cook the food for the family.

The jewish doctor claimed, “I have never cooked in my life. I don’t have to! In my family, the women are expected to set the meal and table before I return home to eat.”

So the bewildered techinician asked, “Then what do you do when your wife is unable to cook. What if she’s sick”?

Then the doctor replied, “Then I just buy food from the store.”

Some may think that such patriarchal dependicies on women are irrational in a world that is constantly pushing for the social equality of women. But again, religion is religion.

Because the doctor was incapable of cooking simple scrambled eggs, he asked silly and seemingly commonsensical questions.

Doctor: “By putting more oil into the pan, would it cook the egg faster”?

Technician: “No, it will only make it greasier.”

But the doctor dumped oil into the pan anyway.

And by the end, the technician had given up in trying to feed the patient not greasy and unburnt eggs.