<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: -webkit-monospace; ">"Rabbis Berkovits and Isidore Epstein say similarly, saying that kashrut trains one in self-control." </span><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="-webkit-monospace"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="-webkit-monospace">Unfortunately, the facts do not support the above statement. There are many, many, many overweight individuals who are frum and stringently follow the laws of Kashrus.</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="-webkit-monospace">Personally, I've known many O. rabbis who were more than 50 pounds overweight and had absolutely no self-control in their eating. One, who will remain nameless, </font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="-webkit-monospace">suffered so many health issues because he was morbidly obese. He ended up in a wheelchair before he was 60. Would that it were true that kashrus trained one in </font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="-webkit-monospace">self-control! I'm reminded of several very frum people I know who were virtual chain smokers. However, as soon as Shabbos or Yom Tov arrived, they put down the</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="-webkit-monospace">cigarettes and didn't smoke until after Shabbos or Yom Tov. I call that "compartmentalized control." We also have the concept of <i>menuval birshus haTorah</i> which </font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="-webkit-monospace">has discarded the concept of <i>prishus</i>.</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="-webkit-monospace"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="-webkit-monospace">Kol tuv.</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="-webkit-monospace">ri</font></div></body></html>