I think it's funny that we all sort of imagine Jews as feeling miserable or left out because they "can't have" _______. Just this week in church, a man who spoke to us quoted this from a talk given at BYU:

Rabbi Harold S. Kushner said:
"I'm a traditional Jew, and I observe the biblical dietary laws. . . . I suspect most of you assume I go around all day saying to myself, 'Boy, would I love to eat pork chops, but that mean old God won't let me.' Not so. The fact . . . is, I go around all day saying, 'Isn't it incredible? There are five billion people on this planet and God cares what I have for lunch [and] what kind of language I use.'
" . . . I am not diminished by being told there are certain things I may not do because they are wrong. Rather, it enhances me."

I don't know much about keeping kosher (except that I don't make our favorite spicy pork sausage dip for the holidays when my Jewish extended family visit!), but as a Latter-day Saint, our Word of Wisdom instructs us not to drink coffee, tea or alcohol. Whether anyone can explain the reasons (though there are some obvious health benefits) is beside the point; we do it because we've been commanded to do it. And it's not like I go around all day wringing my hands and wishing I could make some homemade Kahlua. ;)

I always assumed it had to do with keeping healthy, just like how far to go outside the tent and how deep to dig the hole before you took a dump, or washing yourself and your clothes and staying away from everyone if you touched a dead body, and burning moldy clothes and what to do with different types of sores, and my absolute favorite, getting to leave your husband and non nursing children at home for a week when it was your time of month and have some peace and quiet.

AM I totally out to lunch on that? I've only read the book of Leviticus not any of the Rabbinical lit. on the subject.