Ritual or Conviction

Last night I had a conversation with someone, she had some question. Her first question was rather open and I was unsure of what she was looking for, since in every religion there are traditions and ritual. She had some questions of Kosher and wanted to know why, I still felt I must eat kosher.
In Matthew 15 Yeshua is asked why his disciples are not washing their hands, many Christian friends of mine have assumed Yeshua was talking about types of meats. I have heard a few Pastor preach that the dietary laws have been done away with, and I have question them because I didn’t get the same thing they got when I read this.
In the NIV, Matthew 15:1 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2″Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
In the Jewish Complete it says pretty much the same thing,
15:1 Then some of the P’rushim and Torah-teachers from Yerushalayim came to Yeshua and asked him, Whyis it that your Talmidim break the Tradition of the Elders? They don’t do n’tilat-yadayim before tey eat.
Yeshua doesn’t answer their question right away, he first pretty much asks them why are they sinning. Yeshua doesn’t give a answer for their question until Peter had asked him to explain his parable.
15:16 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. 17″Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ 19For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.’ ”
In the JCB 15:16 Kefa ( Peter) said to him, Explain the Parable to us. So He said “Don’t you understand even now?Don’t you see that anything that enters the mouth goes into the stomach and passes out into the latrine. But what comes out of your mouth is actually coming from your heart that is what makes a person unclean. For out of the heart comes forth wicked thoughts murder, adultery and other kind of of sexual immorality, theft lies, slanders….. These are what really make a person unclean but eating with out doing n’tilat-yadayim does not make a person unclean.
This clearly appears to be about hand washing not eating the great pig, or some shell fish. This is simply about washing their hands, they had not washed before eating. Even we now wash our hands before we eat to make sure they are clean, but when we go on picnics we might not wash our hands like we do at home before meals, so we are eating with uncleaned hands.
It is clear that Yeshua wasn’t talking about types of foods here. He was talking more about cleanliness then a type of food. Places like Hilton Head rental have to have policies for this, so that their customers are happy with the products they are coming to receive. They wouldn’t be able to decide to let the guest clean the rooms because each person has a different idea of clean.