You forgot category 11: six sets of dishes: meat, milk, parve, Pesach meat, Pesach milk and Pesach parve, plus four dishwashers and two kitchens....

Ok, I never really saw that, although I did see two kitchens, four dishwashers and six sets of cutlery in Crown Heights.

And, category 12: only eating bread, milk, etc that was watched by Jews from start to finish (like category 10, but more stringent).

my parents keep kosher at home only. when they go out, they eat pretty much whatever, with the exception of pork. they both enjoy lobster, moreso my father than my mother. personally, i don't eat pork or shellfish. i do like a good turkey and cheese sandwich though. my apartment isn't kosher, but i do buy kosher meat quite often. it's better quality meat than regular meat. however, kosher meat is pricey.

I dont understand the eating kosher in home but not kosher out,
Imagine if a vegetarian decided to eat veggie at home but meat out!
At home, no leather, no meat whatsoever, out: hey, might as well go hunting! Were out!
Or in a marriage: when Im home, I only sleep with my wife, but when Im out...

if you're doing it because you believe it's what you should or shouldn't eat (because God said so?), then eating nonkosher outside the home is of course ridiculous.  But that'ts not the only reason people keep kosher (to whatever degree).

 Kashrut is a big component of tradition, and most who hold on the lower rungs of the scale are 'traditional' to a greater or lesser degree. As such, there's no contradiction to keeping a kosher home, and eating out Non- it's your tradition to keep a kosher home, but it's not your law-of-being, necessarily.

Amendment to the scale (i live in Israel so it comes up a lot): is dairy halav yisrael or not?

i think i'm close to alone in the jewish world in where I hold: when I'm in Israel, I hold strict kashrut-- two sets of dishes, only food with hechsherim (i will eat rabbanut meat, but that's OK by most..) etc., no non-kosher out.  Haredim eat at my house without hesitation.

In america I don't hold kashrut at all.  This is an actual principled stand.

I do have halachic justification for this, but that's a longer discussion. 

mmausner, I have trouble taking anything you say seriously...

What's wrong with being a little hypocritical?

It was a lot eaiser keeping kosher in the shtetl when the non Jews didn't want to serve you food anyway. For someone who doesn't live in a modern shtetl and wasn't raised orthodox, but who nevertheless believes the Torah is truth, you do the best you can. If this means you eat a salad or fish at a non kosher restaurant with your co workers, but keep strictly kosher at home, so be it. I have trouble with my diet and tend to eat too much fat too--that doen't mean I don't believe that too much fat is a bad thing.

Nu Mmauser, so lets see your source that one doesnt have to keep mitzvot outside of Israel? I hope your source isnt the Ramban that those living outside of ISrael are is if they have no God, or Rashi that mitzvot outside of Israel are like practice...I also hope your source isnt Rabbi Weinberg! Dont tell me he says there is no problem with premarital sex and you dont have to keep mitzvot outside of Israel!?

i know a lot of people besides my parents who keep kosher at home but choose to eat non-kosher when at restaurants, and it doesn't make them less Jewish. this is how a lot of American Jews function, at least the non-Orthodox ones. i eat non-kosher meat and poultry (occasionally with dairy), but i do not and will not eat pork or shellfish. i can't tell my father not to eat lobster, because i know he enjoys it. one time, he was at a company lunch and it was during Passover so there wasn't much of a menu selection for him. he ate squid, lobster, and ostrich. my mother's opinion? "at least he didn't eat chametz."

it can be incredibly difficult to keep strict kashrut in the US, unless you live not only in a heavily Jewish populated area, but in a heavily observant Jewish populated area. i went to college in Upstate NY, and although my college's student population was 25% Jewish most of them were unaffiliated or followed the same practice that i did when i still lived at home which was kashrut in the home and non-kosher outside. the kosher dining area was very limited in its offerings, and it often didn't taste that great. however, the chocolate cake was amazing. but it was quite a task for the more observant Jewish students to have meal options when they were so used to home cooking.

For those strictly, very strict in their kashrut, wine is another problem.  It also needs a hechsher.

Yes, the Ramban is a good source for that.  Second, Israel is my home; I keep kosher at home.  Third, almost all of pshat Torah itself, when giving out mitzvot, very often starts a paragraph 'when you get to the land i will show you.... this is what you do.  this is what you don't do.'  IN CONTEXT, it's abundantly clear that mitzvot are prescriptions for what to do in the land of Israel.  Hundreds of mitzvot are EXPLICITLY only to be done in Israel or even only in the mishkan (later beit ha migdash): sacrifices, shmita, truma n maiser, first fruits, and on and on... (notice the connection to food).  It is widely accepted that being in the land is an overarching halachic principle, similar to pikuach nefesh and other priniciples that override individual mitzvot.

As to why NOT to keep kosher in assimilating places like America, it's the same exact reason most people give to KEEP kosher: it creates a separation, and it's not a healthy separation, between Jews and goyim.  When you cannot accept the hospitality of others, they will mistrust you: you are not truly being where you are.  True being and belonging in a place means committing to being there.  It's connected, IMO, to the whole concept of being observant-- of maintaining separate jewish identity, outside of Israel. 

Now that we HAVE THE OPTION of moving to Israel, then halachically and in principle, there is NO good reason anymore for observant Jews or Jews who prioritize their Jewish identity to NOT move back to Israel.  If you don't, then you should fully be where you are-- so if you are in America, then become American.  Do as the Americans do, live with them, love them, give them no reason to think that you are separate from them, that they should mistrust you, that you have a separate loyalty.  Intermarry.  Eat their food.  If you can't do that-- what the hell are you doing in America as a Jew?  Move to Israel.  for g-d's sake.

"Now that we HAVE THE OPTION of moving to Israel, then halachically and in principle, there is NO good reason anymore for observant Jews or Jews who prioritize their Jewish identity to NOT move back to Israel"

Can you give a Halachic cite for this claim? I'm curious why there are so many orthodox Jews in America if what you say is correct. Are you saying they are not really following Halachah?

to settle in the land is one of the mitzvot: that's a 'dereita' or pshat torah commandment.  It's there in the Rambam and in the Shulchan orech.  No secret.

The Ramban makes clear that doing the mitzvot outside of israel is only for practice.

Many mitzvot can only be performed in Israel, such as 'daled amot' (every four steps you take walking around israel counts as a mitzvah), trumas and maiser (agricultural tithes), and everything related to korbanot, even if we're not currently doing them.

Are orthodox Jews following halacha?  Hm.  Well, let me put it to you this way: they're doing SOME of the mitzvot but not ALL.  Orthodox Jews in Israel are generally doing a bit MORE of the mitzvot, but still not ALL.  Even non-religious Jews whether in Israel or not, are doing SOME (less) of the mitzvot.  Honoring father and mother, not killing, not stealing, not coveting, you can do a lot of mitzvot without breaking a sweat even in Los Angeles.

I think Orthodox Jews in America do have some 'splainin to do.  There are a few-- very limited-- reasons why one may leave Israel.  Making parnassa (livelihood), learning a teaching you can't learn in Israel, and meeting a shidduch.  Most people if they put their shoulder to the grindstone can make a living in Israel, albeit not as luxurious as Americans-- the difference is hardly enough to count halachically, unless you really try in Israel and fail.  Certainly it's valid to learn, say, specialized medicine or science or something else that the best schools are outside of Israel-- as long as you intend to return.  There's no shortage of single people in israel tho, so i don't buy the shidduch justification anymore. 

Many orthodox hold that only when moshiach comes can they move back to Israel (if they're not spirited back on the wings of eagles or some such thing.)  If their rabbi tells them so, I can't really argue, but for those who don't follow the satmar rebbe's every grunt and sigh, there's less and less halachic justification to NOT live in Israel.  There's some much harsher language in some of our sources, but I'm not going to bust out the heavy artillery for this discussion.

You cite the Rambam. However, didn't the Rambam live in Egypt not the land of Israel? Is there anything on his justification?

Since the State of Israel is not a Halachic state, do these rules apply? There have been and are undisputed Gedolim who lived in europe or america after 1948, right?

the halachic definitions and boundaries of the land are different from the political boundaries. 

Gaza for example was considered outside halachic israel even when Jews lived there, and thus its agriculture was extremely valuable during shmita year, when produce from within Israel is not halachically allowed to be sold...

Eilat is not within halachic israel, and thus a great many Chabad chassidim go visit there once a year. 
Precisely because there IS a halachic consequence for a religious Jew who lives in Israel for a continuous year or more: you can then only leave for very limited reasons- parnassa, shidduch, or learning a torah you can't learn here.  They want to retain the freedom to go on 'shlichut' or missionary work, and know that they lose it if they stay in israel too long.

The Rambam visited Israel often once he could, and advised Salah-al-Din in the reconquest of the Holy Land from the Crusaders.  (Until it was taken back from the Crusaders, Jews could not safely visit or live in Israel.) Not accidentally, one of Saladin's first acts on retaking Jerusalem was to re-settle many Jewish families in the city-- a deeply significant act to which we must give the Rambam some credit.  He is, not accidentally, buried in Israel, in Tiberias.

There indeed have been and are gadolim who live outside of Israel, but the center of gravity of learning and Torah is clearly moving more and more to Israel.  Most Gadolim today either live here or visit often.