Kosher foods

Kosher foods are those that conform to the regulations of the Jewish Halakhic law framework, kosher meaning fit or allowed to be eaten. A list of some Kosher foods are found in the book of Leviticus. There are also certain Kosher rules found there. Reasons for food being non-kosher include the presence of ingredients derived from non-kosher animals or from kosher animals that were not properly slaughtered, a mixture of meat and milk, wine or grape juice (or their derivatives) produced without supervision, the use of produce from Israel that has not been tithed, or the use of non-kosher cooking utensils and machinery.

Animal species

Main article: Kosher animals

The Torah lists birds which may not be consumed, mainly birds of prey, fish-eating water-birds, and bats (which are mammals). Leviticus and Deuteronomy state that anything residing in the waters (seas and rivers) is ritually clean if it has both fins and scales, All flying creeping things are also considered ritually unclean, according to both Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Leviticus lists four exceptions, including locusts. With regard to animals, Deuteronomy and Leviticus state that anything which chews the cud and has a cloven hoof is ritually clean, but animals that only chew the cud or only have cloven hooves are not. The texts identify four animals in particular as being unclean for this reason: the hare, hyrax, camel, and pig — although the camel ruminates and has two toes, and the hare and hyrax are coprophages rather than ruminants. Leviticus states that every creeping thing that crawls the earth is unclean (Hebrew: sheqets).

Blood

One of the main biblical food laws forbids eating blood on account of the life [being] in the blood. This ban and reason are listed in the Noahide Laws and twice in Leviticus as well as in Deuteronomy. The Priestly Code also prohibits the eating of certain types of fat (chelev) from sacrificial land animals (cattle, sheep, and goats), since the fat is the portion of the meat exclusively allocated to YHWH (by burning it on the altar).

The classical rabbis argued that, in a number of cases, the prohibition against consuming blood was impractical, and there should be exceptions: they claimed that consuming the blood which remained on the inside of meat (as opposed to the blood on the surface of it, dripping from it, or housed within the veins) should be permitted and that the blood of fish and locusts could also be consumed.

To comply with this prohibition, a number of preparation techniques became practiced within traditional Judaism. The main technique, known as melihah, involves the meat being soaked in water for about half an hour, which opens pores. After this, the meat is placed on a slanted board or in a wicker basket and is thickly covered with salt on each side, then left for between twenty minutes and one hour. The salt covering draws blood from the meat by osmosis, and the salt must be subsequently removed from the meat (usually by trying to shake most of it off and then washing the meat twice) in order to complete the extraction of the blood.

Melihah is not sufficient to extract blood from the liver, lungs, heart, and certain other internal organs, since they naturally contain a high density of blood, and therefore these organs are usually removed before the rest of the meat is salted. Roasting, on the other hand, discharges blood, and is the usual treatment given to these organs (if they are to be eaten at all). It is also an alternative cooking method for the rest of the meat.

Hindquarters

The Bible mentions an Israelite tradition of not eating the sinew which shrank upon the hollow of the thigh, due to the dislocation of the hollow of Jacob's thigh while wrestling with an angel, in a biblical narrative set at Penuel. The Talmud interprets this as an explicit prohibition against doing so; Within Judaism the rule has usually been interpreted as referring to the sciatic nerve, the removal of which is a very time-consuming process demanding a great deal of special training; therefore cuts from an animal's hindquarters (including the filet mignon) are generally not sold as kosher. The Talmud excludes bird meat from the restriction.

Animal products

In addition to meat, all other produce of ritually unclean animals, as well as from unhealthy animals, were banned by the Talmudic writers; this included eggs (including fish roe) and milk, as well as derived products such as cheese and jelly, but did not include materials merely manufactured or gathered by animals, such as honey (although, in the case of honey from animals other than bees, there was a difference of opinion among the ancient writers). According to the rabbinical writers, eggs from ritually pure animals would always be prolate ("pointy") at one end and oblate ("rounded") at the other, helping to reduce uncertainty about whether consumption was permitted or not.

Dairy products

The classical rabbinical writers imply that milk from an animal whose meat is kosher is also kosher. As animals are considered non-kosher if after being slaughtered they are discovered to have been diseased, this could make their milk retro-actively non-kosher. However, by adhering to the principle that the majority case overrules the exception, Jewish tradition continues to regard such milk as kosher, since statistically it is true that most animals producing such milk are kosher; the same principle is not applied to the possibility of consuming meat from an animal which has not been checked for disease. Rabbi Hershel Schachter, a prominent rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University, has made the bold claim that with modern dairy farm equipment, milk from the minority of non-kosher cows is invariably mixed with that of the majority of kosher cows, thus invalidating the permissibility of consuming milk from a large dairy operation; the Orthodox Union, however, released a statement declaring the milk permissible based on some leniencies.

Breast milk

Although human meat is generally assumed to have been among the forbidden foods, the prohibition against produce was not regarded by the rabbinical writers as applying to women's breast milk; the only restriction applied to this substance was that it could only be consumed directly from the breasts by children younger than four (or five if the child is ill), and children older than two were only permitted to continue to suckle breasts, if they had not stopped doing so for more than three consecutive days.

Cheese

The situation of cheese is complicated by the fact that the production of hard cheese usually involves rennet, an enzyme which splits milk into curds and whey. Although rennet can be made from vegetable or microbial sources, most forms are derived from the stomach linings of animals, and therefore could potentially be non-kosher. Only rennet made from the stomachs of kosher-animals, if they have been slaughtered according to the laws of kashrut, is kosher. If a kosher animal is not slaughtered according to the halakha, the rennet is not kosher. Rennet is not considered a meat product and does not violate the prohibition of mixing meat and dairy.

Jacob ben Meir, one of the most prominent medieval rabbis, championed the viewpoint that all cheese was kosher, a standpoint which was practiced in communities in Narbonne and Italy. Contemporary Orthodox authorities do not follow this ruling, and hold that cheese requires formal kashrut certification to be kosher, some even arguing that this is necessary for cheese made with non-animal rennet. In practice, Orthodox Jews, and some Conservative Jews who observe the kashrut laws, only eat cheese if they are certain that the rennet itself was kosher.

Gelatin

Gelatin is also a product with complicated implications for Orthodox Jews. Gelatin is hydrolysed collagen, the main protein in animal connective tissue, and therefore could potentially come from a non-kosher source, such as pig skin. Gelatin has historically been a prominent source of glue, finding uses from musical instruments to embroidery, one of the main historic emulsions used in cosmetics and in photographic film, the main coating given to medical capsule pills, and a form of food including jelly, trifle, and marshmallows; the status of gelatin in kashrut is consequently fairly controversial.

Due to the ambiguity over the source of individual items derived from gelatin, many Orthodox rabbis regard it as generally being non-kosher. However, Conservative rabbis and several prominent Orthodox rabbis, including, Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, and Ovadia Yosef — the former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel — argue that gelatin has undergone such total chemical change and processing that it should not count as meat, and therefore would be kosher; technically, gelatin is just produced by separating the three strands in each collagen fibre's triple helix, an action performed simply by boiling collagen in water. Rabbi Dr. David Sheinkopf, author of "Gelatin in Jewish Law" (Bloch 1982) and "Issues in "Jewish Dietary Laws" (Ktav 1998), has published in depth studies of the kosher uses of gelatin as well as carmine and kitniyyot.

One of the main methods of avoiding non-kosher gelatin is to substitute gelatin-like materials in its place; substances with a similar chemical behaviour include food starch from tapioca, chemically modified pectins, and carrageenan combined with certain vegetable gums — guar gum, locust bean gum, xanthan gum, gum acacia, agar, and others. Although gelatin is used for several purposes by a wide variety of manufacturers, it has started to be replaced with these substitutes in a number of products, due to the use of gelatin also being a significant concern to vegans.

Ritual slaughter

See also: shechita

Of the rules appearing, in two groups, in Exodus, most do not express dietary laws, but one of the few dietary rules it does list is a ban on eating the meat from animals which have been "torn by beasts"; a related law appears in Deuteronomy's law code, totally prohibiting the consumption of anything that has died from natural causes, and even giving away or selling such things. The Book of Ezekiel implies that the rules about animals which die of natural causes, or are "torn by beasts," were only adhered to by the priests, and were only intended for them; the implication that they did not apply to, and were not upheld by, ordinary Israelites was noticed by the classical rabbis, who declared that "the prophet Elijah shall some day explain this problematic passage".

Since the Bible prohibits eating meat from animals dying from natural causes, and all animals killed by beasts, traditional Jewish thought has expressed the view that all meat must come from animals which have been slaughtered according to Jewish law. These strict guidelines require that the animal is killed by a single cut across the throat to a precise depth, severing both carotid arteries, both jugular veins, both vagus nerves, the trachea and the esophagus, no higher than the epiglottis and no lower than where cilia begin inside the trachea, causing the animal to bleed to death. Orthodox Jews argue that this ensures the animal dies instantly without unnecessary suffering, but many animal rights activists view the process as cruel, arguing that the animal may not lose consciousness immediately, and activists have called for it to be banned.

To avoid tearing, and to ensure the cut is thorough, such slaughter is usually performed by a trained individual, with a large razor-sharp knife, which is checked before each killing to ensure that it has no irregularities (such as nicks and dents); if irregularities are discovered, or the cut is too shallow, the meat is deemed not kosher, and is sold to the non-Jewish public. Rabbis usually require the slaughterer, known within Judaism as a shochet, to also be a pious Jew of good character, who observes the Shabbat, and believes that the slaughter victims are sacrificing their lives for the good of the slaughterer and their community. In smaller communities the shochet was often the town rabbi, or a rabbi from a local synagogue, but large slaughterhouses usually employ a full-time shochet if they intend to sell kosher meat.

The Talmud, and later Jewish authorities, also prohibit the consumption of meat from animals who were slaughtered despite being in the process of dying from disease; but this is not based on concern for the health of the eater, instead being an extension of the rules banning the meat from animals "torn by beasts," and animals who die from natural causes. To comply with this Talmudic injunction against eating diseased animals, Orthodox Jews usually require that the corpses of freshly slaughtered animals are thoroughly inspected. There are 70 different traditional checks for irregularities and growths; for example, there are checks to ensure that the lungs have absolutely no scars, which might have been caused by an inflammation. If these checks are passed the meat is then termed glatt (גלאַט), literally meaning smooth.

Compromises in countries with animal cruelty laws that prohibit such practices involve stunning the animal to lessen the suffering that occurs while the animal bleeds to death. However, the use of electric shocks to daze the animal is often not accepted by some markets as producing meat which is kosher.

Eggs

The Talmud prohibits the consumption of animals which are still alive. The consumption of eggs which have started to hatch was regarded as falling under the ban on eating parts of live animals; the Yoreh De'ah argues that if there is blood in the yolk then hatching must have begun, and therefore consumption of the egg would be forbidden.

Modern Orthodox Jews adhere to these requirements, but although the Ashkenazi Orthodox Jews treat an egg as non-kosher if blood is found anywhere within it, the Sephardi Orthodox Jews only consider blood in the yolk to be a problem; the Sephardi treat eggs with blood in the albumen as legitimate food, if the blood is removed before use.

Milk and meat

Three times the Torah specifically forbids seething a young goat in its mother's milk (Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26, and Deuteronomy 14:21). The Talmud interprets this as a general prohibition against cooking meat and dairy products together, and against eating such a mixture. To help prevent accidental violation of these rules, the modern standard Orthodox practice is to classify food into either being meat, dairy, or neither; the latter category is more usually referred to as parve from the Yiddish word parev (פארעוו) (also spelled "pareve") meaning neutral. As the biblical prohibition specifically refers to (young) goats, the flesh of mammals is logically categorised as meat, while that of fish is considered parve; however, rather than being considered parve, the flesh of birds is regarded by Modern halakha (Jewish law) as meat, though only by Rabbinic decree.

Food preparation by non-Jews

The classical rabbis prohibited any item of food that had been consecrated to an idol, or had been used in the service of an idol; since the Talmud views all non-Jews as idolaters, and viewed intermarriage with apprehension, it included within this prohibition any food which has been cooked/prepared completely by non-Jews. However, bread sold by a non-Jewish baker was not included in the prohibition; similarly, a number of Jewish writers believed that food prepared on behalf of Jews, by non-Jewish servants, would not count as idolatry, although this view was opposed by Jacob ben Asher.

Consequently, modern Orthodox Jews generally believe that wine, cheese, certain cooked foods, and sometimes even dairy products, should only be prepared by Jews. The prohibition against drinking non-Jewish wine, traditionally called yayin nesekh (literally meaning wine for offering [to a deity]), is not absolute. Cooked wine (Hebrew: yayin mevushal), meaning wine which has been heated, is regarded as drinkable on the basis that heated wine was not historically used as a religious libation; thus kosher wine includes mulled wine, and pasteurised wine, regardless of producer, but Orthodox Judaism only regards other forms of wine as kosher if prepared by a Jew.

Some Jews refer to these prohibited foods as akum, an acronym of Obhde Kokhabkim U Mazzaloth, meaning worshippers of stars and planets; akum is thus a reference to activities which these Jews view as idolatry, and in many significant works of post-classical Jewish literature, such as the Shulchan Aruch, it has been applied to Christians in particular. However, among the classical rabbis, there were a number who refused to treat Christians as idolaters, and consequently regarded food which had been manufactured by them as being kosher; this detail has been noted and upheld by a number of religious authorities in Conservative Judaism, such as Rabbi Israel Silverman, and Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff.

Conservative Judaism is more lenient; in the 1960s, Rabbi Israel Silverman issued a responsum, officially approved by the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, in which he argued that wine manufactured by an automated process was not manufactured by gentiles, and therefore would be kosher. A later responsum of Conservative Judaism was issued by Rabbi Elliott Dorff, who argued, based on precedents in 15th-19th century responsa, that many foods, such as wheat and oil products, which had once been forbidden when produced by non-Jews, were eventually declared kosher; on this basis he concluded that wine and grape products produced by non-Jews would be permissible.

Tainted food

For obvious reasons, the Talmud adds to the biblical regulations a prohibition against consuming poisoned animals. Similarly the Yoreh De'ah prohibits the drinking of water, if the water had been left overnight and uncovered in an area where there might be serpents, on the basis that a serpent might have left its venom in the water.

Combining fish and meat

The Talmud and Yoreh Deah suggest that eating meat and fish together may cause tzaraat. Tzaraat was a bodily affliction often translated as leprosy; this translation is problematic because leprosy is caused by a parasitic species of bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, and is not related to eating fish and meat together. Strictly Orthodox Jews thus avoid combining the two while Conservative Jews may or may not.

See also

• Unclean animals
• Milk and meat
• Halal
• Islamic and Jewish dietary laws compared
• Kosher tax
• Taboo food and drink
• Kosher salt

External links

• Laws of Judaism concerning food
• Kosher - A guide to eating Jewishly