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Kosher foods are those that conform to the regulations of kashrut (Jewish dietary law). Food that may be consumed according to halakha (Jewish law) is termed kosher in English, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér (כָּשֵׁר), meaning “fit” (in this context, fit for consumption). Food that is not in accordance with Jewish law is called treif (Yiddish: טרײף or treyf, derived from Hebrew טְרֵפָה trāfáh).
A list of some kosher foods are found in the books of Leviticus 11:1-47 and Deuteronomy 14: 3-20, as are also certain kosher rules. Reasons for food not being kosher include the presence of ingredients derived from nonkosher animals or from kosher animals that were not slaughtered in a ritually proper manner, a mixture ofmeat and milk, wine and 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.
Every law of kashrut, according to all Rabbinic authorities of the ages in a rare agreement, makes the assertion that the laws can be broken when human life is at stake. Among the dozens of sources for the laws of pikuach nefesh (the Jewish term for saving any life) are the multiple discussions in the Talmud, for instance B. Yoma 83a, “We have agreed in the case of saving a soul he may be given [by a doctor in this case] to eat even unclean things, until his eyes are lightened from death”.
- 1 Clean and unclean animals
- 2 Animal products
- 2.1 Dairy products
- 2.1.1 Human breast milk
- 2.2 Cheese
- 2.3 Eggs
- 2.4 Gelatin
- 2.1 Dairy products
- 3 Blood
- 4 Ritual slaughter
- 4.1 Foreleg, cheeks and maw
- 5 Food preparation by non-Jews
- 6 Tainted food
- 7 Milk and meat
- 8 Fish and meat
1. Clean and unclean animals
Main articles: Kosher animals and Unclean animalDeuteronomy and Leviticus state that any animal 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.[1][2] The texts identify four animals in particular as being unclean for this reason; the hare, hyrax, camel, and pig — although the camel is a ruminant and has two toes, and the hare and hyrax are hind gut fermenters rather than ruminants.[3]
The Torah lists winged creatures which may not be consumed, mainly birds of prey, fish-eating water-birds, and bats. Leviticus and Deuteronomy state that anything residing in “the waters” (seas and rivers) is ritually clean only if it has both fins and scales.[4][5]
Leviticus states that every creeping thing that crawls the earth is unclean (Hebrew: sheqets).[6] However, a bug born inside a fruit may be eaten if it has never crawled on the ground. All “flying creeping things” are also considered ritually unclean,[7][8] according to both Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Leviticus lists four exceptions, including locusts.
2. 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.[9] This included eggs (including fish roe)[10][11][12] and milk,[13] as well as derived products such as cheese and jelly,[13] 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.
3. Dairy products[edit]
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 retroactively nonkosher. 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 nonkosher 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.
4. Human breast milk
Human women’s breast milk of any kind is permitted. However, authorities assert breast milk may be consumed directly from the breasts only by children younger than four (five if the child is ill), and children older than two were only permitted to continue to suckle if they had not stopped doing so for more than three consecutive days.
5. Cheese
The situation of cheese is complicated as hard cheese usually involves rennet, an enzyme which splits milk into curds and whey. Most forms of rennet were formerly derived from the stomach linings of animals, but currently rennet is most often made recombinantly in microbes. Because the rennet could be derived from animals, it could potentially be nonkosher. Only rennet made recombinantly, or 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.[25]
Rabbi 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 argue this is necessary for cheese made with nonanimal rennet. In practice, Orthodox Jews who observe the kashrut laws, only eat cheese if they are certain the rennet itself was kosher.
6. Eggs
Eggs are considered pareve despite being an animal product; Mayonnaise is usually marked “pareve” because it contains egg.
The Yoreh De’ah argues that if there is blood in the egg yolk, then hatching must have begun, and therefore consumption of the egg would be forbidden.[27] Modern Orthodox Jews adhere to these requirements; however, the Ashkenazi Orthodox Jews treat an egg as nonkosher if blood is found anywhere within it. Sephardi Orthodox Jews only consider blood in the yolk to be a problem, and treat eggs with blood in the albumen as legitimate food if the blood is removed before use.
Today, when battery eggs form the majority of available produce, many permit the egg with a blood spot following the removal of any actual blood; battery eggs are unlikely to be able to form a viable embryo.
7. Gelatin
Gelatin is hydrolysed collagen, the main protein in animal connective tissue, and therefore could potentially come from a nonkosher 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 cosmeticsand 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 nonkosher. However, 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 produced by separating the three strands in each collagen fibre’s triple helix by boiling collagen in water.
One of the main methods of avoiding nonkosher 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 and vegetarians.
Today manufacturers are producing gelatin from the skins of kosher fish, circumventing many of these problems.
8. 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[33] and twice in Leviticus[34][35] as well as in Deuteronomy.[36] 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 God (by burning it on the altar).[37]
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.[42] 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 20 minutes and one hour.[42] 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[42]) to complete the extraction of the blood. The type of salt used in the process is known as kosher salt.
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 while cooking, and is the usual treatment given to these organs. It is also an acceptable method for removing blood from all meat.
9. Ritual slaughter
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”;[43] a related law appears in Deuteronomy’s law code, totally prohibiting the consumption of anything that has died fromnatural causes, and even giving away or selling such things.[44] The Book of Ezekiel implies[45] that the rules about animals which die of natural causes, or are “torn by beasts”, were only adhered to by the priests,[46] and were only intended for them;[47] the implication that they did not apply to, and were not upheld by, ordinary Israelites was noticed by the classical rabbis, who declared “the prophet Elijah shall some day explain this problematic passage”.[48]
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 the animal be killed by a single cut across the throat to a precise depth, severing both carotid arteries, both jugular veins, both vagus nerves, thetrachea 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 know that this ensures the animal dies instantly without unnecessary suffering!
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. Rabbis usually require the slaughterer, known within Judaism as a shochet, to also be a pious Jew of good character and an observer of the Shabbat. 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 which 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 termedglatt (גלאַט), the Yiddish word meaning smooth.
10. Foreleg, cheeks and maw
Main article: Foreleg, cheeks and mawThe gift of the foreleg, cheeks and maw (Hebrew: זְּרועַ לְּחָיַיִם וְקֵּיבָה) of a kosher-slaughtered animal to a Kohen is a positive commandment in the Hebrew Bible.
In rabbinical interpretation a continuing application of the commandment is identified. Rabbi Yosef Karo Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deah 61:1,[54] rules that after the slaughter of animal by a shochet (kosher butcher), the cuts of the foreleg, cheek and maw should be given to a kohen freely, without the kohen paying or performing any service.[55] This giving is required to be free of both monetary and servicial compensation (B.Bechorot 27a).
These gifts are entirely mundane (“chullin”) and are not associated with all or part of the sacrificial offerings brought on the central altar in the Jerusalem temple(Mishna Chullin Ch. 10:1). Some chazal opinions maintain that consumption of the animal is forbidden before these gifts are given but halacha rules that although one may consume the meat before the gifts are given it is preferred to ensure the gifts are given prior to consumption. Furthermore, the actual foreleg, cheeks and maw of all kosher-slaughtered beef is forbidden to a non-kohen unless the kohen permits[56]
11. Food preparation by non-Jews
See also: Kosher wineThe classical rabbis prohibited any item of food that had been consecrated to an idol, or had been used in the service of an idol.[57] Since the Talmud views all non-Jews as potential idolaters, and viewed intermarriage with apprehension, it included within this prohibition any food which has been cooked/prepared completely by non-Jews.[58][59] (Bread sold by a non-Jewish baker was not included in the prohibition.[58][59]) Similarly, a number of Jewish writers believed food prepared for Jews by non-Jewish servants would not count as prepared by potential idolaters, although this view was opposed by Jacob ben Asher.[60]
Consequently, modern Orthodox Jews generally believe wine, 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 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.
12. Tainted food
For obvious reasons, the Talmud adds to the biblical regulations a prohibition against consuming poisoned animals.[64] 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 venomin the water.[65] In a place where there is no suspicion of snakes, this prohibition does not apply (tosafos, beitzah 6a).
13. Milk and meat
Main article: Milk and meat in Jewish lawThree 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 or deriving any benefit from 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; this third category is more usually referred to as parev from the Yiddish word parev (פארעוו) (also spelled parve and pareve) meaning “neutral”. As the biblical prohibition uses the word “Gedi” and not “Gedi Izim”, the flesh of all “Behemoth” (domestic mammals) is categorised as “meat”, while that of fish and bugs is considered parve; however, rather than being considered parve, the flesh of birds and “chayot” (like deer) has been regarded by halakha (Jewish law) as meat for over 2000 years, though only byRabbinic decree.
One of the major dietary laws that observant Jews keep of Kashruth is that dairy and meat may not be eaten at the same meal. Though it is mentioned many times in the Torah, Rashi held that it was connected to two major ethical laws in the Jewish heritage from the original Five Books of Moses, which are first: to respect the mother animal, Exodus 23:19 “You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk” (C.F. to above law about mother birds, Deuteronomy 22:6, “If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young.”). Which some held relate to the “hurt to living” (tzaar baalei chaim) statute cited throughout Jewish law, against hurting any living thing, the Mishnah Avoth 1:12 “Be a disciple of Aaron… and love all of God’s animals” (chaim, living), also “His compassion is over all of His creatures” (Psalm 145:9) again the term is “chaim” living things.
14. Fish and meat
The Talmud and Yoreh Deah suggest that eating meat and fish together may cause tzaraath.[66][67] Orthodox Jews thus avoid combining the two,[68][69]
- Our article What is Kosher ? – Questions and Answers about Kashrut is all based on From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Kosher Eli 
Reblogged this on midnightrabbi inspires! and commented:
Important to remember some basic facts about kosher food. But even more, #struggle to remember the Righteous people of blessed memory zt’l on there special day of the yahrzeit of the Klausenberger rebbe. He kept Kosher in the valley of hell and survived the death camps of the Holocaust to rebuild again, truly beyond words! May his merit protect us all!
Kosherstory #slaughter http://youtu.be/rYsTS8WsscE3 #emotional growth in #kosherfood!