Dietary%20Laws

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Dietary Laws

• Keeping Kosher

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Why?

• Common misconception
• Instituted for health reasons
• Any benefits are unexpected
• Life span not affected
• General health not improved
• Real reason
• For I am the Lord your God! Therefore, sanctify
  yourselves and be holy, for I am holyFor I am
  the Lord that brought you out of the land of
  Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be
  holy (Leviticus 1144-45).
• Holiness is the only reason given

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Chukim mandatory statutes

• Must obey the laws of the Torah, even if the
  reason for them is beyond mans understanding
• Kashrus
• From the root kosher (or kasher)
• Means suitable and/or pure, thus ensuring fitness
  for consumption

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Attempts to explain

• Maimonides Dietary laws train us to master our
  appetites to accustom us to restrain our
  desires and to avoid considering the pleasure of
  eating and drinking as the goal of mans
  existence.
• Early Rabbis The secret of Jewish survival was
  separatism. Being a holy people meant being a
  people apart.
• If we cannot eat with them, our sons will not
  marry their daughters, and Judaism will be
  preserved.

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What can be eaten?

• According to the laws of the Torah, the only
  types of meat that may be eaten are cattle and
  game that have cloven hooves and chew the cud
• Cattle, sheep, goats, deer, and bison
• If an animal species fulfills only one of these
  conditions (Ex. the pig which has split hooves
  but does not chew the cud the camel which
  chews the cud but does not have split hooves),
  then its meat may not be eaten
• Certain fish and certain fowl
• These fish you may eat all that are in the
  waters whatsoever has fins and scales may you
  eat and whatsoever has no fins or scales, you
  may not eat it is unclean to you (Deuteronomy
  14 9-10).

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Kashering

• Removing the blood, the veins, and the skin
• According to the laws of the Torah, to be eaten,
  a kosher species must be slaughtered by a
  Shochet, a ritual slaughterer
• Severing the jugular vein so the animal dies
  instantaneously, and the maximum amount of blood
  leaves the body
• Since Jewish Law prohibits any pain to animals,
  the slaughtering has to be effected in such a way
  that unconsciousness is instantaneous and death
  occurs almost immediately

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Combining meat and milk

• The Torah says You may not cook a young animal
  in the milk of its mother (Exodus 2319)
• From this, it is derived that milk and meat
  products may not be cooked together. Not only
  may they not be cooked together, but they also
  may not be served together on the same table or
  eaten at the same time.
• The rule is scrupulously upheld in observant
  Jewish households, even in the handling of
  utensils, which are carefully labeled and
  separated into fleishig (meat) and milchig
  (dairy)

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Terayfa

• Means torn
• You shall not eat any flesh that is torn
  (terayfa) of beasts (Exodus 2230)
• Beasts killed by other beasts in the open field
• Extended to include all forbidden foods and all
  foods not prepared in accordance with the dietary
  laws

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Food prepared 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 potential
  idolaters, it included within this prohibition
  any food which has been cooked/prepared
  completely by non-Jews.
• Consequently, modern Orthodox Jews generally
  believe wine, certain cooked foods, and sometimes
  even dairy products should only be prepared by
  Jews.

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Kosher Salt

• Koshering salt, usually referred to as kosher
  salt in the US, is a variety of edible salt with
  a much larger grain size than some common table
  salt.
• The term "kosher salt" comes from its use in
  making meats kosher by removing surface blood,
  not from its being made in accordance with the
  guidelines for kosher foods as written in the
  Torah, as nearly all salt is kosher, including
  ordinary table salt.