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Introduction to Kashrut

Kashrut 101

Traditional Jewish practice forbids the consumption of some types of food (certain varieties of animals, animals slaughtered by any but the accepted method, the blood of mammals or birds) and some combinations of foods (roughly, meat with milk products). It mandates kitchen practices that help maintain those restrictions. These laws, known collectively as kashrut (literally, “fitness”), are observed in varying degrees among Jewish families and individuals. For those who choose to observe some or all of the system of kashrut , it serves as a frequent reminder of their distinct identity as Jews.

The Torah is the source of limitations on what foods from animal sources may be consumed and of the ban on “cooking a kid in its mother’s milk.” Rabbinic tradition interprets those prohibitions, filling in operative details and setting up further restrictions to provide greater assurance that the Torah’s bans are not violated. Over centuries of application and interpretation, these restrictions

have been extended and refined. Modern Jewish thinkers and movements vary in the degree to which they advocate the observance of kashrut. Some have tried to blend it with such contemporary concerns as vegetarianism and environmentalism.

Food from animal sources is subject to many conditions. Only certain species of mammals and birds are kosher , and then only if slaughtered in a particular fashion and found healthy upon inspection. The prohibition on consuming blood requires that meat be salted and soaked. Fish with fins and scales are kosher, and their flesh requires no such special treatment.

Today, Jews who observe kashrut rely on recognized supervision agencies whose symbols on packaged foods or whose certificates in shops and restaurants testify to the acceptability of the food within.

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/kashrut-101/

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg

Kashrut is one of the defining religious practices of Jewish tradition. Over the centuries, there has been strong criticism of the idea behind kosher food. Scoffers dismissed the laws as “Judaism of the belly.” The New Testament quotes Jesus as saying: “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person—but what comes out of the mouth.”1 Spirituality should be all about nurturing your mind and heart and directing them to meaningful purposes, not about satisfying your appetite or supplying nutrients to your body.

I beg to differ. The laws of Kashrut are an extraordinary paradigm of the Torah’s spiritual vision of an (ultimate) ideal world—and how to live in the real world as it is, while simultaneously upholding a higher standard, working towards the final tikkun (repair).2 Underlying this analysis is a fundamental thesis about Judaism: This is a religion that teaches that the highest value is life itself; that humans are called to join in a covenant-partnership with God to live on the side of life.3 Starting in the present real world, we are to develop life to its maximum. We are to work to improve both nature and society to uphold all forms of life in all the dignity and value that we deserve. Finally, in every human behavior in life, there is a choice between life and death. The human calling is to maximize life and minimize death in every action to whatever extent possible.

Eating is manifestly a matter of life and death. If you do not eat, you will die. However, what you choose to eat and how you prepare the food can further increase the quotient of life or of death in eating. Hence, the Torah regulates food and its preparation to shape the experience of eating into an act of maximum health and reverence for life.

Crucially, the Torah’s ideal of eating is vegetarianism—that is, that a person should not live by killing another sentient being. In the Garden of Eden narrative, not just humans, but all living creatures, are vegetarians. “God said I have given you all every herb bearing seed… and every tree on which is the fruit… to you for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything… on the earth in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food…” (Genesis 1:29-30). According to Isaiah, in the Messianic age, when the world is totally repaired, then not just humans but animals will be vegetarian: “...the wolf shall live with the lamb… and the calf and young lion and the fatling together… and the lion shall eat hay like the cattle…” (Isaiah 11:6-7).

However, in the current real world, the Torah pivots and compromises with the human situation. After the flood, God concludes to live with humans’ imperfections, to make concessions rather than uphold ideal standards by force, and to work with humans to repair the world gradually in order to attain the final perfections.4 Given that humans need the protein and given that humans’ hunting is central to their food sufficiency, God grants them the right to eat meat (Genesis 9:2-3).


This permission is a concession which undercuts the sacredness of life; therefore, a restriction is placed on meat eating (Genesis 9:4). Note that the laws of Kashrut are all about restrictions on meat eating. All vegetables and mineral foods are kosher for all humans to eat at all times. The first law of Kashrut is on all human beings, not just Jews. All humans are prohibited to eat blood. Blood is forbidden to eat because it is understood to be the carrier of life.5 Obeying the ban on eating blood is humanity’s acknowledgement that ideally it should not kill other living beings for food. We eat the meat but the blood is not ours to consume; the life belongs to God. This restriction restores some of the sense of the sacredness of life which was weakened by acceptance of meat eating. Thus it is a step from the present flawed reality toward the final stage when life will again be untouched and supreme.

When the Jews enter the covenant of Abraham (and later at Sinai), they commit to be an avant garde, a kind of “lead partners” in the universal covenant with humanity. We commit to push harder toward the final stage by holding ourselves to a higher standard right now. Therefore the Jewish laws of Kashrut apply many more restrictions on meat eating. Note again that there are no restrictions on eating vegetable or mineral products. Thus the Jewish religious diet tries to amplify the sacredness of life over and above that of the surrounding cultures, even when permitting meat eating.

The additional restrictions are calibrated to the level of life that one is consuming. The less developed forms of life (which appear earlier in the Creation narrative) are less restricted. The lowest form of life permitted to eat under kosher laws is fish. There is only one general restriction on fish. Only a few species are permitted, those that have fins and scales (Leviticus 11:9-12).6

If one wants to eat flesh of the next level up of life, that is, birds, then there are two general restrictions. One is, again: only a limited number of species are permitted. The Torah does not give signs that identify a kosher species (like fins and scales among fish).7 In the talmudic discussion, however, the Rabbis say that there is one definite marker of non-kosher bird species: ones with a prominent strike talon.8 This shows that the bird is a predator which lives primarily by hunting other birds and smaller animals. Such a species which lives primarily by killing is ipso facto not appropriate eating for a people which seeks to uphold the sacredness of life.

The second general restriction on eating flesh of birds is that there is a specified ritual of slaughter by which it must be killed. This method of shechitah involves cutting the jugular vein and the esophagus with a perfectly sharpened knife (i.e. totally smooth edge, clean, instant strike, not a tearing gradual motion). The knife slash cuts off the flow of blood (and air) to the brain causing instant loss of consciousness. In other words, the bird must be put to death swiftly and painlessly. If the bird dies by beating, wounding, crushing, etc. then its death is slower and its suffering greater and it is not permissible to eat it. Again, the process of Kashrut minimizes death and suffering - thus upholding the preciousness of life even in the face of eating meat.

The highest level of evolved life of permitted kosher food is land animals. Here there are three general prohibitions that restrict the meat eating. The first again is a species restriction. Only animals that chew the cud and have a split hoof (ungulates) are permitted. There are very few species that fall into this category. We know that chewing the cud (that is having a second stomach and rechewing and digesting the food) is because the animal’s diet is strictly vegetarian which is more difficult to digest. It follows that all kosher animals are herbivores. They are not carnivores, not hunters.

This begs the question: Why should a peaceable, non-predatory animal be consigned to be eaten? What kind of reward is that for being of a gentle nature? One possibility is the Torah’s deeper message is that “you are what you eat.” Eating predators instills aggression, be it physiologically or psychologically.

The second general restriction with animals is the requirement of shechitah to insure a swift, painless death.9 Since cattle and larger animals are more difficult to slaughter, hoist and shackle treatments were developed to hold the animals down. Some of these procedures were painful and harmful to animals so kosher slaughterhouses changed over to holding pens which are more humane. Some fundamentalist Orthodox slaughterhouses were slower to make these adaptations, leaving some stain on the reputation of kosher slaughter. Nevertheless, the kosher slaughter laws clearly are intended to respect animal life and minimize its pain.

The third general restriction placed on eating meat of animals was in the method of preparation. Even properly slaughtered meat can not be mixed or cooked with milk (or served with dairy either). The symbolism is clear. Meat is the flesh of a killed animal. Milk is the nurture of life, especially mother’s milk.10 Life is life and death is death and ‘never the twain shall meet’ is a good articulation of the halakhic approach. In Jacob Milgrom’s words, the tradition is objecting to “the fusion and confusion of life and death simultaneously.” The covenant asks its members to see life and death forces in binary opposition to each other and one must not blur the lines between them. Once the choice is stark and clear, the covenant participant is instructed to “choose life.”

Every day, in every food preparation, in every meal - by not eating unthinkingly, or consuming whatever is at hand, or the standard food of the society, the kosher practitioner proclaims commitment to the supremacy of life. The selection of food proclaims that s/he/we are on the way to a vegetarian lifestyle and an age when humans will not raise their hands to kill another - be it animals or humans.

https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/311737.1?lang=en&with=all&lang2=en

Final discussion ~ R. Arthur Waskow

For different Jews do maintain different answers to the question, "Is this food kosher?" For example, some will only accept certain types of Rabbinical certification on packaged goods, while others are satisfied with reading labels to verify ingredients as kosher.

Some people will drink only kosher wine, while others believe this category is no longer relevant.

Some keep "Biblical kashrut," only abstaining from Biblically forbidden foods.

Some are willing to eat non-kosher foods in restaurants and in other people's homes, others are willing only to eat intrinsically kosher foods such as fish and vegetables on non-kosher utensils when they are away from home, while still others do not eat any cooked foods away from home.
A new kashrut that drew on the ethical strands of Torah would also demand that people make choices about how to observe. For example: Some might treat the principle of oshek (not oppressing workers) as paramount, and choose to use only products that are grown or made without any oppression of food workers (food, for example, from one's own backyard or neighborhood garden, or from a kibbutz where all workers are also co-owners and co-managers).

Others might make the principle of bal tashchit (protection of the environment) paramount, and put oshek in a secondary place -- perhaps applying it only when specifically asked to do so by workers who are protesting their plight.
But there might also be some important differences in the way choices will work in an ethical kashrut, from the way choices work in traditional kashrut. In the new approach, there might be so many ethical values to weigh that it would be rare to face a black-and-white choice in a particular product.
This one is grown by union workers, that one with special care for the earth and water, another . . . .
So choices would depend more on a balancing and synthesizing of the underlying values than on an absolute sense of Good and Bad. More on a sense of Both/And than of Either/Or.

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