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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 (meat with milk products). It mandates kitchen practices that help
maintain those restrictions. These laws, known collectively as kashrut, which literally means
"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.
Many explanations have been offered for each aspect of kashrut. The Torah suggests that the
Israelites attain unique holiness through food restrictions that distinguish them from other
peoples. Some later explanations are framed in behavioral categories internal to Judaism, such
as inculcating kindness and preventing cruelty to animals. Others are the insights of
historians and anthropologists, frequently on the basis of comparison with other religious
systems. None has proved universally satisfactory, but many have served to bolster the desire
of some Jews to observe these challenging restrictions.
History: 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.
Kosher Food: 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.
Kosher Lifestyle: Preventing the mixing of meat products and milk
products has led to the practice of maintaining separate sets of cookware, tableware, and
flatware for meat and dairy. Some households also have items used for neither meat nor milk
(this category is called pareve, or neutral); food prepared using these can be eaten with
either meat or dairy.
Establishing a kosher kitchen requires some work, but the regularities are not difficult to
maintain. Making an existing kitchen kosher may involve replacing some equipment, but many
items can be made kosher and some need no treatment at all. With good will, flexibility, and
creativity, individuals can "keep kosher" in nonkosher homes andrestaurants.
Ask an average person to describe kosher food and they might say it is food "blessed by a
rabbi." The word "kosher," however, is Hebrew for "fit" or
"appropriate" and describes the food that is suitable for a Jew to eat. With its
roots in the Hebrew Bible, the system of defining which foods are kosher was developed by the
rabbis of late antiquity. Its application to changing realities has been the work of
subsequent generations, including our own.
Close readers of the Torah might notice that according to the book of Genesis, vegetarianism
was commanded by God as the ideal diet (see Genesis 1:29). However, in the course of the
biblical narratives, this changed to include a variety of different animals. According to the
Torah (Leviticus, chapter 11), only certain kinds of animals are considered inherently kosher.
For land animals, any creature that both chews its cud and has split hooves is kosher. For sea
creatures, any fish that has both fins and scales is acceptable, and for birds, only those
birds approved by the Torah (or others that later authorities have judged to be like them, a
list that excludes scavengers and birds of prey). In addition, it is repeated three times in
the Torah that it is forbidden to cook a baby goat in its own mother's milk.
The rabbis in the Talmud further developed these principles of kashrut. In order to consume
kosher land animals and birds, it is necessary to slaughter them in a prescribed way, in a
manner that has been described as a more humane method than is practiced commercially. In
addition, the prohibition of cooking a baby goat in its own mother's milk is the basis for the
complete, physical, hermetic separation of all milk and meat products. These are the
fundamental elements of kashrut.
All questions, problems or issues about keeping kosher ultimately revolve around the basic
principles of kashrut described above. Usually, the questions have to do with the last basic
element, the complete separation of milk and meat products. The use of different sets of
dishes and pots and pans, developed in order to ensure a greater separation between milk and
meat foods. This is also the basis of waiting several hours after eating a meat dish before
eating a dairy product, so that the two types of food shouldn't even mix together in our
stomachs.
Whether a particular food is considered kosher or not usually has to do with whether any
substance or product used in its manufacture was derived from a non-kosher animal or even an
animal that is kosher but was not slaughtered in the prescribed manner. Rabbinic supervision
of the production of food, a practiced called hashgachah enables it to carry a "seal of
approval". It is not "blessed by a rabbi".
There are three categories of kosher foods:
1) Dairy, such as cheese, milk, yogurt, ice cream, etc.
2) Meat, which includes all kosher animals and fowl slaughtered in the prescribed manner, as
well as their derivative products.
3) Pareve, is a Yiddish word meaning "neutral." These are foods that are neither
dairy nor meat, such as eggs and fish, tofu, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables, and the like,
as long as they are not prepared with milk or meat products.
In keeping kosher, it is necessary to keep all dairy and meat foods completely separate.
Pareve foods, however, may be mixed in and served with either category of food since these
foods are neither milk or meat. |
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