Kosher foods
Encyclopedia
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 11:1-47. There are also certain kosher rules found there. Reasons for food not being kosher include the presence of ingredients derived from nonkosher 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 tithe
d, or the use of nonkosher cooking utensils and machinery.
s (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).
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 20 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) 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 while cooking, and is the usual treatment given to these organs. It is also an acceptable method for removing blood from all meat.
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.
, 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.
; 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.
, an enzyme which splits milk into curd
s 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 nonkosher. 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 rabbi
s, 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, and some Conservative Jews who observe the kashrut laws, only eat cheese if they are certain the rennet itself was kosher.
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 emulsion
s 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 nonkosher. 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 kitniyot
.
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 pectin
s, 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. http://www.gelatin.co.za/gelatine-consumer.html
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 "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 the animal be killed by a single cut across the throat to a precise depth, severing both carotid arteries
, both jugular vein
s, both vagus nerve
s, 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. 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 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.
Modern Orthodox Jews adhere to these requirements; however, the Ashkenazi Orthodox Jews treat an egg as nonkosher if blood is found anywhere within it, and 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.
Today where battery eggs form the majority of available produce many permit the egg with a blood spot following the removal of any actual blood as battery eggs are unlikely to be able to form a viable embryo anyway. http://www.torah.org/advanced/weekly-halacha/5764/shlach.html#
s 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
.
, 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 food prepared on behalf of Jews, by non-Jewish servants, would not count as prepared by potential idolaters, although this view was opposed by Jacob ben Asher
.
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 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 postclassical 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 wine and grape products produced by non-Jews would be permissible.
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.
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
law framework, kosher meaning fit or allowed to be eaten. A list of some kosher foods are found in the book of Leviticus 11:1-47. There are also certain kosher rules found there. Reasons for food not being kosher include the presence of ingredients derived from nonkosher animals or from kosher animals that were not properly slaughtered, a mixture of meat
Meat
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
and milk
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
, wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
or grape juice
Grape juice
Grape juice is obtained from crushing and blending grapes into a liquid. The juice is often sold in stores or fermented and made into wine, brandy, or vinegar. In the wine industry, grape juice that contains 7-23 percent of pulp, skins, stems and seeds is often referred to as "must"...
(or their derivatives) produced without supervision, the use of produce from Israel that has not been tithe
Tithe
A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...
d, or the use of nonkosher cooking utensils and machinery.
Animal species
The Torah lists birds which may not be consumed, mainly birds of prey, fish-eating water-birds, and batBat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...
s (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
Ruminant
A ruminant is a mammal of the order Artiodactyla that digests plant-based food by initially softening it within the animal's first compartment of the stomach, principally through bacterial actions, then regurgitating the semi-digested mass, now known as cud, and chewing it again...
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
Hyrax
A hyrax is any of four species of fairly small, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the order Hyracoidea. The rock hyrax Procavia capensis, the yellow-spotted rock hyrax Heterohyrax brucei, the western tree hyrax Dendrohyrax dorsalis, and the southern tree hyrax, Dendrohyrax arboreus live in Africa...
, 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 a Noahide LawsNoahide Laws
The Seven Laws of Noah form the major part of the Noachide Laws, or Noahide Code. This code is a set of moral imperatives that, according to the Talmud, were given by God as a binding set of laws for the "children of Noah" – that is, all of humankind...
and twice in Leviticus
Leviticus
The Book of Leviticus is the third book of the Hebrew Bible, and the third of five books of the Torah ....
as well as in Deuteronomy. The Priestly Code also prohibits the eating of certain types of fat (chelev
Chelev
The Hebrew noun chelev is the term given to some kinds of animal fats in Judaism.The fat of animal sacrifices is subject to specific regulations in the Hebrew Bible....
) 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 20 minutes and one hour. The salt covering draws blood from the meat by osmosis
Osmosis
Osmosis is the movement of solvent molecules through a selectively permeable membrane into a region of higher solute concentration, aiming to equalize the solute concentrations on the two sides...
, 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) 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 while cooking, and is the usual treatment given to these organs. It is also an acceptable method for removing blood from all meat.
Animal products
In addition to meat, all other produceAnimal product
Animal product, or animal by-product, is a term used to describe material taken from the body of a non-human animal. Examples are fat, flesh, blood, milk, eggs, and lesser known products such as isinglass and rennet....
of ritually unclean animals, as well as from unhealthy animals, were banned by the Talmudic writers; this included eggs (including fish roe
Roe
Roe or hard roe is the fully ripe internal egg masses in the ovaries, or the released external egg masses of fish and certain marine animals, such as shrimp, scallop and sea urchins...
) 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 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 SchachterHershel Schachter
Hershel Schachter is a rabbi and rosh yeshiva at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary , Yeshiva University, in New York City, and the son of the late Rabbi Melech Schachter, who was also a rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University...
, a prominent rosh yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the dean of a Talmudical academy . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh — meaning head, and yeshiva — a school of religious Jewish education...
at Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is a research university ranked as 45th in the US among national universities by U.S. News & World Report in 2012...
, 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
Orthodox Union
The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America , more popularly known as the Orthodox Union , is one of the oldest Orthodox Jewish organizations in the United States. It is best known for its kosher food preparation supervision service...
, 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 milkBreast milk
Breast milk, more specifically human milk, is the milk produced by the breasts of a human female for her infant offspring...
; the only restriction applied to this substance was that it could only be consumed directly from the breasts
Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding is the feeding of an infant or young child with breast milk directly from female human breasts rather than from a baby bottle or other container. Babies have a sucking reflex that enables them to suck and swallow milk. It is recommended that mothers breastfeed for six months or...
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 if hard cheese usually involves rennetRennet
Rennet is a complex of enzymes produced in any mammalian stomach to digest the mother's milk, and is often used in the production of cheese. Rennet contains many enzymes, including a proteolytic enzyme that coagulates the milk, causing it to separate into solids and liquid...
, an enzyme which splits milk into curd
Curd
Curds are a dairy product obtained by curdling milk with rennet or an edible acidic substance such as lemon juice or vinegar, and then draining off the liquid portion. The increased acidity causes the milk proteins to tangle into solid masses, or curds. The remaining liquid, which contains only...
s and whey
Whey
Whey or Milk Serum is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. It is a by-product of the manufacture of cheese or casein and has several commercial uses. Sweet whey is manufactured during the making of rennet types of hard cheese like cheddar or Swiss cheese...
. 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 nonkosher. 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
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
, 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 rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
s, championed the viewpoint that all cheese was kosher, a standpoint which was practiced in communities in Narbonne
Narbonne
Narbonne is a commune in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Once a prosperous port, it is now located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea...
and Italy. Contemporary Orthodox
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
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, and some Conservative Jews who observe the kashrut laws, only eat cheese if they are certain the rennet itself was kosher.
Gelatin is hydrolysed
Hydrolysis
Hydrolysis is a chemical reaction during which molecules of water are split into hydrogen cations and hydroxide anions in the process of a chemical mechanism. It is the type of reaction that is used to break down certain polymers, especially those made by condensation polymerization...
collagen
Collagen
Collagen is a group of naturally occurring proteins found in animals, especially in the flesh and connective tissues of mammals. It is the main component of connective tissue, and is the most abundant protein in mammals, making up about 25% to 35% of the whole-body protein content...
, the main protein in animal connective tissue
Connective tissue
"Connective tissue" is a fibrous tissue. It is one of the four traditional classes of tissues . Connective Tissue is found throughout the body.In fact the whole framework of the skeleton and the different specialized connective tissues from the crown of the head to the toes determine the form of...
, 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
Embroidery
Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins....
, one of the main historic emulsion
Emulsion
An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible . Emulsions are part of a more general class of two-phase systems of matter called colloids. Although the terms colloid and emulsion are sometimes used interchangeably, emulsion is used when both the dispersed and the...
s used in cosmetics
Cosmetics
Cosmetics are substances used to enhance the appearance or odor of the human body. Cosmetics include skin-care creams, lotions, powders, perfumes, lipsticks, fingernail and toe nail polish, eye and facial makeup, towelettes, permanent waves, colored contact lenses, hair colors, hair sprays and...
and in photographic film
Photographic film
Photographic film is a sheet of plastic coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive silver halide salts with variable crystal sizes that determine the sensitivity, contrast and resolution of the film...
, the main coating given to medical capsule pills, and a form of food including jelly, trifle
Trifle
Trifle is a dessert dish made from thick custard, fruit, sponge cake, fruit juice or gelatin, and whipped cream. These ingredients are usually arranged in layers with fruit and sponge on the bottom, and custard and cream on top....
, 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, Conservative rabbis and several prominent Orthodox rabbis, including, Chaim Ozer Grodzinski
Chaim Ozer Grodzinski
Chaim Ozer Grodzinski was a pre-eminent Av beis din , posek , and Talmudic scholar in Vilnius, Lithuania in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
, and Ovadia Yosef
Ovadia Yosef
Ovadia Yosef is the former Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, a recognised Talmudic scholar and foremost halakhic authority.He currently serves as the spiritual leader of the Shas political party in the Israeli parliament...
— the former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel
Chief Rabbinate of Israel
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel is recognized by law as the supreme halakhic and spiritual authority for the Jewish people in Israel. The Chief Rabbinate Council assists the two chief rabbis, who alternate in its presidency. It has legal and administrative authority to organize religious...
— 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
Carmine
Carmine , also called Crimson Lake, Cochineal, Natural Red #4, C.I. 75470, or E120, is a pigment of a bright-red color obtained from the aluminum salt of carminic acid, which is produced by some scale insects, such as the cochineal beetle and the Polish cochineal, and is used as a general term for...
and kitniyot
Kitniyot
Kitniyot, qit'niyyoth are a category of foods which are defined by Jewish law and tradition that Ashkenazi Jews avoid eating during the Biblical festival of Passover....
.
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
Tapioca
Tapioca is a starch extracted Manihot esculenta. This species, native to the Amazon, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and most of the West Indies, is now cultivated worldwide and has many names, including cassava, manioc, aipim,...
, chemically modified pectin
Pectin
Pectin is a structural heteropolysaccharide contained in the primary cell walls of terrestrial plants. It was first isolated and described in 1825 by Henri Braconnot...
s, and carrageenan
Carrageenan
Carrageenans or carrageenins are a family of linear sulfated polysaccharides that are extracted from red seaweeds. There are several varieties of carrageen used in cooking and baking. Kappa-carrageenan is used mostly in breading and batter due to its gelling nature...
combined with certain vegetable gums — guar gum
Guar gum
Guar gum, also called guaran, is a galactomannan. It is primarily the ground endosperm of guar beans. The guar seeds are dehusked, milled and screened to obtain the guar gum. It is typically produced as a free-flowing, pale, off-white-colored, coarse to fine ground powder.-Production:Guar gum is an...
, locust bean gum
Locust bean gum
Locust bean gum is a galactomannan vegetable gum extracted from the seeds of the carob tree, mostly found in the Mediterranean region. The long pods that grow on the tree are used to make this gum. The pods are kibbled to separate the seed from the pulp...
, xanthan gum
Xanthan gum
Xanthan gum is a polysaccharide, derived from the bacterial coat of Xanthomonas campestris, used as a food additive and rheology modifier, commonly used as a food thickening agent and a stabilizer...
, gum acacia, agar
Agar
Agar or agar-agar is a gelatinous substance derived from a polysaccharide that accumulates in the cell walls of agarophyte red algae. Throughout history into modern times, agar has been chiefly used as an ingredient in desserts throughout Asia and also as a solid substrate to contain culture medium...
, 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
Veganism
Veganism is the practice of eliminating the use of animal products. Ethical vegans reject the commodity status of animals and the use of animal products for any purpose, while dietary vegans or strict vegetarians eliminate them from their diet only...
and vegetarians
Vegetarianism
Vegetarianism encompasses the practice of following plant-based diets , with or without the inclusion of dairy products or eggs, and with the exclusion of meat...
.
Today manufacturers are producing gelatin from the skins of kosher fish, circumventing many of these problems. http://www.gelatin.co.za/gelatine-consumer.html
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"; 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 EzekielBook of Ezekiel
The Book of Ezekiel is the third of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, following the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah and preceding the Book of the Twelve....
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 "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
Shechita
Shechita is the ritual slaughter of mammals and birds according to Jewish dietary laws...
. These strict guidelines require the animal be killed by a single cut across the throat to a precise depth, severing both carotid arteries
Carotid artery
Carotid artery can refer to:* Common carotid artery* External carotid artery* Internal carotid artery...
, both jugular vein
Jugular vein
The jugular veins are veins that bring deoxygenated blood from the head back to the heart via the superior vena cava.-Internal and external:There are two sets of jugular veins: external and internal....
s, both vagus nerve
Vagus nerve
The vagus nerve , also called pneumogastric nerve or cranial nerve X, is the tenth of twelve paired cranial nerves...
s, the trachea
Vertebrate trachea
In tetrapod anatomy the trachea, or windpipe, is a tube that connects the pharynx or larynx to the lungs, allowing the passage of air. It is lined with pseudostratified ciliated columnar epithelium cells with goblet cells that produce mucus...
and the esophagus
Esophagus
The esophagus is an organ in vertebrates which consists of a muscular tube through which food passes from the pharynx to the stomach. During swallowing, food passes from the mouth through the pharynx into the esophagus and travels via peristalsis to the stomach...
, no higher than the epiglottis
Epiglottis
The epiglottis is a flap that is made of elastic cartilage tissue covered with a mucous membrane, attached to the entrance of the larynx. It projects obliquely upwards behind the tongue and the hyoid bone, pointing dorsally. The term, like tonsils, is often incorrectly used to refer to the uvula...
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. 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
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
. In smaller communities, the shochet was often the town rabbi, or a rabbi from a local synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
, 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
Inflammation
Inflammation is part of the complex biological response of vascular tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. Inflammation is a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli and to initiate the healing process...
. 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; however, the Ashkenazi Orthodox Jews treat an egg as nonkosher if blood is found anywhere within it, and 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.
Today where battery eggs form the majority of available produce many permit the egg with a blood spot following the removal of any actual blood as battery eggs are unlikely to be able to form a viable embryo anyway. http://www.torah.org/advanced/weekly-halacha/5764/shlach.html#
Milk and meat
Three times the Torah specifically forbids "seething" a young goat "in its mother's milk" . 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; the latter category is more usually referred to as parev from the Yiddish word parev (פארעוו) (also spelled parve) meaning "neutral". As the biblical prohibition specifically refers to (young) goats, the flesh of mammalMammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...
s 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
D'Oraita and D'Rabbanan
The Aramaic terms de-'oraita and de-rabbanan are used extensively in discussion and text relating to Jewish law. The former refers to halachic requirements that are biblically mandated, while the latter refers to halachic requirements that are rabbinically mandated...
.
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 potential idolatersIdolatry
Idolatry is a pejorative term for the worship of an idol, a physical object such as a cult image, as a god, or practices believed to verge on worship, such as giving undue honour and regard to created forms other than God. In all the Abrahamic religions idolatry is strongly forbidden, although...
, and viewed intermarriage
Interfaith marriage in Judaism
Interfaith marriage in Judaism was historically looked upon with very strong disfavour by Jewish leaders, and it remains a controversial issue amongst Jewish leaders today. In the Talmud, interfaith marriage is completely prohibited, although the definition of interfaith is not so simply expressed...
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 food prepared on behalf of Jews, by non-Jewish servants, would not count as prepared by potential idolaters, although this view was opposed by Jacob ben Asher
Jacob ben Asher
Jacob ben Asher, also known as Ba'al ha-Turimas well as Rabbi Yaakov ben Raash , was likely born in Cologne, Germany c.1269 and likely died in Toledo, Spain c.1343....
.
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 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
Kosher wine
Kosher wine is grape wine produced according to Judaism's religious law, specifically, Jewish dietary laws .To be considered kosher, Sabbath-observant Jews must be involved in the entire winemaking process and any ingredients used, including finings, must be kosher...
includes mulled wine
Mulled wine
Mulled wine, variations of which are popular in Europe, is wine, usually red, combined with spices and typically served warm. It is a traditional drink during winter, especially around Christmas and Halloween.-Glühwein:...
, and pasteurised
Pasteurization
Pasteurization is a process of heating a food, usually liquid, to a specific temperature for a definite length of time, and then cooling it immediately. This process slows microbial growth in food...
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 postclassical Jewish literature, such as the Shulchan Aruch, it has been applied to Christians
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
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
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...
, such as Rabbi Israel Silverman, and Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff
Elliot N. Dorff
Elliot N. Dorff is a Conservative rabbi. He is a professor of Jewish theology at the American Jewish University in California , author and a bio-ethicist....
.
Conservative Judaism is more lenient; in the 1960s, Rabbi Israel Silverman issued a responsum, officially approved by the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards
Committee on Jewish Law and Standards
The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards is the central authority on halakha within Conservative Judaism; it is one of the most active and widely known committees on the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly. Within the movement it is known as the CJLS...
, 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 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'ahYoreh De'ah
Yoreh De'ah is a section of Rabbi Jacob ben Asher's compilation of halakha , Arba'ah Turim around 1300. This section treats all aspects of Jewish law not pertinent to the Hebrew calendar, finance, torts, marriage, divorce, or sexual conduct....
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
Snake venom
Snake venom is highly modified saliva that is produced by special glands of certain species of snakes. The glands which secrete the zootoxin are a modification of the parotid salivary gland of other vertebrates, and are usually situated on each side of the head below and behind the eye,...
in the water.
Combining fish and meat
The Talmud and Yoreh Deah suggest that eating meat and fish together may cause tzaraat. Strictly Orthodox Jews thus avoid combining the two, while Conservative Jews may or may not.See also
- Unclean animalsUnclean animalsUnclean animals, in some religions, are animals whose consumption or handling is labeled a taboo. According to these religion's dogmas, persons who handle such animals may need to purify themselves to get rid of their uncleanness.-Judaism:...
- Milk and meat
- HalalHalalHalal is a term designating any object or an action which is permissible to use or engage in, according to Islamic law. The term is used to designate food seen as permissible according to Islamic law...
- Islamic and Jewish dietary laws compared
- Kosher taxKosher taxThe "Kosher tax" is a canard or urban legend spread by antisemitic, white supremacist and other extremist organizations...
- Taboo food and drinkTaboo food and drinkTaboo food and drink are food and beverages which people abstain from consuming for religious, cultural or hygienic reasons. Many food taboos forbid the meat of a particular animal, including mammals, rodents, reptiles, amphibians, bony fish, and crustaceans...
- Kosher saltKosher saltKoshering 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...
External links
- Laws of Judaism concerning food
- Kosher - A guide to eating Jewishly
- Israeli Food & Restaurant Directory – Israeli & Kosher Restaurants & markets in the U.S, Canada, UK, & Israel.
- Kosher - Kosher certification by the OU