ICJudaism: A Teacher’s Guide to Judaism

      Hosted by ICTeachers                                                                Formerly: Mike’s Rough Guide to Judaism

Disclaimer:

The contents of these pages represent the author’s personal views, experience and understanding.
There are bound to be some things here that some Jews would disagree with.

 

Is it Kosher?

The word kosher means fit ie. fit for use. The laws governing which things are kosher and which are not are known as the laws of Kashrut. The opposite of kosher is traifeh.

Most people know that Jews must not eat pork, but Kashrut is much more extensive than that. It covers not only the foods that are permitted but the ways they must be prepared, the ways they may be mixed, the vessels that they are cooked in, the crockery that they are eaten from and the cutlery they are eaten with. The following is a summary of the basic dietary laws:

• Some animals may not be eaten at all (this includes their flesh, organs, eggs and milk).
• Animals and birds that may be eaten must be killed in accordance with Jewish law.
• All blood must be removed from meat before it is eaten.
• Some parts of even permitted animals may not be eaten.
• Meat (including birds) and dairy products may not be eaten together (Jews generally refer to foods as being either meat, milk or parev. Parev foods are those which can be eaten together with either meat or diary (Fish, eggs, fruits, vegetables and grains are all parev).
• Utensils that have come into contact with meat may not be used with dairy, and vice versa.
• Utensils that have come into contact with non-kosher food may not be used at all.
• Grape products eg. wine, made by non-Jews may not be eaten (but grapes themselves are fine).

The rules of kashrut forbid consuming blood, so when an animal is killed its carcass must be drained of blood; meat must also be salted then soaked before cooking, to remove any remaining blood (rare steaks are not a feature of Jewish cuisine!). For meat to be kosher the animal must have been slaughtered according to Jewish ritual. This has become somewhat controversial of late but the ritual is based on Jewish ideas of the sanctity of life and attempts to make the animal's death as quick and pain-free as possible.

 

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