However, the reality for modern fish-buyers is complicated, and not just because later commentaries elaborated on the biblical injunction by noting that you must be able to remove the fins and scales without tearing the fish’s skin. Whereas once upon a time people ate mostly locally fished foods and chose from a limited array of options, nowadays the fish available in supermarkets (and at specialized fish stores) comes from all over the world, and often is sold pre-cut and prepackaged.

Other modern-day issues:

*It is not uncommon for fish to be labeled improperly, whether deliberately (a phenomenon called “species substitution”) or by accident.

*Fish often have multiple names.

*Fish that are otherwise kosher are often caught and processed together with non-kosher fish, which means there may be some cross-contamination.

For these reasons, the Orthodox Union (the world’s largest kosher-certification agency), which used to publish a kosher fish list, stopped doing so in the early 2000s. According to an article on the group’s website, “common names” for fish are often unreliable, with several different types of fish referred to as “red snapper.” And knowing Latin names isn’t much help, according to the OU:

The problem is that fish sellers never refer to fish by Latin names, and have generally no knowledge of the correct Latin name for a fish! In one case, we asked a kosher fish store the Latin name of a certain (kosher) fish and the Latin name provided was that of a completely different, non-kosher fish!!!”

One other issue to keep in mind: While the Conservative movement regards swordfish and sturgeon as kosher, most Orthodox sources do not.

Please use our Common Kosher Fish list as a general guide, rather than authoritative sources – particularly if you are strictly observant or are cooking for someone who is strictly observant.

One last thing to remember about fish: It is not kosher (according to Orthodox interpretation; Conservative sources have dropped this rule) to cook or serve fish and meat together. The fish-meat separation rule is less stringent than the dairy-meat separation, however.

Fish is pareve, neither meat nor dairy, so there is no need to have special fish dishes or utensils. However, you should wash the dishes and utensils before using them for meat. Also, there’s no requirement to wait a set length of time between eating fish and meat (although some rabbinic sources require washing hands, rinsing your mouth or cleansing your palate in some other manner); in fact, fish is often served as a first course in a meat meal.

Common Kosher Fish

• Albacore
• Alewife
• Anchovies
• Angelfish and butterfly fish
• Barracudas
• Atlantic Pomfret or Ray’s Bream
• Bass
• Blackfish See Carps and Wrasses
• Bluefish or snapper blue
• Bluegill
• Bonefish
• Butterfish
• Caviar (must be from a kosher fish)
• Codfish
• Blue whiting or poutassou
• Dolphin fish (Not to be confused with the mammal called dolphin or porpoise, which is non kosher.)
• Flounders (includes halibuts, soles and turbots, not including European turbot)

Bigmouth sole

Dover sole

English sole

Fantail sole

Yellowfin sole

Pacific turbot

Diamond turbot

Greenland turbot or halibut

• Haddock
• Halibut
• Herrings
• Lake Herring
• Largemouth bass
• Mackerels
• Mahi mahi
• Marlin
• Mullets
• Perches, includes pike perch, sauger, walleye, yellow perch, and yellow or blue pike
• Pikes, includes pickerels and muskellunge
• Pollock
• Porgies and sea breams, includes pinfish, scup, and sheepshead
• Sablefish or black cod
• Salmon
• Sardines
• Scorpionfish
• Sea bass
• Sea chubs, includes Bermuda chug or rudderfish, halfmoon, and opaleye
• Smelts, includes capelin and eulachon
• Tarpon
• Tautog
• Temperate basses (includes giant California sea bass,striped bass or rockfish, yellow bass, white bass, and white perch)
• Tilapia
• Tilefish
• Trouts
• Tuna
• Whitefish
• Whiting

The post What Makes a Fish Kosher? appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Confused why kosher food is categorized as dairy, meat or pareve (neither meat nor dairy)? Scroll down for The 3 Categories of Kosher Foods.

Kashrut’s Biblical and Talmudic Origins

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 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 video below explains which animals are declared kosher and not kosher in Leviticus 9:1-11:47:

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.

Keeping Kosher Today

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 practice called hashgacha) enables it to carry a “seal of approval” (but no, it is not “blessed by a rabbi”).

The 3 Categories of Kosher Foods

Dairy

Often described with the Yiddish word milchig, these are foods, such as cheese, milk, yogurt, ice cream, etc.

Meat

Often referred to with the Yiddish word fleischig, this includes all kosher animals and fowl slaughtered in the prescribed manner, and their derivative products.

Pareve

A Yiddish word meaning “neutral,” this describes foods that are neither dairy nor meat, such as eggs and fish, tofu, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables, and the like, provided they are not prepared with any milk or meat products.

In keeping kosher, it is necessary to keep all dairy and meat foods completely separate — which, unless one is vegetarian, necessitates separate sets of dishes and cooking utensils. Pareve foods, however, may be mixed in and served with either category of food since these foods are neither milk nor meat.

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Deuteronomy 14 tells us what animals, fish, and birds we can and cannot eat. It instructs us not to boil a kid (a young goat) in its mother’s milk, an injunction that became the basis for the rabbinic separation between milk and meat (Deuteronomy 14:21; see also Exodus 23:19 and Exodus 34:26). While many Jews today believe the biblical prohibitions against certain meat and fish to be for health reasons, Parshat Re’eh makes no such claim. In fact, if this were the case, the explicit permission to give the stranger and the foreigner the foods we are forbidden to eat (Deuteronomy 14:21) would be frankly immoral. Rather, Parshat Re’eh, as the Torah does elsewhere, identifies the articulation of eating prohibitions strictly as part of the Israelites’ particular path to holiness: “for you are a people consecrated to your God Adonai” Deuteronomy 14:21). What is it about these prohibitions that can make us holy? Interestingly, the prohibited foods are identified as tamei … lachem–ritually impure “for you” (Deuteronomy 14:7, 8, 10). For this reason, it is perfectly acceptable for other people to eat them, just not for the people Israel.

A Spiritual Discipline

Traditional and modern commentators have offered various explanations as to why particular fish, poultry, and animals are considered tahor (“ritually pure”) and therefore acceptable to eat. But perhaps more important than the meaning of each of the details of the prohibitions is the simple fact that we are given a list of dos and don’ts that govern what we are to consume daily. According to the Torah, God asks that we abstain from eating certain foods, not because they are unhealthy or intrinsically problematic, but simply as an expression of our devotion. As with other chukim (laws that the rabbinic sages define as being without rational explanation), these prohibitions are like the requests of a beloved: we may not understand them, but we are, in essence, asked to follow them purely as an expression of our love. Daily, the observance of kashrut calls us back to a personal relationship with God.

The laws of kashrut offer a Jewish spiritual discipline that is rooted in the concrete choices and details of daily life — to be practiced in an area that seems most “mundane.” In fact, part of the beauty of kashrut is that regardless of our age, personal interests, or geographic location, we all eat, and most of us do so several times a day. While we may sometimes choose to dine alone, eating is almost universally enjoyed as a social activity. A spiritual discipline around eating is one that carries the clear message that spirituality is about far more than what we do in synagogue and on holidays; it extends into every area of our lives, every single day.

Kashrut reminds us again and again that Jewish spirituality is inseparable from what one might term “physical.” It teaches us that Jewish spiritual practice is about taking the most ordinary of experiences — in all aspects of our lives — and transforming them into moments of meaning, moments of connection. Kashrut provides a model for doing just that, around issues of food preparation and eating. It’s time to cook dinner: What will we make, and how will we prepare it? Will we be driven by an empty stomach or considerations that extend beyond it as well? In these moments, kashrut can connect us to Jewish tradition, to other Jews, and to God. We are hungry and sit down for a meal, but before digging in, we recall that Jewish tradition offers us the practice of pausing for a blessing and a moment of gratitude. We may take this a step further and decide to put aside tzedakah regularly at dinnertime, as some of us try to do. This can be seen as a practice similar to the tithing performed in ancient times, as outlined in the verses immediately following the rules of kashrut in our Torah portion (Deuteronomy 14:22-29). Instead of just wolfing down our food and moving on to the next activity, we can learn from Jewish rituals to pause and turn the act of eating into a moment of heightened spiritual awareness.

Bringing Contemporary Concerns to Kashrut

Increasing numbers of Jews today are expanding their kashrut practice to incorporate additional ethical and environmental considerations. Was the food produced under conditions that respect persons and the environment? Were the workers who picked or prepared the food paid a living wage? Did the processes of production treat animals humanely? In addition to allowing these questions to influence our choices about what to eat, we can direct our tzedakah money to organizations that address these issues, like environmental and farmworker advocacy groups.

From the time of the Torah onward, Jewish tradition teaches us that the spiritual realm encompasses all of life. Kashrut and the other Jewish practices related to eating exemplify this teaching and extend beyond themselves: they stand as daily reminders to look for additional ways to turn the ordinary into moments of deeper connection and intentionality. Every moment has the potential to be one of connection. Through other mitzvot, such as the laws governing proper speech and interpersonal ethics, as well as through the less well-known but rich Jewish tradition of cultivating middot (personal qualities such as patience and generosity in judgment), we can seek to deepen our connections with each other and with God. A Jewish spiritual discipline around eating, practiced with intention, can set us on this course every day. “You are what you eat.” That is, what you choose to eat and how you choose to eat it says a lot about who you are and what kind of a life you are striving to achieve.

Reprinted with permission from The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, edited by Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Andrea L. Weiss (New York: URJ Press and Women of Reform Judaism, 2008).

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To clarify further, you can’t have a piece of steak on one plate, prepared without any dairy, then turn to a second plate and chomp down on a piece of cheese, even if you’ve swallowed the steak.

To ensure that meat and milk not be eaten together in any way, it is customary to wait a certain amount of time between meals. After eating meat, the wait time varies, but the generally accepted amount of time to wait is six hours.

Different Traditions

Different traditions developed as to the exact amount of time that must pass between meat and dairy meals. Wait time is required because of the nature of meat. In The Laws of Kashrus, Binyomin Forst explains that the sages give two primary reasons: Meat leaves behind a fatty residue in the throat, and particles of meat might remain between your teeth. Time is necessary for the digestive powers of saliva to break down both that fatty residue and the meat particles.

For Orthodox Jews, the most common wait time is six hours. According to Sephardic tradition, six hours is not merely tradition, but halakhah, required by Jewish law. Ashke­nazic tradition says that more lenient options are also halakhically correct. Most agree that the meat meal should be concluded with appropriate blessings, signifying the meal is over. You should then clean and rinse your mouth and wash your hands.

Some say one hour is sufficient time, and this has been the accepted tradition of Dutch Jews. German Jews follow a tradition of waiting three hours. Forst says this may be based on the idea that in winter the time between meals is shorter; therefore, it is acceptable to wait a shorter amount of time year round.

These are three generally accepted wait-time traditions. However, even today, I’ve encountered people who’ve developed their own traditions within their communities. Some wait four hours after eating chicken, five hours after meat. Some start counting the wait time after saying blessings, some start counting as soon as they’ve swallowed the last bite of meat.

Waiting After Dairy

With dairy foods, the wait time between dairy and meat is minimal. This is based on [the talmudic tractate] Chullin 105a, where it says, “How long must one wait between cheese and flesh? And he replied, Nothing at all.” Still, you should eat something like bread to effectively wipe your mouth of any milky taste, and you should rinse your mouth and wash your hands.

Hard cheese, described as cheese that has aged over six months, such as Swiss cheese, has a stronger flavor and is thought to leave a fatty residue, so it requires a six-hour wait.

Reprinted with permission from How to Keep Kosher (HarperCollins). 

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Kashrut comes in several versions. Talmudic law was interpreted differently among medieval communities, leading to differences between Ashkenazic and Sephardic/Middle Eastern Jews on some of the fine points. Today, ideological and sociological distinctions are reflected in different standards of kashrut. Some keep “biblical kashrut,” refraining from eating the meat of non-kosher animals but not separating milk from meat. Others are stringent at home but lenient in other settings.

Maintaining a stringently kosher home generally starts with making one’s kitchen kosher — known as kashering it. One can “kasher” many implements used previously for non-kosher food. Kashering an entire kitchen may require many new purchases, but most metal items (pots and pans, silverware, even ovens and stoves) can be made kosher through heat–immersion in boiling water or blowtorching–while glassware may require only careful cleaning. Earthenware and stoneware cannot be kashered, but fine china may require little work to be usable. Some materials, such as Pyrex and plastics, are considered kasherable by some authorities and not others.

When shopping for packaged food, many people will only buy items marked with a symbol certifying it as kosher (known as a hekhsher). Each organization that grants certification has its own symbol, the most common in the U.S. being the Orthodox Union’s “O” with a “U” inside. Some people will purchase items whose ingredients appear to be kosher, even without an indication of rabbinic supervision. Also, one has to know (or decide) which fresh foods, such as produce, do not require kashrut supervision and which do.

Once one is assured that all foodstuffs at hand are acceptable, kashrut considerations in food preparation revolve around two core issues: avoiding the consumption of blood (even of kosher animals), and keeping meat and milk foods separate.

Today, kosher consumers generally need not be concerned with removing blood from meat. Vendors generally perform the salting and soaking required in order to extract blood from poultry, beef, or lamb. One exception is liver, which kashrut regulations deem impervious to the usual method of blood removal and thus may be eaten only if broiled. Nothing is done to remove blood from fish, whose flesh is not considered meat.

Aside from meat, only eggs are a potential source of blood, since they may be fertilized–an unlikely scenario in the age of factory farming, but this is a severe biblical prohibition. Once opened, raw eggs should be checked for blood spots, and those with spots must be discarded.

The rule that meat and milk foods may not be consumed together led to a requirement that separate sets of utensils be used in cooking and eating. Non-vegetarian kosher kitchens, then, have separate sets of pots and pans, cutlery and silverware, cutting boards, and storage containers–and, often, dish drains and towels. Many people use color-coding to mark which is which. In many cases, the use of a meat utensil for milk foods, or vice-versa, will render it unfit for use. But such errors are often correctable, and the utensil may often be rendered fit for use again.

The prohibition against consuming milk and meat foods together extends to a ban on consuming milk products after having eaten meat foods. Here, too, standards differ: Some wait only an hour and others as much as six hours, with many people falling somewhere in between those poles. However, after eating dairy products, Jewish law calls only for a negligible wait before consuming meat. Pareve foods are neither meat nor dairy, and can be eaten at any meal.

Eating in non-kosher restaurants or homes presents a challenge for kashrut observers. Some less stringently observant people relax their standards in these situations, eating, for instance, vegetarian but not meat meals in non-kosher places. Those maintaining stricter standards may employ disposable dishes and utensils and consume only simple foods such as salads or prepackaged kosher foods eaten cold or heated in doubly insulated containers.

Would-be hosts or guests in such situations should follow the rule that applies to all questions of kashrut: consult a rabbinic authority recognized by the people whose needs you wish to meet.

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This commandment applies equally to cattle, to animals, and to fowl. A limb torn or cut from a living animal is forbidden. An animal that is not slaughtered, but dies of itself, is prohibited. The laws regarding the precise method of slaughter are not stated in the Bible, but were given orally to Moses on Mount Sinai, as indicated in the verse by the statement, “as I have commanded thee,” that is, as I have already instructed you. [The function of this previous sentence is to make a link between rabbinically developed laws regarding implementation of these laws and what is traditionally understood as the revelation—of both oral and written Torah (which can be translated as both “teaching” and “law”)—at Sinai.]

2. Only one who is knowledgeable in the laws of slaughtering (shehitah) and proficient in its practice, and who is a believing, pious Jew, may act as a slaughterer (shohet) in performance of the commandment. It is the prevalent custom that the shohet must receive written authorization from a recognized rabbinical authority attesting to the aforesaid qualifications.

3. Shehitah must be done by means of a swift, smooth cut of a sharp knife whose blade is free of any dent or imperfection.

4. Shehitah entails severing the trachea and the esophagus in accordance with the oral tradition, which requires that five improper procedures be avoided, lest they invalidate the shehitah and render the animal unfit to be eaten. They are (a) hesitation or delay while drawing the knife, (b) excessive pressure or chopping, (c) burrowing the knife between the trachea and the esophagus or under the skin, (d) making the incision outside the specified area, and (e) laceration or tearing of the trachea or esophagus, which would result from an imperfect blade. An animal or fowl that is improperly slaughtered (or, as already noted, that is not slaughtered, but dies of itself) is considered carrion (nevelah) and unfit for food.

5. It is forbidden to slaughter the parent with its young on the same day (Leviticus 22:28).

Defective Animals and Fowl

1. The Bible states, “Ye shall not eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field” (Exodus 22:30). This prohibition is taken to include other diseases or disorders that afflict the animal and cause it to die. Jewish tradition holds that eight kinds of trefah, that is, fatal organic defects that may afflict the animal and thereby render it unfit to be eaten, were imparted to Moses on Mount Sinai. They are (a) defects resulting from attack by a predatory beast or a bird of prey, (b) perforation or piercing of vital organs, (c) certain organs missing from birth, (d) non-congenital defects involving missing organs, (e) laceration or tearing of certain organs, (f) defects resulting from a fall, (g) severance of certain organs, and (h) fractures.

2. Since most animals are free of the above diseases or disorders, no special examination is required unless some defect is detected. However, the lungs of the animal must be carefully examined, since this is the area where defects are most likely to be found. Inspection must be done by one who is reliable and qualified, as it requires extensive knowledge of the laws and considerable skill and experience. (Note: Although Ashkenazim and Sephardim follow different procedures in their examination of the lungs in accord with the differing views of the Bet Yosef [Yosef Karo, Sephardic author of the Shulhan Arukh) and the Rama [Rabbi Moshe Isserles, Ashkenazi author of the classic Mapat Ha-shulhan commentary printed as part of the Shulhan Arukh], nonetheless an Ashkenazic Jew may eat meat in the home of a Sephardic Jew, because we do not presume that any problem developed that would have rendered the meat forbidden. However, if a specific problem arises, one is obliged to inform the other so that he may refrain from eating, in accordance with his own tradition.)

Removal of Forbidden Fat, Veins and Sinews

1. The Bible considers certain fats in oxen, sheep, and goats to be forbidden (Leviticus 7:23-25). All forbidden fat (helev), such as fat covering the kidney, the spleen, and certain inward parts of the animal, must be removed before the meat is soaked and salted.

2. The “sinew of the thigh-vein that is upon the hollow of the thigh” is likewise biblically prohibited in animals (Genesis 32:33). Both the inner sinew and the outer sinew, and their branches, must be excised. (Note: Most of the forbidden fat and the sinew of the thigh vein are found in the hindquarters of the animal. Since their removal is difficult and must be done by one who is highly qualified, the hindquarters are not used for kosher meat in most Jewish communities, except where meat is not readily obtainable, as in Israel and some European communities.)

3. Veins and blood vessels are prohibited because of the blood that they contain that cannot be extracted by salting. Hence these forbidden veins, such as those in the forelegs, shoulder, lower jaws, tongue, neck, heart, and in the fat of the entrails, and other blood vessels and tissues must be removed before the meat is made kosher and cooked. In fowl, the blood vessels in the throat should be removed or cut through together with the neck. It is also customary to cut between the knee joints in order to reach the blood vessels that are there.

Reprinted, with permission from KtavPublishing, from The Concise Code of Jewish Law, Volume 1.

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In the case of ethical mitzvot, however, Reform Judaism from its inception has accepted them as having been given by God and binding upon all Jews. Even as autonomous individuals, we do not have the right to choose which ethical mitzvot can be observed and which cannot. As a Reform Jew, one cannot choose to observe “Thou shalt not murder” and ignore “Thou shalt not commit adultery” or “Thou shalt not steal.” Through all of the developments that have taken place, that which has not changed is the unequivocal belief of Reform Judaism that the ethical and moral laws of the Torah are binding and obligatory. Indeed, Reform Judaism can and still does call itself ethical, prophetic Judaism.

As a Reform Jew, I understand “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed–to you it shall be for food” [Genesis 1:29, the original eating instructions to Adam and Eve, before human beings were granted the right to eat meat as, some would argue, a concession to human weakness] as an ethical mitzvah that is given by God. To violate that ethical mitzvah, for me, would be a sin.

As a Reform Jew, I cannot ignore my understanding of vegetarianism as an ethical mitzvah, and ethical mitzvah which commands me not to kill another living, sentient creature. An ethical mitzvah that commands me to preserve and protect human life, not harm or destroy it by filling my body with harmful fats and chemicals. An ethical mitzvah that commands me not to waste food that could be used to feed starving children by feeding it to livestock destined for the slaughterhouse. An ethical mitzvah that commands me to protect and maintain, not contribute to the wholesale destruction of our global environment–for this world is a gift that cannot be replaced.

Excerpted with permission from CCAR Journal: A Reform Jewish Quarterly, Spring 1992, © The Central Conference of American Rabbis

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Kashrut Makes Me Ask Good Questions

The observance of kashrut is an example of an annoying series of mitzvot that I am glad not to have dropped because of some of the rather important surprises it has offered. Because it is a public observance, I have to justify it rather frequently, to my friends and certainly to myself.

I find that whether I like it or not, kashrut brings me into contact with a series of rather important questions: What is my responsibility to the calf that I eat, or to the potato? Is the earth and the fullness thereof mine to do with as I will? What does it mean that a table should be an altar? Is eating, indeed, a devotional act? Does God really care whether I wait two or six hours before drinking milk after a meat meal? If kashrut makes me ask enough questions, often enough, I discover that its very provocative quality is one of its chief virtues for my religious life.

–Rabbi Richard J. Israel (1929-2000) directed Hillel programs at UCLA, Yale University, and in the Boston metropolitan area and wrote The Kosher Pig: And Other Curiosities of Modern Jewish Life. Reprinted from The Condition of Jewish Belief: A Symposium, composed by the editors of Commentary Magazine, by permission; all rights reserved.

Kashrut Makes Eating a Religious Matter

Let’s go back to my hypothetical lunch with a friend. Watching me scan the menu, he may suspect me of thinking, “Oh, would I love to order the ham, but that mean old God won’t let me.” But in fact, what is probably going through my mind at the moment is “Isn’t it incredible! Nearly five billion people on this planet, and God cares what I have for lunch!” And God cares how I earn and spend my money, and whom I sleep with, and what sort of language I use. (These are not descriptions of God’s emotional state, about which we can have no information, but a way of conveying the critical ethical significance of the choices I make.) What better way is there to invest every one of my daily choices with divine significance?

There is nothing intrinsically wicked about eating pork or lobster, and there is nothing intrinsically moral about eating cheese or chicken instead. But what the Jewish way of life does by imposing rules on our eating, sleeping, and working habits is to take the most common and mundane activities and invest them with deeper meaning, turning every one of them into an occasion for obeying (or disobeying) God. If a gentile walks into a fast-food establishment and orders a cheeseburger, he is just having lunch. But if a Jew does the same thing, he is making a theological statement. He is declaring that he does not accept the rules of the Jewish dietary system as binding upon him. But heeded or violated, the rules lift the act of having lunch out of the ordinary and make it a religious matter. If you can do that to the process of eating, you have done something important.

Harold Kushner, Rabbi Laureate of Temple Israel in Natick, Massachusetts, is the author of several popular books, including When Children Ask About God, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, and When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough. This passage is reprinted with permission from To Life!: A Celebration of Jewish Being and Thinking, published by Little, Brown and Co.

Does God Care What We Eat?

After a lecture I was giving one evening, I invited questions from the audience. One woman raised her hand, identifying herself as a Jew who tried to be a good and honest person, a helpful neighbor, and a supporter of Israel, but said that she did not live a religious Jewish life. She asked me, half seriously, half challenging, “Do you really believe that God will like me better if I keep kosher?”

I told her that I was no authority on whether or why God liked some people better than others, but that was the wrong question. One didn’t live a seriously Jewish life so that God would like you. Maybe that is what we were taught as children, but if so, that is only because children operate on that basis, not because God does. Children strive to do the right thing to win the approval of parents, teachers, and other important people in their lives (including, I suppose, God). If our perception of Judaism is still based on what we were told as children, we may well think in terms of doing things? going to services, keeping kosher, telling the truth? in order to please God.

But, I told her, if we can outgrow that childhood notion, we will come to understand that living a seriously Jewish life is not a matter of winning God’s favor but of growing as a human being. Is God angry at you if you eat a cheeseburger? I can’t believe He is. Do we disappoint God when we regularly reject the opportunity to turn breakfast, lunch, and dinner into religious moments, to raise them from the level of animal sustenance to the level of encounters with our humanity by imposing standards of permitted and forbidden on the foods we eat?

Do we disappoint God and shortchange ourselves when we only worry about the food we are eating nourishing our bodies, when we worry about its calorie count, cholesterol, and artificial ingredients, and never worry about choosing food so as to nourish our Jewish souls? That I can and do believe.

Reprinted with permission from Harold Kushner, To Life!: A Celebration of Jewish Being and Thinking, published by Little, Brown and Co.

We Observe Kashrut Because God Demands It

The faithful Jew observes the laws of kashrut not because he has become endeared of its specific details nor because it provides him with pleasure nor because he considers them good for his health nor because the Bible offers him clear-cut reasons, but because be regards them as Divine commandments and yields his will before the will of the Divine and to the disciplines imposed by his faith. In the words of our Sages, “A man ought not to say ‘I do not wish to eat of the flesh of the pig’ (i.e., because I don’t like it). Rather he should say, ‘I do wish to do these things, but my Father in Heaven has decreed otherwise.'”

Although “the benefit arising from the many inexplicable laws of God is in their practice, and not in the understanding of the motives” (Moses Mendelssohn), nevertheless the Jew never tires of pursuing his quest to fathom the Divine Mind and to ascertain the reasons that prompted the promulgation of God’s laws. For the man of faith is sure that reasons do exist for the Divine decrees even if they are concealed from him.

Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin, Ph.D. (1928-1982), served Congregation B’nai David in Southfield, Michigan. Reprinted from To Be a Jew, published by Basic Books.

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In terms of keeping kosher, it helps to be knowledgeable about the various levels of this practice found in different segments of the Jewish community. This can help you decide what kosher practices you want to observe and also help you communicate better with others about how to eat together. If you’re invited to a meal in someone else’s home, it’s always best to ask before making any assumptions about their kosher practices. And when you’re inviting someone else to your home for a meal, it’s entirely appropriate to be upfront and specific about how you keep kosher, so that your guests are able to decide for themselves if they’re comfortable eating at your house.

According to Jewish law, the three basic elements of keeping kosher are:

1. Avoiding any non-kosher animals (fish that don’t have fins and scales, land animals that do not both chew their cud and have cleft hooves, most birds);
2. Avoiding eating meat and dairy together;
3. Only eating meat that was slaughtered in a certain way, and drained of blood. Within these general guidelines, here are some of the main areas of diverse interpretation:

Kosher Symbols

In North America, many food products are marked with symbols that indicate they have been certified as kosher by various rabbinic institutions.

READ: How to Decode the Different Kosher Symbols

Some people purchase only products with such a symbol. Others are even more stringent and purchase only products with specific symbols that they deem more trustworthy. Still others will eat products without kosher symbols, after studying the ingredients listed and determining that the product contains only kosher ingredients. Produce generally does not require a symbol, unless it is packaged or processed in some way.

The Cheese Question

A vital ingredient in hard cheeses is an enzyme called rennet, which is normally derived from the stomachs of an animal. Some rabbinic authorities, including most from the Conservative movement, maintain that the enzyme is so separated from its original source, that it cannot be considered a meat product. Therefore, these authorities believe it is permissible to eat cheese that was made with rennet. Others believe that rennet still constitutes a part of an animal, and thus cannot be mixed with milk, and would theoretically have to come from a kosher animal. Those who maintain this position will not eat cheese made with animal rennet. In America, all cheeses that have kosher supervision are made with kosher rennet, which comes from vegetable or microbial sources.

Halav Yisrael (Cholov Yisroel)

In the past, some farmers were known to mix milk from non-kosher animals, such as horses and camels, in with the milk of kosher animals, such as cows and goats. This milk would not be considered kosher because it contained products of non-kosher animals. As a result, the custom of drinking only milk produced by Jewish farmers came about, so as to ensure that the milk one received was unquestionably kosher. This practice is called Halav Yisrael, or Cholov Yisroel, which means Jewish milk.

Restaurants

Many people have different rules for what they will eat in their home, and what they eat outside their home. So, they may purchase only ingredients with rabbinic supervision for use in their home, but eat in restaurants that do not have rabbinic supervision. This practice is not based in Jewish law, but more in a desire to maintain traditions in the home.

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Answer: Actually, Jason, in Judaism we never bless food, even though sometimes that might be what it looks like we’re doing. Though we do say blessings before and after eating, we are actually blessing God for allowing us to experience good, sustaining food–not blessing the foodstuff itself.

Okay, so now that we’ve got that covered, I have another bubble to burst for you — the rabbi at a kosher restaurant is not there to say any kind of blessing, and he (or she, though most commonly he) is not always a rabbi. He’s called a mashgiach, which means supervisor or overseer, and he’s present in the kitchen of a kosher establishment to ensure that everything that goes on there is, well, kosher.

In America, as in most Western countries, if you want to open a restaurant or start a company that makes some kind of food product, you need to have various government officials come check out the facility where you make and package the food. They’re looking at a few different things: What are you putting in your food? Is the food safe to eat? Are you being honest about what ingredients are in your product? Are your workers safe? Is the facility sanitary? All of this comes down to a desire to protect consumers from sickness, and a secondary desire to ensure that the workers in the facility are also safe.

Observant Jews believe that eating non-kosher food is spiritually unsafe. It won’t give you the kind of food poisoning that will leave you throwing up for days, but it could “damage” your soul. The observant Jewish community also harbors a deep respect for Jewish law, and a desire to honor the obligation to uphold Jewish legal standards about kashrut. So, just like governments have set up departments that are responsible for ensuring food safety, observant Jewish communities have set up organizations that take responsibility for ensuring that food in kosher restaurants really is kosher.

What does this mean, on a practical level? I asked Rabbi Dov Schreier, director of food service and rabbinic coordinator at the Orthodox Union (the largest organization that does hashgacha, or supervision, of kosher restaurants and food products), what a mashgiach actually does. He said, “A mashgiach’s job is to check all the products, check all the vegetables… and monitor everything that comes in and out of the kitchen.” Basically, he’s checking for anything that might deem the food unkosher. That could be an unkosher ingredient, such as lard, or gelatin, or a bug that hasn’t been washed off of a piece of lettuce.

What happens when a mashgiach finds something non-kosher in a place he is overseeing? If it is something simple, like a bug on a piece of lettuce, he can simply wash the bug off. If it is a greater issue, like a non-kosher ingredient being used, or dairy equipment being used to cook meat, the mashgiach will call his supervisor to discuss all the Jewish legal issues at play, and see if something can be done to make the food permissible. According to Rabbi Schreier, “If in fact the matter needs immediate attention, corrective action will need to be taken depending on [the] severity of [the] issue.”

Unlike the government, which has one organization (the Food and Drug Administration) with one set of rules to do all of the checking, the Jewish community has many different groups that offer hashgacha services.

There are national groups, like the Orthodox Union, local groups, like the Chicago Rabbinical Council, and individuals who supervise one or a handful of restaurants or facilities. Each group is a little different, with slightly different standards and interpretations of the laws of kashrut, and different fees for services. Some facilities have a mashgiach who is always present in the kitchen, and in many cases the mashgiach is in fact the person who literally holds the key to the kitchen, in order to ensure that he knows exactly what comes in and goes out. This is most common in restaurants, cafeterias, and nursing homes. In large factories where a single product is constantly being produced over and over again, there are mashgichim (plural for mashgiach) who come and visit the facility every once in a while, performing surprise inspections to make sure that the standards of kashrut are being maintained.

So how does one go about becoming a mashgiach? Jewish law demands that a mashgiach be someone with impeccable moral and ethical standing in the community. Because the hashgacha business is private, a mashgiach (or the organization he or she works for) is paid by the restaurants he certifies, and this can create a conflict of interest if a mashgiach finds something unkosher and must decide whether to report it. For this and many other reasons, it’s extra important that a mashgiach hold himself to the highest standards of honesty.

Many, if not most mashgichim are rabbis, but that is not a prerequisite. The most basic requirements are that the person be Jewish, and knowledgeable about the laws of kashrut. The person should also observe Shabbat according to halacha, or Jewish law; personally observe the laws of kashrut and generally be an observant Jew.

In the past few years, a new kind of “mashgiach” has also emerged on the market. There are now two organizations in America, and one in Israel, devoted to ensuring that workers at kosher restaurants, and plants where kosher food is made and manufactured, are treated with respect, paid fairly, and given a safe space in which to do their jobs.

These organizations employ “mashgichim” who checks standards other than kashrut. They give certification, just like a kashrut organization, but if a company fails an inspection the food is not deemed unkosher. Instead, a failed inspection may serve as an ethical deterrent to members of the Jewish community who want to be sure to patronize only businesses that treat their workers fairly and responsibly.

Next time you see a mashgiach heading back into the kitchen at a kosher restaurant say hi — and tell him or her thanks for keeping the bugs out of your salad!

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Answer: I feel your pain, James. Kosher meat is not cheap. So what accounts for the hefty price tag on your steak?

I spoke with Alan Kaufman, owner of the Kosher Marketplace on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Alan explained that there are a number of factors that drive the price of kosher meat higher than its treyf counterparts.

The first thing Alan mentioned is supervision. Kosher meat is supervised from the time the animal is slaughtered until it is packaged and sold. Kosher slaughterhouses must employ shohtim, (those trained in the laws of shechita, ritual slaughter), as well as supervisors who can be consulted on unusual or contentious circumstances.

Jewish law also requires that kosher meat be soaked in water for half an hour, salted, and then washed thoroughly three times. In non-kosher meat plants where these extra steps aren’t taken, much more meat can be processed and shipped out. The more meat a company sells, the lower they can afford to set their prices. Because the nature of kosher processing requires more inefficient time for soaking and salting, kosher plants produce less meat, and can’t set their prices as low as their non-kosher competitors.

Finally, Alan reminded me that kosher meat isn’t so easy to come by. To be kosher, an animal must be healthy, and must have no broken bones, no diseases, and no scarred or punctured organs. Downer cattle, or cows that are unable to stand on their own, are never used. Alan estimated that only 20 percent of the cows in any given slaughterhouse pass the inspection that is required for them to be kosher. I’ve seen other estimates from 30-40 percent, but either way, it’s much lower than at facilities where every cow that comes in gets slaughtered and sold. Screening the kosher from the treyf also takes time and money.

So there are some reasons they charge top dollar for your kosher hamburger. Ensuring that something is done in a kosher way is a pricey endeavor, and this means that the base price for kosher meat is going to be higher than non-kosher meat. Does it mean that the meat is cleaner or better quality? It might, but as we learned from the Postville scandal, kosher meat can still be produced under very problematic circumstances.

Still, a major advantage of eating kosher meat in this day and age is the ability to easily trace its whereabouts and origins. As we learn more about the dangers of contemporary meat distribution, including a real risk of E. coli contamination, it becomes increasingly important to know where our food comes from and what’s in it. E. coli is a bacteria found in the feces of both humans and animals. In America, kosher slaughterhouses do not deal with the hindquarters of cows (they’re usually sold to non-kosher plants), which decreases–but does not completely eliminate–the likelihood of kosher meat coming in contact with cow feces and thus E. coli.

And if the price of kosher meat is hitting you harder than usual, might I suggest trying one of our many vegetarian recipes?

The post Ask the Expert: Expensive Kosher Meat appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Since then, halacha (Jewish law) has functioned to make its adherents understand the spiritual potential that food can have in one’s life. By legislating various practices such as making berakhot (blessings) before and after eating food, distinguishing between dairy and meat meals, separating dishes, and drinking wine and eating bread on holidays, Jewish law highlights the significance of food in life.

In the first decade of the 21st century, a growing movement emerged focusing not only on ritual, but also on ethical kashrut. This movement emphasizes not only the traditional rules, but also takes into account issues such as animal treatment, workers conditions, and environmental impact, taking its cue from a number of supporting biblical sources:

The Torah prohibits the mistreatment of workers (Leviticus 19:13, Deuteronomy 24:14), as all humans are created btzelim elokim (in the image of God). Specific prohibitions include oppressing workers (lo taashok) and delaying their payment.

The treatment of animals is also deeply rooted in the Jewish tradition. Tzar baalei haim (the mistreatment of animals) is explicitly forbidden by the Torah, and Jewish liturgy is full of praise for God’s demonstrated mercy to all creatures. Animals are even given the Sabbath as a day of rest (Exodus 23:12).

Environmental values are found in the many agricultural mitzvot in the Torah, including the creation story, where God charges humans l’uvdah ul’shomra (to work and to guard the earth) (Genesis 2:15).

The Relationship Between New Kashrut and Old Kashrut

How do these new “rules” of ethical kashrut relate to the traditional rituals, blessings, and separation of dishes? Many of those who observe kashrut believe that the values of ethical kashrut may have been the original intention for how religious food consumption was prescribed in the Torah. For others, these values are a positive expansion or evolution from the traditional rules. For still others, the contemporary values of ethical kashrut can replace the old, harder-to-understand rituals.

The Torah and other Jewish literature lend support for ethical kashrut initiatives. Nahmanides, a 13th century Spanish rabbi, argued (Leviticus 19:1) that if people consume food that is technically kosher from a ritual perspective but do not embrace the ethics that come along with consumption then they are naval birshut haTorah (despicable with the permission of the Torah). They have broken no formal kashrut prohibitions but their act is shameful, and they have not lived by the moral and ethical intentions of the Torah. Nahmanides is referring to eating in moderation but his value certainly lends to broad extension. Simply put: permissible consumption does not necessarily mean good consumption.

Organizations on the Ground in Israel and America

A number of Jewish groups are working to expand kashrut beyond the letter of the law.
Hazon, a Jewish non-profit inspired “to create a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community,” has spearheaded efforts to promote issues such environmentalism, spiritual consumption, good animal treatment, and labor concerns. They also host conferences promoting thoughtful food consumption.

Hazon’s community supported agriculture (CSA) groups (known as Tuv Haaretz) are receiving increased orders from Jewish community members who are interested in the eco-friendly consumption practices of local produce.

Jewish environmental groups such as Canfei Nesharim and COEJL, have argued for “eco-kashrut,” a framing of the values of kashrut around the sustainability of our earth and body.

Another constituency is primarily concerned with the mistreatment of animals. Due to the poor conditions in many factories that mass-produce meat, some consumers support only the strictest vegan products. Others are content with vegetarianism.

A growing movement, however, wishes to continue to consume meat, but only if the animals are treated properly. Small procurers of meat, such as Kol Foods, who are committed to free-range animal living while maintaining their status of glatt kosher (strictest slaughtering standards), are slowly emerging as a force in the contemporary market.

A more recent fast-growing grassroots movement has emerged to secure the rights of the workers that produce and prepare kosher food. In 2004 B’Maagalei Tzedek, an Israeli non-governmental organization, launched the Tav Chevrati (the Social Seal) to ensure that workers in restaurants are treated according to the minimum standard required by Israeli law. They have certified more than 350 restaurants in Israel with their seal. About 250 of those restaurants are certified as kosher.

In the United States, a similar project was spearheaded by Uri L?Tzedek, an Orthodox Jewish social justice organization that I co-founded, which launched the Tav HaYosher (the Ethical Seal) in the spring of 2009. The seal aims to secure workers’ rights to fair pay, fair time, and safe working conditions in kosher restaurants. A Conservative Movement initiative, Magen Tzedek is planning to certify kosher factories which have quality labor practices. Both organizations have argued that the laws of kashrut are not to be confused with Jewish ethics but that they can be intertwined in a significant way with our perception of our consumer responsibilities. In short, “ethical” does not redefine “kashrut.” Rather it is complementary and distinct.

Self Development or Just Society?

To be sure, a large portion of the Jewish community is not asking these ethical questions. Rather their primary concerns when it comes to food purchases relate to health and finances. But a growing number of Jews, of all denominations and lifestyles, are gaining inspiration from the notion that kashrut can help create a society committed to justice.

Some ask why food, among a host of other options, should be at the center of this emerging discourse around ethics. Why not focus on sneakers made in sweatshops or the automotive industry? Proponents of ethical kashrut have argued that food must come first for a few reasons:

1.The Jewish community has already demonstrated immense success using money and power to build the kosher certification system. This infrastructure and model can just as easily be used for ethical certification and awareness.

2. As Jews, we have ownership and responsibility over the kashrut industry.

3. The laws of kashrut have a unique charge to pursue holiness.

Still, some authorities and communities have explicitly rejected ethical kashrut. For example, Rabbi Avi Shafran, spokesperson for Agudath Israel, believes that while the ethical treatment of animals and workers may be ideal, the lack thereof has absolutely no consequences for kashrut. Speaking metaphorically in response to this issue, Rabbi Shafran has said: “A great poet might opt to not shower, but that bad habit does not necessarily affect the quality of his writing.”

I personally believe that Jewish tradition demands more.

Rabbi Yisroel Salantar, the founder of the Mussar movement once said: “Another person’s physical concerns are my spiritual concerns.” The physical conditions of the workers that produce meat are at the center of Jewish spiritual and law. The choices of Jewish consumers regarding the treatment of workers, animals, and the earth, had and will continue to have a strong foothold in shaping our understanding of kashrut and holiness.

The post What Is “Ethical” Kashrut? appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Answer: In modern medicine, pig skin is sometimes transplanted onto patients with severe burns, and heart valves from pigs are often transplanted into patients with damaged or diseased heart valves. This process, called xenografting or xenotransplantation, describes transplants from any non-human animal to a human.

One might assume that Jews would be prohibited from receiving xenotransplants from pigs because of the biblical prohibition against eating and touching swine in Leviticus 11:7-8: “And the swine — although it has true hoofs, with the hoofs cleft through, it does not chew the cud: it is impure for you. You shall not eat of their flesh or touch their carcasses; they are impure for Me.”

However, Rashi, an 11th-century Torah commentator, explained that this prohibition against touching pigs applied only when Jews were on their way to Jerusalem to observe the three pilgrimage festivals — Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot. During those festivals the people were required to be in a heightened state of purity, so they had to avoid touching something like the flesh of a pig. Even on the way to Jerusalem, Jews were only prohibited from touching the flesh, that is, the meat of a pig. According to halacha (Jewish law) the skin of an animal does not transmit impurities, especially if it has been tanned.

So there is no halachic problem with pigskin and pig heart valves—on the way to Jerusalem or at any other time. Beyond that, there’s a very important tenet of Judaism called pikuach nefesh, or, saving a life. According to Jewish law, any of the mitzvot (commandments) in the Torah (except idolatry, murder, and forbidden sexual relationships) can and in fact should be violated in order to save a person’s life; the pikuach nefesh principle is that strong. This means that even if the use of pig parts wasn’t generally allowed by halacha, when people’s lives are at stake, we are commanded to do whatever is necessary to save them.

Incidentally, this exact issue was brought up on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy a few years ago. In the episode (“Save Me” Episode 8, Season 1) an Orthodox Jewish girl refuses to have a life-saving xenotransplant from a pig because it’s not kosher. The surgeons eventually do the procedure with a xenotransplant from a cow, instead. When the episode first aired, the Orthodox Jewish community responded by condemning the depiction of Jews and Jewish law. Rabbi Avi Shafran, director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America, called the character’s refusal of the pig part “silliness.”

Bottom line: If it’s a life-saving procedure, there’s no problem using parts of a non-kosher animal — unless that part is a ham sandwich, and the procedure is not so much life-saving, such as lunchtime.

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“Glatt Kosher” means something like “extra kosher” and applies to chicken and fish as well as meat.

Fact:

Glatt is Yiddish for smooth, and in the context of kashrut it means that the lungs of the animal were smooth, without any adhesions that could potentially prohibit the animal as a trefa, an issue only applicable to animals, not fowl or nonmeat products.

In colloquial discourse, treyf refers to anything that is not kosher. The technical definition of trefa is based on Exodus 22:30 (“Do not eat meat from an animal torn [trefa] in the field”) and refers to an animal with any of a specific group of physical defects that are detailed in the [Babylonian] Talmud (most of the third chapter of Hullin; 42a-59a) and [traditional Jewish law] codes (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Forbidden Foods 4:6-9 and Laws of Slaughter ch. 5 -11; Shulchan Arukh, Yoreh De’ah [“YD”] 29-60). Examples of these “defects,” which often go far beyond the health inspection of the USDA, include certain lesions, lacerations, broken limbs, missing or punctured organs, or the result of an attack by a larger animal. Such defects can occur in, and thereby render, both animals and fowl tref. Because most of these defects are uncommon, it may be assumed that most animals are healthy (Shach [commentary to Shulchan Arukh], YD 39:1) and hence there is no requirement to inspect every animal for them. (This does not imply that a blind eye may be turned to their presence.)

Lungs are a special concern

An exception is the lung of an animal, on which adhesions [sirhot] and other problems may develop. While these problems are not common, they do occur more frequently than other trefot [i.e., defects]. Their relative prevalence led the rabbis to mandate that the lungs of every animal be examined, both manually while still in its natural position in the animal, and visually following its removal from the thoracic cavity (Shulchan Arukh, YD 39:1). (Nowadays, another problem that occurs with relative frequency and is therefore also inspected for is holes of the second stomach, the bet ha-kosot [reticulum], caused by animals eating nails and other sharp metal objects.) Because a hole in the lung renders the animal a trefa, adhesions, i.e., pathologically arising bands of collagen fibers, are problematic either because they indicate the presence of a perforation that has been insufficiently sealed ([so says Talmud commentator] Rashi) or because they can become loosened, thereby causing a hole to develop ([so say the Talmud commentators known collectively as] Tosafot).

In the U.S., lung adhesions usually do not occur on fowl; hence the rest of this discussion concerns only meat, not chicken. (The lungs of fowl can have defects that render it trefa, but not the same kind of adhesions that occur in animals. There are those who feel that nowadays fowl lung problems are also becoming more prevalent and thus require a visual and tactile inspection of fowl lungs.)

The Shulchan Arukh describes many types of adhesions in intricate detail (YD 39:4-13), the overwhelming majority of which render the animal a trefa. [Rabbi Moshe Isserles, the sixteenth century Polish rabbi whose comments on Shulchan Arukh are incorporated into every edition] (YD 39:13) concludes the discussion about lung adhesions with a description of a method of peeling and testing many types of adhesions, thereby resulting in many more animals determined to be kosher. [Isserles] himself expressed certain hesitations about aspects of this leniency, but because it had gained wide acceptance and did have a firm basis, he ruled that it could be followed. However, he cautions that the peeling and testing must be performed by an exceedingly God-fearing individual.

Glatt in Our Time

Because this peeling is mentioned and approved by [Isserles] but not by the author of the Shulhan Arukh, Rabbi Yosef Karo, Sephardim, who follow the rulings of Rabbi Karo, are required to eat only glatt (halak, in Hebrew) meat as defined by Karo. [Karo] is also the author of the Bet Yosef [an extensive commentary to an earlier code of Jewish law]; therefore, such meat is termed “glatt/halak Bet Yosef.” For Ashkenazim, there is a tradition that a small, easily removable adhesion is defined as a lower class of adhesion, known as rir, and that the presence of up to two such small, easily removable adhesions still qualifies the animal as glatt according to Ashkenazic tradition. Eating glatt is a worthy stringency that avoids potential problems raised by [Isserles’s] controversial leniency.

It should be emphasized that [Isserles’s] ruling is certainly legitimate and, in theory, non-glatt meat, if inspected properly, is 100% kosher for Ashkenazim. Today, the Orthodox Union (and most other kashrut organizations in the U.S.) will only certify meat that is glatt, albeit not necessarily glatt Bet Yosef. An important postscript is that [Isserles’s] ruling is defined as non-applicable to young, tender animals such as lamb, kid, and calf (YD 39:13). Therefore, all lamb chops, veal, or other meat from young animals must be glatt Bet Yosef, even for Ashkenazim.

From the above explanation, it is clear that referring to chicken, fish, or dairy products as glatt is a misuse of the term. In addition, even when referring to meat, it only attests to the status of the lung, but makes no comment about the standards of, for example, the [slaughtering procedure].

Misconceptions about the meaning of glatt are so widespread that, for many, the term glatt has colloquially taken on the implication of a higher standard, similar to the term mehadrin. In addition, some caterers or stores may have only one kashrut sticker that they use on all products, and hence the sticker on the corned beef sandwich and on the omelette will both say “glatt kosher.” Although it is technically inaccurate to label chicken, fish, lamb, or dairy products as glatt, it is not uncommon to find such labeling. In the majority of cases, it is probably not being done to mislead; but in some instances it may be intended to imply that the product was processed under a superior hashgahah [rabbinic supervision], as per the term’s informal usage.

Rabbi Zivotofsky’s monthly series of columns entitled “What’s the Truth About…?” is “devoted to researching commonly-held beliefs.” The body of the article is reprinted in full, but additional bibliographic material in the notes may be found in the original article. The terms “animal” and “meat” are used here somewhat idiosyncratically, to refer to kosher mammals and their flesh but not to fowl and the flesh of fowl. The author and publisher note that “this material is for study purposes only and should not be relied upon for practical halakhah. One should consult his own competent halakhic authority for specific questions.”

Reprinted from Jewish Action 60:2, Winter 1999, published by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America

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A seemingly harmless little olive thrown casually into a salad could disqualify that salad for a meat meal: olives are often prepared with lactic acid, which makes them dairy, and therefore unusable with a meat meal; or shortening marked pure vegetable shortening can contain stearic acid, which is derived from nonkosher animals; or peanut but­ter, which might include a glyceride of nonkosher origin.

What is a Hechsher? What Are All Those Symbols?

So there is an art to buying kosher. The easiest way is to “let Chaim Yankel do it.” To save any hassle, some Jews will shop only in a store that sells kosher products exclusively. One doesn’t have to read fine-print labels; even the words meat, dairy, or parve are stamped in legible letters on all prepared foods.

The alternative is to buy in regular supermarkets but to check all prepared foods for the seal of rabbinic supervision. What it means is that there is a reliable independent supervisor (mash­giach), a person who is knowledgeable in laws of kashrut, who spends time at the plant overseeing the entire process, from re­ceipt of the new foodstuffs to shipment of the finished products. There are a number of registered kashrut symbols to look for. Among them are [those listed at http://www.kashrut.com/agencies/].None of these symbols should be confused with ®, which does not mean Orthodox rabbis; it means registered trademark. For reliability of the above certifications, one should check with one’s own rabbi.

Rabbinic Certification

In addition to the symbols above, there is the ubiquitous K. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration law permits the K to be used where there is rabbinic supervision. However, the K is no more reliable than the individual rabbi who grants it. K on some foods is fine according to Orthodox standards, but not on others. The local rabbi–or the individual–will write to the company to get the name of the supervising rabbi, and then take it from there. Within the Orthodox community there are differ­ences of opinion among rabbis as to whether K on certain break­fast cereals is adequate. Some say yes, some say no.

There is also a range of response as to what kinds of items need rabbinic supervision in the first place. Some will say anything that is packaged, for even the food containers for vegetables and fruits could contain derivatives of nonkosher monoglycerides. At the other end are those who say any uncooked product whose listed ingredients are not unkosher is okay. For most Orthodox Jews, the answer lies somewhere in between. Generally speaking, we look for rabbinic certification on all baked goods, cheeses, cake mixes, candies, desserts, puddings, breakfast cereals, dress­ings, frostings, ice creams, relishes, condiments, preserves, sauces, ground spices, pastas, canned fish, margarine, and all prepared foods (for example, French fries and soups).

Processed Foods

The tricky things to look for in seemingly harmless foods are monoglycerides and diglycerides, shortening, gelatin, and stearic acid, which could be derived from nonkosher animals or from dairy sources. That is why rabbinic supervision is needed on so many processed foods. Happily, today there is little of any given type of food that is not available in strictly kosher form. Even kosher “bacon” (made of soybean derivatives), pareve cheese­cake, and kosher pate de fois gras. Thank God no one has come out with kosher pork. However, it must be noted that the Rabbis of the Talmud said that for every forbidden food, including pork, there is something exactly equivalent in taste that is kosher. (How did they know??)

What Makes Wine Kosher?

Another restriction of kashrut, which is followed very strictly by some Jews, less so by others, is the law concerning wine produced or handled by a non-Jew. The Torah prohibited use of any wine that a non-Jew pro­duced for idol worship libations. The Rabbis extended this ban not only to wine produced by a non-Jew, but also to any Jewish-­made wine that was touched or handled by a non-Jew. This was done to discourage social contact.

In the medieval period, when the Jews of France were deeply involved with their non-Jewish neighbors in the wine industry, many of these laws were reexamined. Moreover, by that time the use of wine for idol worship was very rare. Thus, certain rabbinic authorities permitted Jews to deal in stam yainam, as non-Jewish wine was called. Nevertheless, the restriction on drinking still obtained, for the social reason. The Shulchan Aruch (sixteenth-century code of law) stressed that the prohibition is enforced to prevent drinking and social contact between Jews and non-Jews. This, it was felt, would lead to intermarriage.

Today, some authorities permit use of Jewish wine handled by non-Jews as long as it has been pasteurized (boiled during its production process). The reason for this is that the original pro­hibition exempted boiled wine, which was not used for libations or social drinking. On the other hand, some authorities forbid wines that are touched even by a non-Sabbath-observant Jew. Most Orthodox Jews drink only kosher wines, which are simply wines produced by Jews under rabbinic supervision. These wines are generally packaged under double seals to prevent any prohib­ited form of handling.

The prohibition extended to any by-product of grapes, such as grape juice or grape jelly. However, it did not extend to whis­key, for whiskey is a grain product; it wasn’t used for idol worship purposes, so there was nothing on which to peg a prohibition. Thus it is that there are times when Orthodox Jews drink kosher wines and regular whiskey in “mixed” company, but you won’t catch them eating pure grape candies that have no kosher label.

Do Dairy Products Need Supervision?

There is also debate as to extent of rabbinic supervision over dairy products. Most modern Orthodox Jews drink milk and use butter and creams from Gentile-owned farms that are not rabbinically supervised, because the danger that the milk comes from a nonkosher animal no longer exists. It is against U.S. law to sell as “milk” anything other than what comes from a cow. However, some Jews will drink only milk that is produced by a Jewish-owned, rabbinically supervised dairy.

On hard cheeses, however, there is little debate; the enzyme, rennet, that is used to harden cheese comes from the lining of a calf’s stomach. The enzyme is considered a meat product and may not be used together with cheese. Moreover, since it is a powerful chemical, it is considered not to be diluted, so that even a minute amount (less than one part in sixty) is still prohibited. However, some rabbis ruled that the rennet is so treated chemi­cally (isolated and purified) that it is no longer considered a meat product. Others disagree with this ruling, arguing that the rennet is not denatured in the course of preparation. Almost all Ortho­dox Jews will eat only hard cheeses (such as swiss and gouda) that are rabbinically certified. Many of the soft cheeses (cream cheese, cottage cheese) are prepared by physical separation, not rennet. In such cases, certification would not be needed. The marginal case is American cheese. Some Orthodox Jews eat American cheese without kosher labels based on the rennet rul­ing mentioned above or because much American cheese is pre­pared by nonchemical process. Most, however, insist on certification for American cheese as well, if for no other reason than to avoid a situation in which the kashrut of their home would be questionable or inadequate in the eyes of others.

Kosher Bread

Regarding bread: One of the three special mitzvot assigned to women is the law of challah, removing a token amount of dough (the size of an olive) from a yeast batter, and throwing it into the oven fires while reciting the proper blessing. This is a residual practice, symbolic of ancient Temple rites of gift offer­ings to God from nature’s bounty. The law of challah is binding only upon Jews; thus, the bread of a bakery owned by non-Jews, whose products are kosher and have rabbinic supervision, does not require challah to be taken. A Jewish-owned and rabbinically supervised bakery will take challah as will a woman or man bak­ing bread at home.

One of the bonuses of living in an intensive Jewish neighbor­hood is the presence not only of a kosher bakery but of a Sabbath observant (shomer Shabbat) one as well. This means the owners are personally observant of halacha. Accordingly, they close the bakery before sundown Friday and don’t reopen until early Sunday morning. There is never any worry whether or not challah was taken or whether Sunday morning’s bread or Monday morn­ing’s cookies were baked by another Jew on Shabbat (which would not be permitted).

The author’s list of symbols of approved kashrut laboratories has been replaced with a hyperlink to a more up-to-date list, for which the author is not responsible. Reprinted with permission from How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household, published by Simon & Schuster.

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Kosher Animals by Category

The general rules are:

Mammals

Only those with cloven hoof and that chew their cuds, such as oxen, sheep, goats, deer, gazelles, roebuck, wild goats, ibex, ante­lopes, and mountain sheep. Pigs — the best-known non-kosher mammal — are not kosher because they do not chew their cuds. Other taboo mammals include camels and rabbits.

Birds

The Torah lists a number of forbidden birds, but does not specify which ones are allowed. The most common birds that Jews have traditionally considered kosher are chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese and pigeons. Among the explicitly forbidden birds are: vultures, ostriches, hawks and sea gulls.

Fish

Only those with fins and scales. (Learn more about kosher fish here.) Shellfish of all kinds are forbidden.

Reptiles, Amphibians and Insects

All are forbidden, except for four types of locusts.

Other Requirements for Kosher Meat

In addition to specifying which animals can and cannot be eaten, Jewish dietary law requires that land animals be slaughtered according specific protocols. (Learn more about kosher slaughter here.) All blood must be drained from the meat before it is prepared. The meat of animals that were hunted or were found after they died of natural causes is not kosher.

Jewish dietary law also stipulates that meat cannot be served in the same meal as dairy. Learn more details about keeping kosher here.

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The flesh of acceptable mammals and fowl could be consumed, but not their blood. One additional restriction on consuming such meat is the ban on cooking a kid in its own mother’s milk.

Rabbinic Judaism elaborated a series of practices intended to provide the details of behavior for putting the biblical restrictions into practice. The rabbis of Judaism’s formative period laid out complex rules for the slaughtering of animals and for the removal of blood from meat by salting it and soaking it in water. Most notably, from the ban on cooking a kid in its mother’s milk, repeated three times in the Torah, the rabbis made a tripartite ban on combinations of the taste from the meat of a kosher animal (even kosher fowl) with the taste of the milk of a kosher mammal. One is forbidden by rabbinic law to cook such a combination, to consume it, or to derive economic benefit from it in any way.

Over centuries of development, with popular practice influenced by the rulings of rabbinic authorities, these last restrictions developed into a system of separation articulated in great detail: separate sets of utensils for milk and meat, for example, and, in many homes, separate color-coded tablecloths, placemats, and dishtowels. Elaborate systems were developed for undoing (or letting pass) near-infractions of these rules—such as the accidental inclusion of a very small amount of milk in a meat dish, or vice-versa—or outright violations.

In most cases, rabbinic rulings on the dietary laws developed in the direction of increasing stringency. The Babylonian Talmud, for example, bans the consumption of milk during a meal after meat has been consumed at that meal. The post-talmudic practices in various communities, though, range from waiting one hour to waiting as long as six hours after consuming food containing meat before consuming food containing milk.

New discoveries and new technologies have occasioned questions about the application of the principles of kashrut in medieval and modern times. The rabbis had extrapolated rules from the biblical lists of kosher fowl, but the turkey and the pheasant, once Jews were exposed to them, were the subject of debate and disagreement. The same is true of the swordfish, which shed their scales in adulthood and thus engendered debate, and the sturgeon. The properties of new materials used to produce cookware, such as Pyrex in the twentieth century, also raised questions about how to classify them, since different materials known earlier—metal, earthenware, fine porcelain, glass—are each subject to different rules.

Jewish law and practice are dependent on the state of knowledge in the larger society at any given time. This is illustrated in a most piquant fashion by the debates in medieval European Jewry about the barnacle goose, which was widely believed to grow like fruit from a tree or to grow from a tree by its beak. Various Jewish legal authorities declared it either permitted for consumption like a fruit, subject to the laws covering other fowl, or entirely forbidden for use as food.

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The very first set of laws given to humanity sought to limit this evil by forbidding the flesh of a still-living creature, placing a limit on acts of cruelty or terror relating to the eating of animal flesh. The Torah’s original insistence that domestic animals could be slaughtered only for purpose of sacrifice, an offering to God needed to atone for the killing, was compromised only when the Book of Deuteronomy wanted to insist that sacrifice be offered in Jerusalem alone.

Realizing that people living at great distance could not bring all their animals to the Temple for slaughter, the “secular” slaughter and eating of domestic animals was permitted. Even then, the taboo against consuming blood, and later, the requirement to salt meat until even traces of blood were removed, “for the blood is the self” of the creature, represent a clear discomfort with the eating of animal flesh.

Most significantly, the forbidding of any mixing of milk and meat represents a proto-vegetarian sensibility. Milk is the fluid by which life is passed on from generation to generation. It may not be consumed with flesh, representing the taking of that life in an act of violence. The fluid of life may not be mixed with that of death. As the Torah says of the hewn-stone altar, “For you have waved your sword over it and have profaned it.”

The reasons for acting upon this vegetarian impulse in our day are multiple and compelling, just as compelling, I believe, as the reasons for the selective taboos against certain animals must have been when the Community of Israel came to accept these as the word of God. This is what we mean, after all, when we talk about a mitzvah being “the word of God” or “God’s will.” It is a form of human expression or a way of acting that feels compellingly right. This rightness has both a moral and a spiritual dimension; it is an expression of values we choose, but it also makes a more profound statement about who we are. We then come to associate it with divinity, and it becomes a vehicle through which we express our spiritual selves.

With the passage of time, origins are shrouded in mystery, and the form becomes the “will of God.” Israelites of ancient times felt that way about the taboos widely current in their society against the consumption of certain animals that they saw as repulsive, against the eating of blood, the mixing of milk and meat, and so forth. They associated this series of taboos with the God of Sinai. Over the centuries, kashrut as we know it became a mitzvah, a way in which Jews are joined to God.

Our situation has certain important parallels to this one. We are urgently concerned with finding a better way to share earth’s limited resources. We know that many more human lives can be sustained if land is used for planting rather than for grazing of animals for food. We are committed also to a healthier way of living and are coming to recognize that the human is, after all, a mostly vegetarian species. But for us as Jews, the impulse is largely a moral and religious one.

We have a long tradition of abhorring violence. Cruelty to animals has long been forbidden by Jewish law and sensibilities. Our tradition tells us that we must shoo a mother bird away form the nest before we take her eggs so that she does not suffer as we break the bond between them. We are told that a mother and her calf may not be slaughtered on the same day. The very next step beyond these prohibitions is a commitment to a vegetarian way of living.

We Jews in this century have been victims of destruction and mass slaughter on an unprecedented scale. We have seen every norm of humanity violated as we were treated like cattle rather than human beings. Our response to this memory is surely a complex and multitextured one. But as we overcome the understandable first reactions to the events, some of us feel our abhorrence of violence and bloodshed growing so strong that it reaches even beyond the borders of the human and into the animal kingdom. We Jews, who always looked upon killing for sport or pleasure as something alien and repulsive, should now, out of our own experience, be reaching the point where we find even the slaughter of animals for food morally beyond the range of the acceptable.

If Jews have to be associated with killing at all in our time, let it be only for the defense of human life. Life has become too precious in this era for us to be involved in the shedding of blood, even that of animals, when we can survive without it. This is not an ascetic choice, we should note, but rather a life-affirming one. A vegetarian Judaism would be more whole it its ability to embrace the presence of God in all of Creation.

Reprinted with permission from Seek My Face, Speak My Name: A Contemporary Jewish Theology, © 1992 by Jason Aronson, Inc.

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The Bible’s limitations on the types of animals that may be consumed are explained as a means of avoiding “abominations” of which other, pagan nations were guilty. Here, a social agenda can be seen behind the law: the creation of a distinct and “holy” Israelite nation. This theme is extended in later rabbinic restrictions on consuming bread, oil, or wine made by non-Jews. Some modern thinkers, too, focus on Jewish social distinctness as a major theme in kashrut.

Contemporary anthropologists see in the biblical categorizations of animals fit for consumption the reflection of a desire to attain holiness through strict category separation, by consuming only those animals that are the most “complete” examples of their class. Land animals should be herbivorous (ensured by the requirement that they chew their cud and have a cloven hoof), water animals should be fully locomotive in water (thus the insistence on fins and scales), and birds should be capable of flight and not be birds of prey.

Jews in the Hellenistic world of late antiquity interpreted kashrut as they did most or all of Jewish practice: as allegorical acts intended to teach universal philosophical truths.

Explaining kashrut as a system of hygiene and healthy diet is at least as old as the 13th century, when the philosopher and physician Maimonides suggested that all forbidden foods are damaging to the human body. This mode of interpretation was common among medieval and modern Jews, but it has met with constant opposition both on an empirical basis–are observant Jews really more healthy than others?–and on the grounds that it trivializes rules of deep religious significance.

Maimonides also concurred with the suggestion, offered before his time and since, that the strictures of kashrut are intended to curb our appetites, not only for medical reasons but also as a part of a more general effort as self-improvement, by inculcating habits and traits of self-restraint.

Interpreters of the Bible as far back as rabbinic times have explained some dietary laws as expressing compassion for animals. The prohibition on cooking a kid in its mother’s milk was understood this way by the thinker Philo in first-century Alexandria, and by some medieval commentators. Such an explanation is also offered for the prohibition against slaughtering both parent and offspring on one day, the requirement that a mother bird be chased away before any of its young are taken from the nest, and other biblical laws. This principle was applied in the rabbinic rules for slaughtering, which were designed to hasten the animal’s unconsciousness and its death, sparing it pain.

Finally, some interpreters of Judaism in modern times have presented the observance of kashrut first and foremost as a means of living in accord with the divine will. This is a theme well understood by the classic rabbinic sage who directed his adherents not to express disgust with nonkosher food. He advised them instead to say, “I want it! I want it! But the Holy One has declared it off-limits.”

Some contemporary Jews have linked their observance of kashrut with health and environmental concerns, seeing these as natural outgrowths of some traditional reasons behind the Jewish dietary laws.

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