Quick Guide to the Jewish Dietary Laws
Definitions:
Kashrut
Kosher
Kashering
Treif
Shehitah
Shochet
Milchick
Fleishick
Pareve
The laws relating to Kosher foods
“Fit or proper”; refers to foods that may be consumed according to
Jewish dietary laws; refers to the separation of milk & meat in
general (utensils, flatware, pans, dishtowels, plates etc.)
The processes of salting and soaking meat to remove blood; the
process by which a utensil is rendered kosher
Torn; Any food which is forbidden by Jewish dietary law
The ritual slaughter of animals and fowl according to Jewish law
Person trained in the complex law of Shehitah
A food which contains milk or milk products
A food which contain meat or meat by-products
Any food which is neither dairy or meat (fruits/vegetables)
Why?

The Bible (a sample)
(Leviticus 11:44-45) For I am the Lord your God! Therefore, sanctify yourselves
and be holy, for I am holy
(Leviticus 20:25-26) So you shall set apart the clean beast from the unclean
…you shall be hold to me, for I the Lord am holy
(Leviticus 17:11) For the life of the flesh is in the blood
(Exodus 23:19; 34:26; Deuteronomy 14:21) You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s
milk

Boundaries and limitations are important and necessary to help us regulate
our lives (Moses Maimonides in his Guide for the Perplexed)

Separation: “Holiness” in Hebrew is “kedusha” from the word “kadosh” meaning
separated. To be a holy people, Jews needed to be set apart from their
neighbors; the dietary laws helped to make the Jewish lifestyle different from
others; encouraged unity and survival possible by discouraging socializing
(intermarriage) with others.

Anthropological/ecological reasons: There is no rationale given in the Bible
as to why certain animals are kosher. An anthropological explanation is that
some of the prohibited animals may have served more useful as beasts of
burden or as work animals (ex. Horses, donkeys, camels are not kosher.)
The Rules and Practices

Fruits & vegetables are all kosher and may be eaten with milk or meat
(exception wine and grape juice, see below); must not have insects

Fish must have both fins and scales; fish is regarded as pareve, but one cannot
cook fish together with meat (it can be cooked with milk); does not need to be
kashered (very little blood)

Fowl: most domestic fowl are kosher by definition, but must be ritually
slaughtered by a qualified shohet and kashered (soaked and salted to remove
excess blood) in order to be consumed by observant Jews. Wild birds and birds
of prey are not kosher (treif= torn)

Eggs from non-kosher birds are not kosher. Also, eggs that have bloody spots
may not be used (re: prohibition on consuming blood.)

Meat
o Must come from animals that both chew their cud and have a split hoof
(cattle, sheep, goats, and deer.)
o Must be slaughtered by a qualified shohet according to ritual; when an
animal is slaughtered according to this ritual, the jugular vein is severed,
the animal dies instantly, and the maximum amount of blood leaves the
animal
o Must be koshered (soaked and salted to remove excess blood)
o Only certain cuts of meat are usually kosher; cuts from the hind quarter
are not used because of difficulty in removing the sciatic nerve
o Broiling meat will render it kashered (liver, low salt diets)

Wine: Extremely observant Jews will only consume wine handled by Jews

Meat and Milk Separation
o Requires separate flatware, china, pots, sinks, refrigeration etc.
o Waiting period between eating a meat and dairy meal: varies from one to
six hours depending on rabbinic authorities and tradition

Kosher Controversies:
o
o
o
Rennet: an enzyme found in the lining of a mammal’s stomach is used in
the making of cheese. This may make it unkosher for very observant
Jews.
Gelatin: made from the boiling of hoofs, bones and animal tissues is
considered unkosher by the very Orthodox
Swordfish & sturgeon: the Orthodox content that these fish do NOT grow
real scales but “bony tubercles”; the Conservative Jewish authorities
disagree.

Kosher Symbols on Foods:
o
The manufacturing and processing of kosher foods are supervised and
certified by a number of organizations; it is illegal in most states to
represent an item as kosher if it is not.
Sources
Kolatch, Alfred. The Jewish Book of Why. Jonathan David Publishers, 1995.
The First Jewish Catalog. Richard siegel, Michael Strassfeld, and Sharon
Strassfeld, eds. Philadelphia, JPS, nd.