Dietary Laws Flashcards
What are Jewish dietry laws called?
What do they tell Jews?
- KASHRUT LAWS
- Tells Jews what foods they can (kosher)
and cannot eat - Laws help develop disipline+ sets G-d’s people apart, are apart of Moses’ Covenant
What are PAREV foods?
- Food that is neither good nor bad
- NEED TO BE INSPECTED FOR INSECTS THAT ARENT KOSHER - certified by Jewish authority (e.g. a rabbi)
- Foods that contain neither meat nor dairy (like fruit n veg)
TEREFAH foods?
- Non-kosher foods = terefah i.e. STRICTLY FORBIDDEN
What foods are considered TEREFAH?
- Animals that don’t graze - don’t chew the cud per se (e.g. pigs)
- Carnivourous animals
- Animals w/o cloven hooves
- Birds of prey
- Sea creatures w/o scales
- All insects, except grasshoppers
- Already dead animals
- Foods that mix with meat and milk
SOA for not mixing milk and meat?
‘Do not cook a young goat in it’s mother’s milk’ (Leviticus)
Who is the SHOCHET and what do they do?
- Person who slaughters and drains all blood from animal (by salting or soaking)
-animals killed w/ a swift cut across the throat w/ a shechita
-food not considered kosher if not killed this way
-minimises animal suffering
SOA for eating meat w/o blood?
‘you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal. Anyone who eats the blood must be cut off from their people’ (Leviticus)
What should food certified as ‘kosher’ in the UK be labelled with?
- MARKED W/ THE SYMBOL OF ONE OR BOTH
- Kashrut Authority of the London Beth Din
- Sephardi Kosher Authority
SOA for eating meat w/o blood pt.2?
‘The life of an animal is in the blood’ (Levitcus)
Divergence in dietary laws?
ORTHODOX:
* Two seperate kitchens/utensils, seperation of dairy n meat products
* May not eat out, prevent eating food prepared in a non-kosher environment
REFORM:
* Pareve foods do not need to be certified
* May believe some laws were made out of safety, do not apply to the context of today (e.g. not eating shellfish)
* Meat may not be slaughtered by shechita
Issues with the dietary laws?
- Pikuach Nefesh - someone starving should be able to eat terefah food
- Practice of shechita cruel + outdated - countries banning this practice, switch to electrocution as a more humane approach
SOA for pareve foods?
‘I have given you all kinds of plants and grains to eat’ (Genesis)
SOA for animals that graze + have cloven hooves?
‘You may eat any land animals that has divided hoofs that also chews the cud’ (Levitcus)
