dietary law

n. Judaism
The body of regulations prescribing the kinds and combinations of food that may be eaten.

A set of regulations that govern food permitted for consumption. The term Kasher or kosher associated with these laws means food that is ritually fit for consumption; the dietary laws are known in Hebrew as the laws of kashrut ("fitness"). The dietary laws do not concern fruit and vegetables. While there do exist regulations concerning their consumption (see Agricultural Laws; Mixed Species; Tithe; Wine), the source of such regulations is not in the dietary laws, according to which all fruits and vegetables are permitted .

The first dietary law in the Bible prohibits eating the limb of a living animal and the consumption of blood (Gen. 9:4). The Bible (Deut. 14:6) furnishes clear criteria for determining which quadrupeds are permitted or tahor ("clean"): "Every animal that has true hooves which are cleft in two, and brings up the cud, you may eat." All such animals, domestic or wild, are herbivorous. Animals that meet only one of these requirements, such as the pig, which has a wholly cloven hoof but does not bring up the cud, or the camel, which brings up the cud but does not have a split hoof, are forbidden (tamé, "unclean"). The Bible lists ten permitted animals: the ox, sheep, goat, deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, ibex, antelope and mountain sheep (Deut. 14:4-5).The Bible does not offer criteria for birds but, rather, enumerates the forbidden ones (Lev. 11:13-19; Deut. 14:12-18). From these two lists, the rabbis compiled a comprehensive list of 24 birds considered forbidden (Ḥul. 63b). Eggs of prohibited birds are likewise forbidden, as are fertilized eggs of permitted birds. Among aquatic animals, only those that have at least one fin and at least one easily removable scale are permitted; thus crab, lobster, oysters, clams, etc., are forbidden. Caviar of forbidden fish is also prohibited (Lev. 11:9-12). In Leviticus (11:21-22), the Bible permits four types of locusts (although these are prohibited by rabbinic law because of the difficulty of identification). Otherwise, every sort of insect, arthropod, and worm (as well as all reptiles) is forbidden. A general rule of the dietary laws is that any product of a forbidden animal is forbidden (thus the prohibition of the eggs of forbidden birds and fish and the milk of forbidden mammals); the one exception is honey, for which the Talmud elicits special proof of permissibility (Bekh. 7b). The dietary laws deal not only with the fitness of various species but also with the manner of the animal's slaughter, its health at the time of death, and the manner of its preparation for consumption. The ritually specified method of slaughter is known in Hebrew as Sheḥitah; one trained in this skill is known as a shoḥet. An animal that has died in any but the prescribed way is not permitted for consumption. Sheḥitah consists of a rapid slitting of the esophagus and trachea with a razor-sharp knife; death is nearly instantaneous. The knife must be carefully inspected immediately prior to each use to ascertain that the blade has not even the tiniest blemish. Once the animal is slaughtered, it is suspended upside-down to insure that as much Blood as possible drains from the carcass. After slaughter, the shoḥet must perform an inspection (bedikah) of the animal. If the internal organs show any evidence of injury or disease that would have been likely to cause the animal's death within one year (Ḥul. 43a), the animal is classified as Terefah and is forbidden (in common Ashkenazi parlance, the word tref---usually used as the opposite of kosher---refers to food unfit for any reason). Meat of any animal that has died of a natural cause (nevelah) is prohibited. Particularly meticulous observers of the dietary laws may demand a standard of kashrut known in Hebrew as ḥalak ("smooth") and in Yiddish as glatt. Meat that is "glatt kosher" comes from animals whose lungs, upon inspection, raised no question at all, since there was no evidence whatsoever of ill health. This classification is not relevant to poultry, for which inspection is required of the intestines only. Fish need not be ritually killed or inspected.

The Bible outlaws the consumption of blood (Lev. 7:26-27, 17:10-14), and this prohibition results in a number of obligatory procedures in the preparation of food. Animals are hung after sheḥitah so as to maximize the amount of veinal blood drained. Beyond that, the Halakhah prescribes one of two alternate procedures to extract as much blood as possible from muscle and organ tissues. The most common procedure is that of salting (meliḥah). Meat is first soaked in clean cold water for 30 minutes to open the pores. The meat is then covered on all surfaces with medium-coarse Salt and placed on a grooved or perforated board for one hour. The board must be inclined to facilitate drainage. After the time has elapsed, the meat is rinsed several times in running water. An alternative method is to roast the meat over an open flame. This is considered more effective and is therefore required for certain tissues extremely rich in blood (e.g., liver) as well as meat that has not been salted within 72 hours of slaughter. Both roasting and salting are commonly known as koshering or kashering. Any blood remaining after a proper koshering is permitted. Today, most meat is salted prior to being sold. Roasting, however, remains a common household task in observant homes. The blood of fish is permitted.

Certain portions of permitted animals are also forbidden. The sciatic nerve (Heb. gid ha-nasheh) is not eaten (Gen. 32:33) and must be removed before meat may be taken from the hindquarter. In communities where the sciatic nerve is not removed, the hindquarter is not eaten but sold to non-Jewish packing houses. The fat attached to the stomach and intestines (Heb. ḥelev) was designated in sacrificial animals to be burned on the altar. In all animals, its consumption is forbidden. These two regulations do not concern fish or poultry.

The separation of milk and meat practiced in Jewish homes stems from the biblical prohibition, "You shall not cook a kid in its mother's milk," which appears three times in the Pentateuch (Ex. 23:19, 34:26; Deut. 14:21), probably as a measure against paganism, which prepared charms by seething kids in their mothers' milk. The laws deriving from this prohibition are known as the laws of basar be-ḥalav (meat in milk). The Talmud took the biblical prohibition to refer to the cooking of any domestic animal in the milk of any other domestic animal (Ḥul. 113b). The rabbis later added poultry to this prohibition. The threefold repetition of the same ban was interpreted as a prohibition not only of cooking but also of eating and deriving benefit from such a product (Ḥul. 115b). Milk for the purpose of this law is any dairy product. As is common in Jewish law, the rabbis greatly extended these rules in order to "erect a fence around the Torah." Thus, they prohibited eating milk together with meat at the same meal. Since utensils may absorb small quantities of hot foods with which they come into contact and later discharge what they have absorbed, completely separate sets of pots, pans, dishes, and cutlery are mandated, for fear that meat will be contaminated by milk or vice versa. After eating meat, a specified period must pass before eating milk products. This period varies among different communities, some waiting six hours, some three, and a few waiting one hour only. It is permitted to eat meat after milk, however, if it is not part of the same meal and if the mouth has been rinsed or bread eaten. Fruit, vegetables, eggs, and fish may be eaten with milk or meat, and are commonly known as stami or pareve (neutral), although the rabbis felt that it was unhealthy to eat fish immediately after meat.

The Bible makes no attempt to explain the dietary laws, although it does on three separate occasions associate them with Holiness (Ex. 22:30; Lev. 11:44-45; Deut. 14:21). They are classified as a ḥok, a regulation without explanation. Nor did the rabbis of the Talmud and Midrash delve deeply into the rationale of these laws. In general, they felt that the observance of kashrut was an aid to the development of self-discipline and moral conduct (Gen.R. 44:1, Sifra on Lev. 20:26). Various other attempts have been made to explain the dietary laws, but these are not authoritative. Maimonides (Guide 3:48) wrote that the observance of the dietary laws teaches mastery of the appetites and restraint. He also felt that all the forbidden foods were unwholesome. The hygienic theme has been suggested by others as well. Some have claimed a humanitarian basis for the dietary laws: the revulsion to blood, the requirement of rapid painless slaughter, the consumption of only herbivorous animals, inculcate sensitivity to other living beings and an avoidance of violence.

Until the modern period, kashrut was one of the touchstones of Jewish observance and one of the unmistakable marks of Jewish identity. The 19th-century Reform movement in Germany decided that the dietary laws were connected with the Temple ritual and were to be regarded as a temporary regulation, not integral to the Jewish religion. American Reform Judaism rejected the dietary laws at its Pittsburgh Conference of 1885, declaring that "they fail to impress the modern Jew with a spirit of priestly holiness," and that "their observance in our days is apt rather to obstruct than to further modern spiritual elevation." Today, the dietary laws are disregarded by a large segment of the Jewish people. Conservative Judaism adheres to the laws of kashrut, although there is a tendency to select the more lenient opinions available in the halakhah over stricter rulings that may have previously gained acceptance. Observance of the dietary laws has recently enjoyed a certain revival in various Jewish communities with numerous kosher products widely available and new kosher restaurants opening. In the State of Israel, nearly all food products are produced under rabbinical supervision to insure conformity with the dietary laws. In the Israel Defense Forces and public institutions, the dietary laws are observed.

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The Bible assumed man to have been a vegetarian originally (Gen 1:29-30), until the sons of Noah were permitted flesh (Gen 9:3). This concession was not granted without reservation: "But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood" (Gen 9:4). Man's craving for meat is to be indulged, but he is to abstain from consuming the blood.

This blood prohibition, enjoined upon all men and not on the Israelites alone, is in stark contrast with the idolatrous practices of ancient Israel's environment, where blood was consumed as food. It may therefore be concluded that the blood prohibition was not a vestigial leftover of an ancient taboo; rather, it must have been the result of a rational, deliberate departure from prevalent practice. The reason for this departure becomes clear when it is recalled that the blood prohibition occurs within the same context in which the concession to eat meat is given for the first time (Gen 9:3ff). Man has no right to put an animal to death except by God's sanction. Hence he must eschew the blood, drain it, and return it, as it were, to the creator.

Certain animal foods are prohibited, in Leviticus chapter 11, the rationale being cited in verse 44: "sanctify yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy". Relatively few individual Bible statutes are coupled with the demand for holiness, none of these feature the staccato emphasis and repetition characterizing the food prohibitions.

The Bible lays down various categories of forbidden food. In the story of Noah, the animals are already divided into "clean" and "unclean" categories (Gen 7:2) but it is only in the Mosaic Law that the criteria are defined: in Leviticus chapter 11 and Deuteronomy 14:3-21. "Among the beasts, whatever divides the hoof, having cloven hooves and chewing the cud – that may you eat" (Lev 11:3); a list of sanctioned quadrupeds is given in Deuteronomy 14:4-5. Fish have to have both fins and scales to qualify (Lev 11:9-12). For birds, no general rule is given, but a long list of forbidden fowl (many of which can no longer be certainly identified) is found in Leviticus 11:13-19. The implication is that those fowl not listed are permitted. With some exceptions in Leviticus 11:20-22, winged animals that creep on the ground are forbidden, as are all kinds of worms, snakes, snails, etc. (Let 11:41).

Flesh may not be torn from a living animal (cf Gen 9:4); as a Noahide Law, this restriction applies to all mankind and not to the Israelites alone. The sinew of the hip is forbidden, this ban being ascribed to the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel (Gen 32:32). Part of the abdominal fat of the ox, sheep and goats is likewise forbidden (Lev 7:23). A kid may not be boiled in its mother's milk (Ex 23:19; 34:26; Deut 14:21); this regulation has recently been identified as a ban on pagan customs, as findings at Ugarit have shown that it was the custom there to boil a kid in its mother's milk as a lucky charm.

Another category of forbidden food relates to the fruit of trees during the first four years after planting (Lev 19:23-24) and food grown as the result of sowing diverse seeds together (Deut 22:9).

In the NT period, the dietary laws were interpreted with great strictness by the Pharisees. Jesus, in protest, belittled the laws, stating "Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man" (Matt 15:11ff; cf Mark 7:5ff).

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