answersLogoWhite

0

They do not eat foods that are treif - that is, food which is not kosher. A full list of treif foods would be impossible to list here and the laws that rule which foods are or are not kosher (collectively termed kashrut) would be almost equally extensive, so here's a brief explanation:

Treif - any meat from an animal torn (killed or caught) by another animal (the literal meaning of trief, includes game caught by hounds, carrion etc.); any meat from an animal not slaughtered in accordance with the strict shechita laws (which state that an animal must be rapidly slaughtered with a very sharp blade known as a hallaf or sakin, by a highly-trained slaughterer called a shochet); certain parts of an animal (the sciatic nerve, fats known as chelev, blood); any non-kosher animal (pigs being the best known, but also any mammal that does not have cloven hooves and chew the cud, fish that do not have both scales and fins such as sturgeon, all shellfish, Birds of Prey, all insects except for certain locusts and many others).

Some foods are parve - neutral, kashrut does not apply. All vegetables and plant matter are considered parve, though some - such as artichokes - which are difficult to check for treif insects are commonly avoided by Jewish people. Dairy products are also parve provided they are not consumed at the same time as meat - observant Jews wait a certain time between consuming one before they will consume the other (this period varies from one to six hours).

Some foods that can usually be eaten become treif during Passover (called Pesach by Jews) - these include any foods made using one or more of the Five Grains - wheat, barley, spelt, rye and oats - that comes into contact with water for more than eighteen minutes prior to baking (if it does, it is said to have undergone a process called chimutz, which roughly translates as fermentation but which is not the same as the chemical process known as fermentation). Food that falls into this category is called chametz and includes most bread, pasta, couscous and the normal matzah sold at other times of the year ("kosher for Passover" matzah are produced under tightly-controlled conditions to ensure they do not become chametz). Ashkenazi Jews - those with North European origins - also avoid kitniyot, a term meaning "small things", during Passover. Kitniyot includes rice, peas, beans, lentils, sweetcorn and anything else that takes the form of small things. Sephardic Jews, with origins in Southern Europe and North Africa, do not carry out this tradition.

User Avatar

Wiki User

16y ago

What else can I help you with?