What is kashruth?

Answer 1

Kashruth, or kashrut [Hebrew כשרות] is the system of Jewish dietary laws, based on certain chapters and verses from the Old Testament. An example is Leviticus 11, which describes which fish, fowl and four-legged creatures may be consumed, and which may not. Not only are certain types of animals prohibited, but even with the permitted animals, there are precise methods of ending the animal's life, without which the animal still cannot be consumed. For example, a cow, to be kosher, has to have been slaughtered by a certified "shochet", a ritual slaughterer, in a precise manner.

Jews believe that these laws apply only to Jews, and that non-Jews are exempt.

Generally, these laws are viewed by Jewish sources as not based on human logic. In other words, as Maimonides of Spain explained, a Jew who keeps these laws should not say, "I avoid pork because I don't like it," or "because it is not healthy". Rather, he should say, "I would like it, but God, for His own reasons, forbade it to me."