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Kosher Food: WhatMakes Food Kosher orNotThe word “kosher” literally means “fit” or“appropriate.”Ask an average person to describe food andthey might say it is food “blessed by a rabbi.”The word “kosher,” however, is Hebrew for“fit” or “appropriate” and describes the foodthat is suitable for a Jew to eat. With its rootsin the Hebrew Bible, the system of definingwhich foods are kosher was developed bythe rabbis of late antiquity. Its application tochanging realities has been the work of subsequentgenerations, including our own.Confused why kosher food is categorizedas dairy, meat or pareve (neither meat nordairy)?Kashrut’s Biblical andTalmudicOriginsClose readers of the Torah might notice thataccording to the book of Genesis, vegetarianismwas commanded by God as the ideal diet(see Genesis 1:29). However, in the course ofthe biblical narratives, this changed to includea variety of different animals.Israel produces93% of its ownfood requirements;however most ofthe country’s wheatis imported.According to the Torah (Leviticus 11), onlycertain kinds of animals are consideredinherently kosher. For land animals, anycreature that both chews its cud and hassplit hooves is kosher. For sea creatures,any fish that has both fins and scales isacceptable, and for birds, only those birdsapproved by the Torah (or others that laterauthorities have judged to be like them,a list that excludes scavengers and birdsof prey). In addition, it is repeated threetimes in the Torah that it is forbidden tocook a baby goat in its own mother’s milk.The rabbis in the Talmud further developedthese principles of kashrut (Pronounced:kahsh-ROOT, Origin: Hebrew,the Jewish dietary laws.). In order toconsume kosher land animals and birds,it is necessary to slaughter them in aprescribed way, in a manner that has beendescribed as a more humane method thanis practiced commercially. In addition,the prohibition of cooking a baby goat inits own mother’s milk is the basis for thecomplete, physical, hermetic separation ofall milk and meat products. These are thefundamental elements of kashrut.Keeping KosherTodayAll questions, problems or issues aboutkeeping kosher ultimately revolve aroundthe basic principles of kashrut describedabove.Usually, the questions have to do with thelast basic element, the complete separationof milk and meat products. The use ofdifferent sets of dishes and pots and pans,developed in order to ensure a greaterseparation between milk and meat foods.This is also the basis of waiting severalhours after eating a meat dish before eatinga dairy product, so that the two typesof food shouldn’t even mix together in ourstomachs!Whether a particular food is consideredkosher or not usually has to do withwhether any substance or product usedin its manufacture was derived from anon-kosher animal or even an animal thatis kosher but was not slaughtered in theprescribed manner. Rabbinic supervisionof the production of food (a practice calledhashgacha) enables it to carry a “seal ofapproval” (but no, it is not “blessed by arabbi”).The 3 Categories ofKosher FoodsDairyOften described with the Yiddish wordmilchig (Pronounced: MILL-khig, Origin:Yiddish, dairy, as an adjective to describefood containing dairy, or dishes usedfor foods containing dairy. (Kosher lawsprohibit serving meat and dairy together.),these are foods, such as cheese, milk,yogurt, ice cream, etc.MeatOften referred to with the Yiddish wordfleischig, this includes all kosher animalsand fowl slaughtered in the prescribedmanner, and their derivative products.PareveA Yiddish word meaning “neutral,” thisdescribes foods that are neither dairy normeat, such as eggs and fish, tofu, nuts,seeds, fruits and vegetables, and the like,provided they are not prepared with anymilk or meat products.In keeping kosher, it is necessary to keepall dairy and meat foods completely separate— which, unless one is vegetarian,necessitates separate sets of dishes andcooking utensils. Pareve foods, however,may be mixed in and served with eithercategory of food since these foods areneither milk nor meat.The Holy Land - The Essential Guide to Living in Israel 145