Torah Portion
CREATE & PRESERVE
YOUR FAMILY MEMORIES
The Laws Of Kashrut
And The Basis Of Faith
and meat, based on the biblical
mandate to "not boil a kid in its
mother's milk."
Laws delineating the proper
methods for slaughtering animals
also prohibit hunting for food.
Animals that have been hunted and
killed are by definition no longer
kosher. The Torah contains a strict
his week's Torah portion
prohibition against consuming the
contains many of the laws
blood of any animal, thus requiring
that underlie our system
special preparations to drain and salt
of kashrut, the standards
meat until all traces of blood are
of permissible and impermissible
removed.
foods.
These prohibitions seem to
The system outlines
reflect an abhorrence of
which foods are kasher (fit,
shedding blood as an over-
proper) and which are tere-
arching moral principle.
fah or treif (originally
Some scholars, however,
denoting meat that is
have suggested that such
impermissible because the
laws hearken back to a
animal was killed by a
time when ancient pagan
predator and not properly
traditions were rejected by
slaughtered; now often used
the early Israelites.
to denote any food that is
Regardless of its origin
not permitted).
or purpose, the kosher
RABBI
MARLA
We often hear explana-
dietary system has been a
J. FELDMAN
tions of these dietary laws
mainstay of Jewish tradi-
Special to the
as being related to health
tion,
surviving even the
Jewish News
reasons or the humanitarian
harshest of persecutions.
treatment of animals. As
As far back as the
early as the first century, Philo of
Maccabean revolt against the
Alexandria attempted to explain the
Hellenists, Jews chose martyrdom
laws of kashrut as a moral code,
rather than violate the laws of
designed to teach us control over
kashrut. During the Roman persecu-
our appetites 'and indulgences and to
tions, the Crusades, the Inquisition
encourage kindness. Hundreds of
and other periods of oppression, our
years later, Maimonides (the rabbi
ancestors preserved this tradition.
also known as Rambam) echoed this
From the poorest shtetl in the Pale
view, declaring that the dietary laws
of Settlement to formal stare dinners
not only teach self-control, but also
at the White House, Jews have
promote better health. Maimonides
maintained this practice.
applied his medical knowledge to
Even non-traditional Jews who do
determine that prohibited food was
not observe Halacha have found
also unhealthy.
meaning in some, if not all, of the
The texts themselves, however, do
dietary laws. These laws seem to
not bear out these explanations.
have a special claim on the Jewish
There is no single explanation that
psyche that is more powerful than
can be applied to all the dietary laws
our desire to "fit in" to secular soci-
to produce a pattern of what is and
ety.
is not permitted. Prohibited foods
Perhaps the reason kashrut holds
include animals that do not have
split hooves or chew their cud,
meat-eating birds, winged insects,
fish that do not have both fins and
scales and certain creeping critters,
Are there reasons to keep kosher,
such as mice and lizards:Later tal-
mudic restrictions further clarified
even for those who don't strictly
follow Halacha? If what we eat
the laws of kashrut by outlining the
proper methods for slaughtering and
makes us holy, does our daily
diet fulfill the underlying princi-
preparing meat and separating milk
ple of the dietary command-
ments? Is there food that should
Rabbi Marla Feldman is the assistant
be declared treif even if it's not
director of the Jewish Community
listed in the biblical or talmudic
Council of Metropolitan Detroit and
prohibitions?
executive director of the Michigan
Shabbat Sh emini:
Leviticus 9. .1-11:47;
Exodus 12: 1-20;
Ezekiel 45: 16-46.18.
ir
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