The biblical dietary laws are best seen in the context of the Bible's view of creation and redemption, the first of days and the end of days. In the creation story found in Genesis 1, both humans and animals were supposed to be vegetarians: "G-d said, `See, I give you every seed-bearing plant that is upon all the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit; they shall be yours for food. And to all the animals on land, to all the birds of the sky, and to everything that creeps on earth, in which there is the breath of life, I give all the green plants for food.' And it was so" (Gen. 1: 29-30, NJPS translation). And in the End of Days, "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb.... The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion, like the ox, shall eat straw " (Isaiah 11:6-7). But by the generation of Noah, "The earth became corrupt before G-d; the earth was filled with injustice" (Gen. 6:11). G-d decided to destroy mankind and to begin again from the descendants of Noah. After the flood, G-d set lower standards for humans, and allowed meat-eating, with the following restriction: "Every creature that lives shall be yours to eat; as with the green grasses, I give you all these. You must not, however, eat flesh with its life-blood in it" (Gen. 9:3-4). Herein lie two restrictions. Traditional Jewish commentators interpret this verse as forbidding humans from eating an animal slaughtered in stages - a limb severed one day, the animal sewn up till the next meal, etc. until the coup de grace. The prohibition of animal blood was further applied in halacha (Jewish religious law). Meat is either to be broiled while draining, or treated with coarse salt (kashered) to remove the blood before cooking. A further mitzvah (commandment) is in the realm of eating meat and milk products together. The source of this mitzvah is: "You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk" (Ex. 23:19 et al.). Perhaps some day historians or archaeologists will discover the specific context in which this was practiced. But the sensitivity of biblical culture to cruelty to animals is clear. Permission to take animal life for human consumption was a concession granted to humankind after the flood. But the life of an animal is still a life, and animal motherhood is still motherhood. This point is reinforced by another biblical law: "If, along the road, you chance upon a bird's nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. Let the mother go and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life" (Dt. 22:6-7). The dynamic against inflicting cruelty upon animals was crystallized into a negative "value concept" of Rabbinic Judaism. A further concretization of this concept is the Rabbinic admonition to feed one's animal before one sits down to eat. Moreover, the halacha of slaughter attempts to minimize the suffering of the animal. The knife must be such as to take the animal's life in one clean stroke. A blessing is said, indicating that the taking of animal life is a serious matter, a concession to human weakness and not a birthright. Although quite often the serious student can discover the rationale or the value concepts underlying a mitzvah, there are many details of Jewish ritual law which seem more arbitrary, such as the groupings of kosher (fit, permissible) and non-kosher animals. Insects are non-kosher, with the exception of some grasshoppers. Seafood needs both fins and scales to be considered kosher. Amphibians and reptiles are never kosher. There are lists of non-kosher birds (Lev. 11:13-19 and Dt. 14:11-18). Most birds of prey seem to be forbidden, along with other species. Kosher mammals must be ruminants with split hooves; e.g. cattle, goats and sheep are in, while pork, camel and horse are out. Orthodox halacha (religious law) demands further restrictions based on the above. Meat meals and milk meals must be cooked and eaten with separate utensils. One must wait up to six hours after a meat meal before eating milk. Every ingredient comprising manufactured food must be certified kosher. The ultra-orthodox community insist that certain products must be prepared only by Jews, or only by orthodox Jews. Although all of the above may seem like a burden, it is seen by the religious Jew as an opportunity for holiness, as emphasized in this context in Leviticus: "For I the Lord am He who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your G-d. You shall be holy, for I am holy" (11:45). There is yet another dietary mitzvah: "One may not eat without first reciting a blessing" (Talmud B'rachot). Look for more on the twin concepts of blessing and prayer in a future column.
Articles on Judaism: http://www.whatsjew.com/articles/
By: Rabbi Jonathan Matt
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