What is Kosher?!


Question:

What is Kosher?

What is it? I saw on TV one time that a family had beliefs where they only ate Kosher meals and like, they couldn't mix certain foods together.. Im confused.


Answers:
Kosher refers to religious dietary laws followed by Jews. Orthodox Jews follow the strictest interpretations of the laws. The basic rules are:

1. Only animals that chew their cud and have split hooves can be eaten (cows, sheep, goats, NOT PIGS)
2.The animals have to be ritually slaughtered, by a method which causes no pain to the animal
3. Blood cannot be eaten, so meat is ritually salted and rinsed to remove all blood
4. Milk and meat cannot, under any circumstances, be eaten or mixed together. This includes meat derivatives (like gelatin) and utensils (many families have two separate sets of pots, dishes, and silverware)
5. Fish must have fins and scales (so no shellfish)
6. Fish and eggs have a "neutral" status (called pareve) and can be eaten with either dairy or meat meals.

It gets a lot more complicated (as one person mentioned, tithing within the Biblical borders of the Land of Israel) but these are the basic rules. I am listing 2 websites that are great resources if you want to find out more.

Source(s):
www.askmoses.com
www.aish.com

Kosher foods are those that meet certain criteria of Jewish law. Invalidating characteristics may range from the presence of a mixture of meat and milk, to the use of produce from Israel that has not been tithed properly, or even the use of cooking utensils which had previously been used for non-kosher food.

kosher is the body of Jewish law,a bit like our biblical rules

Kosher has to do with the Jewish religion and what God told them they could and could not eat in the Old Testament of the Bible. There are a lot of things they have to follow, for example they can't eat any meat with blood in it because blood is the source of life.

Kosher is a type of thing that a jewish preacher does to food, so jewish people can eat it.

It is not a simple answer but the Basic Principles as I understand them are..

Land animals must be mammals which chew their cud (ruminate) and have cloven hooves.
Birds of prey are prohibited
Fish must have fins and scales (non-fish seafood is prohibited)
Meat and milk (and anything made with dairy and meat products) cannot be served in the same meal, or cooked using the same dishes or utensils, or stored in a way that could cause them to intermingle. Observant Jews have separate dishes for meat and milk

Look up Kashrut ( Practice of Keeping Kosher) for more information.

Kosher foods are those that meet certain criteria of Jewish law. Invalidating characteristics may range from the presence of a mixture of meat and milk, to the use of produce from Israel that has not been tithed properly, or even the use of cooking utensils which had previously been used for non-kosher food




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