Why Keep Kosher?

he word kosher is universally used to denote that which is proper and meets
accepted rules and standards. In Judaism, the term kosher applies specifically to
food, Torah scrolls, tefillin, and mezuzot, and can even be applied to the acceptability
of witnesses. Its most common use today, of course, is in regard to food, which is the
subject of this shiur.

This class will address the following questions:

~~ Why is it important to keep kosher?
~~ What are the reasons for keeping kosher?
~~ How does someone observe the laws of kashrut?
~~ What are some of the Kabbalistic explanations for the laws of kashrut?

Class Outline

Section I.

Principles of Keeping Kosher

Part A. Kosher Mammals
Part B. Birds
Part C. Kosher Animals and Birds Require Shechitah
Part D. Gid HaNasheh
Part E. Fats and Blood
Part F. Not Mixing Meat and Dairy Products
Part G. Fish
Part H. Insects
Part I. Selected Rabbinic Prohibitions

Section II.

Philosophy of Keeping Kosher

Part A. Kashrut Connects a Jew to God
Part B. Spiritual Health
Part C. Damage Caused by Non-kosher Food
Part D. Kashrut Can Improve Ones Character

Section III. Kabbalistic Explanations of Kashrut

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Section I. Principles of Keeping Kosher

Fundamental principles of the kashrut laws governing permissible and prohibited foods are summarized
below.

Part A. Kosher Mammals

The Torah states that kosher mammals are those which chew their cud (ruminants) and are cloven-hoofed.
The following animal species are among those considered to be kosher: addax, antelope, bison, cow, deer,
gazelle, goat, ibex, and sheep. Mammals and fowl require special preparation as discussed in Part E below.

1. Vayikra (Leviticus) 11:2-3 The Divine definition of the kosher mammal: it must have split
hooves and chew the cud.
Speak to the Children of Israel saying: These are
the creatures that you may eat from among all
the animals that are upon the earth. Everything
among the animals that has a split hoof, which
is completely separated into double hooves, and
that brings up its cud that one you may eat.

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2. Sifra Shmini, Parshat Yayin ve-Shechar, Parshah 2 To teach the Jewish people which animals
are kosher, Moshe (Moses) held up each animal and declared its status.
This is the animal that you may eat. This
teaches that Moshe held each one and showed
it to Israel, saying, You may eat this kind and,
You may not eat this kind.

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Part B. Birds
The Torah does not list specific characteristics to distinguish between permitted and forbidden birds.
Instead, it enumerates twenty-four forbidden species of fowl, while all other birds are considered to be
kosher. Nonetheless, in practice we eat only those birds which have an established tradition that the species
is kosher, such as chicken, turkey, duck, and goose.

1. Vayikra 11:13 The Torah lists the non-kosher bird species.

These shall you abominate from among the birds,
they may not be eaten they are an abomination:
the eagle, the osprey, the aznaya

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Part C. Kosher Animals and Birds Require Shechitah

Animals and birds require (shechitah) ritual slaughter to render them kosher. An animal that dies in any
other way is not kosher.

1. Devarim (Deuteronomy)12:21 The source for the requirement of a kosher slaughter.

And you shall slaughter from your herd and from

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your flock that God has given to you as I have

commanded you and you may eat meat to your
souls desire.

2. Vayikra 22:8 Prohibition of eating from a dead animal or one which has not been shechted
(kosher slaughter).
Do not eat from a carcass or from a torn animal,
to be contaminated through it; I am God.

Part D. Gid HaNasheh (Sciatic Nerve)

The sciatic nerve (gid hanasheh) in each leg and the fat surrounding the nerve must be removed.

1. Bereishit (Genesis) 32:33 The sciatic nerve must be removed from the hind legs.
Therefore the Children of Israel do not eat the gid
hanasheh on the hip-socket to this day, because
[the angel of Esau] struck Yaakovs (Jacob) hipsocket on the gid hanasheh.

Part E. Fats and Blood

Certain fats, known as chelev, may not be eaten. As much blood as possible must be removed from the
meat, either by soaking, salting, and rinsing or by broiling over a fire.

1. Vayikra 3:17 Blood and forbidden fats must be removed from the meat before eating.
It is an eternal statute for all your generations in
all your dwelling places all fats and all blood
you shall not eat.

Part F. Not Mixing Meat and Dairy Products

Milk from kosher animals is kosher. However, dairy and meat products cannot be mixed. The seriousness
of the prohibition of mixing meat and dairy products is underscored by its appearance three times in the
Torah.

1. Shemot (Exodus) 23:19, 34:26, Devarim 14:21 The three sources of the Torah prohibition.
Do not cook a goat in its mothers milk.

2. Rashi, Shemot 23:19 What additional laws is the Torah teaching by this repetition?
The three places where the Torah writes the
prohibition of mixing milk and meat teach that it
is 1. forbidden to eat the mixture, 2. forbidden to

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derive any benefit from such a mixture and

3. forbidden to cook such a mixture.

3. Rabbi Yaakov Luban, OU Kosher Laboratories The separation of meat and milk includes:
not eating them at the same meal, not preparing them on the same utensils, and waiting
between eating meat and milk.
The Rabbis extended the prohibition to disallow the eating of meat and dairy products at the same
meal or preparing them on the same utensils. Furthermore, milk products cannot be consumed after
eating meat, for a period of time. There are different traditions for how long to wait between meat and
dairy, but the most prevalent custom is to wait six hours.
Meat may be eaten following dairy products with the one exception of hard cheese that is aged six
months or more, which requires the same waiting time as that of dairy after meat.

Part G. Fish
Fish must have fins and scales to be kosher. Unlike meat and poultry, fish requires no special preparation.

1. Vayikra 11:9 Any fish which has fins and scales is kosher.
This is what you may eat of all that is in the
water: You may eat any creature that lives in the
water, whether in seas or rivers, as long as it has
fins and scales.

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Part H. Insects
There are five Torah prohibitions regarding the eating of insects. The Torah states that only certain chagavim
(grasshoppers) are kosher. But just like birds, there is a need for a tradition regarding the identity of the
kosher species.

1. Vayikra 11:20-1 Insects may not be eaten.

Every flying insect that uses four legs for
walkingit is an abomination to you. The only
flying insects with four walking legs that you may
eat are those which have knees extending above
their feet, [using these longer legs] to hop on the
ground.

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Part I. Selected Rabbinic Prohibitions

1. Is it Kosher? Rabbi E. Eidlitz, p. 66 Food and wine prepared exclusively by a non-Jew is
prohibited.
Foods cooked by an akum [a non-Jew] are
forbidden, since it is possible that he would serve
non-kosher food, and this is also a precaution
against assimilation.

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Wine prepared by an akum is forbidden as a

precaution against assimilation.

Section II. Philosophy of Keeping Kosher

Part A. Kashrut Connects a Jew to God
1. Shemot (Exodus) 22; 30 A holy people needs holy food.
You shall be a holy people to Me, and you shall
not eat the flesh of an animal that has been torn
in the field, but you should throw it to the dog.

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2. Rashi, ibid. Our holiness and closeness to God depends on what we eat and how we eat.
You shall be holy people to Me. If you are holy
and separate yourselves from the disgusting
carcasses and torn animals then you are Mine. If
not, you are not Mine.

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3. Harekanti, Vayikra, Tazria p. 60 Kashrut helps to reach ones potential and come close to
God.
According to the simple meaning the reason that
it is forbidden to eat impure animals is that they
cause decay and illness to the soul. They prevent
a person from reaching his perfection and coming
close to God.

4. Seforno, Devarim 14:4 Our elevated national status after the giving of the Torah requires
that we eat elevated food.
Before the Torah was given the difference
between impure and pure animals was known
as is clear from Noach (who differentiated
between them in the Ark). Nevertheless it was
not prohibited for non-Jews to eat non-kosher
animals. But you [the Jewish people], since you
are holy, it is not fitting for you to be sustained by
these forbidden things.

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Part B. Spiritual Health

1. Kli Yakar Kashrut ensures the well-being of the soul.
The reason for the laws of kashrut is not
for physical health benefits, as the Ramban
(Nachmanides) explains. We see that non-Jews
eat non-kosher foods and are healthy. Rather
their purpose is for the well-being of the soul.
Non-kosher foods remove the spirit of purity and
holiness, and create a blockage in the intelligence,
and cause cruelty. This only helps them, Israel,
for they will live in the world to come. But for
non-Jews there is no purpose in this mitzvah.

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2. Midrash Tanchuma, Shmini 7 Kashrut leads to the perfection of a person.

God said to the Jews, Be careful that you do
not make yourselves disgusting with non-kosher
animals or creatures. King David said, Gods
ways are perfect. The word of God has been
perfected (Tehillim/Psalms 18:31) in order to
perfect His creations.

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Rebbi (Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi) said, What

difference does it make to God if the Jews eat
without proper slaughtering, or if they tear open
the neck and eat, or slaughter from the back of
the neck? Know that the only purpose of the
commandment of slaughtering was to perfect the
Jewish people

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3. Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud), Yoma 39a Eating non-kosher food desensitizes a person
It was taught by the school of Rabbi Yishmael:
Sin blocks up a persons heart, as it states, Do
not contaminate yourselves through [eating]
them (sharatzim), lest you become contaminated
through them (Vayikra 11:43). Do not read it as
contaminated (nitmeitem), but rather blocked
up (nitamtem).

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4. Rashi, ibid. and diminishes ones wisdom.

Blocks up seals and closes it from any
wisdom.

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5. Ramban (Nachmanides), Devarim 14:3 Strong language to emphasize protecting the soul.
Do not eat anything disgusting. The Torah
wanted to add an explanation for the forbidden

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foods. Therefore it says, Do not eat anything

disgusting, to teach that everything which is
forbidden is disgusting for a pure soul.

Part C. Damage Caused by Non-kosher Food

All Torah authorities agree that kosher food has a beneficial effect on the soul and non-kosher food the
opposite effect. However, they disagree as to whether non-kosher food can physically damage the body.
The sources listed below maintain that non-kosher food physically damages the body. The Kli Yakar cited
in B:1 above disagrees.

1. Ramchal (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto), Mesillat Yesharim (The Path of the Just), Ch. 11
Food penetrates the body and soul.
The prohibitions concerning forbidden foods
also involve many details, as is reflected in all of
the commonly known laws that are treated in the
Halachic writings. One who is lenient in relation
to these laws when he has been instructed to be
stringent is destroying his soul For sin dulls
a mans heart in the respect that it causes true
knowledge and the spirit of wisdom that the
Holy One, Blessed be He, gives to the righteous
(as it is said [Mishlei/Proverbs 2:6], For God
gives wisdom) to depart from him, and he
remains beastly and earthy, immersed in the gross
materialism of this world. Forbidden foods are
worse than all other prohibitions in this respect,
for they enter into a persons body and become
flesh of his flesh

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Any intelligent person will regard forbidden food

as poison, or as food with which some poison has
become mixed. Would anyone allow himself to
partake of such food? If there were any room for
suspicion or even the slightest doubt, he would
certainly not permit himself to eat of it; and if he
did, he would be regarded as an absolute fool.
Forbidden food, as we have explained, is poison
to the heart and soul. Which intelligent person
would allow himself to eat food which has any
question whatsoever about its permissibility?

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2. Ramban, Torat Hashem Temimah (p. 166 in Vol. I of Chavel edition Kisvei Ramban) Non-kosher
food is damaging to the body and the soul.
The Torah further enlightens us with the secret
of cause and effect. It prohibited us from eating
certain animals, birds and fish. This is in keeping
with the other laws of the Torah. The Torah
further enlightens us with the secret of cause

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and effect. It prohibited us from eating certain

animals, birds and fish. This is in keeping with
the other laws of the Torah, which are beneficial
both for the body and the soul. For all these
forbidden foods are known to be foods which
are not good for ones health. However, besides
this they cause damage to the soul. This is why
the Torah writes, They will make you blocked
up (nitmetem) without the letter aleph (which
would spell nitmeitem you will become impure)
to teach that they block up the heart.

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An illustration of this point can be found in the

list of non-kosher birds. These are all birds of
prey, except for two, and include all the birds
of prey in the world. These birds are all cruel.
Through consuming their flesh and blood, the
soul absorbs the attribute of cruelty. Therefore
it is appropriate that the Jewish people, who
are commanded to be merciful and to love one
another, be forbidden from these things.

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3. Sefer HaChinuch Mitzvah 73 Non-kosher food can harm the body, which is the platform for
the soul.
The reasons for this mitzvah [of kashrut]: The
body is a tool for the soul, through which the soul
accomplishes its tasks. The soul cannot function
without the body. Any deficiency of the body will
thus limit the souls ability to function. Therefore,
the Torah instructed us to refrain from eating
anything that could cause us damage. This is the
simple explanation for the forbidden foods in the
Torah.

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Do not be surprised that some of these dangerous

foods are known to us, but not to doctors,
because the Faithful Doctor, Who instructed us
about them, is far wiser than you or any human
doctor. How foolish is someone who thinks that
these foods are not dangerous because he does
not know that. You should know that it is for
our benefit that the Torah does not explain why
they are forbidden or the damage they cause:
because some people who claim to be very wise
may come and tell us that the dangers that the
Torah refers to in a certain food is non-existent,
or that it applies only in a certain place, or only to
certain people. Lest you be swayed by their words
to follow these fools, the Torah did not reveal
to us the reasons [as to why certain foods are
forbidden], to spare us from this stumbling block.

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Part D. Kashrut Can Improve Ones Character

1. Ramban, Devarim 14:21 Kashrut prevents the trait of cruelty.
The reason it states, For you are a holy nation to
the Lord, your God in connection to Do not eat
a kid in its mothers milk is not because this is a
disgusting food. Rather, it is forbidden in order
that we should be holy regarding our food and
not act as a cruel and merciless nation milking
the mother in order to cook her kid in her milk.

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All meat and milk is included in this prohibition

[even when someone does not cook meat in its
mothers milk, which one might think is not
considered cruel] nonetheless, since any nursing
mother is called a mother, and any nursling is
called a kid, cooking them together is always
considered cruel.

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Section III. Kabbalistic Explanations of Kashrut

1. Rabbeinu Bachya, Vayikra 11:43 Connection to God is impacted.
You will become blocked up with them from
the word timtum (blocked up). The heart becomes
blocked when eating non-kosher foods and a
person cannot receive Divine Inspiration. It is
possible that the reason the letter aleph is missing
[from the Hebrew word timtum] is because it
alludes to the Prime Unity, and [if a person eats
non-kosher food] God departs from this person.
Similarly the word chet (sin) is sometimes written
without an aleph to show that God also departs
from a person because of his sins.

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2. Shelah, Shaar Ha-Osios, Os Kuf; Kedushat HaOchlin Non-kosher food blocks our ability for
spiritual connection and causes impurity of the body and soul.
The Torah warned us about forbidden and
permitted foods. You shall sanctify yourselves and
be holy, and not make your souls disgusting. The
Zohar explains that the impure foods that the Torah
warns us against have an external impure spirit.
Someone who eats them makes his soul impure
and demonstrates that he has no share in purity
or in the God of Israel. The impure thing becomes
part of his physical body, which the soul is clothed
within. In this way he profanes his soul and makes
it impure, and an impure spirit rests on him.

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Rav Tzadok Hakohen of Lublin writes that the primal desire of man is to eat of the forbidden. Adam and
Chava (Eve) succumbed to that desire, and as a result it has remained pre-dominant in the human psyche
since that eventful day (Bereishit 2:15-3:24). In the next source, Rav Tzadok describes how following Adams
error, food contains an element of the forbidden taste of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. By
eating kosher food in a proper manner, one can correct that mistake so that food will again taste like the Tree
of Life, which represents Torah.

3. Rav Tzadok HaKohen, Pri Tzadik, Tazriah 3 Care in kosher food is considered as if one has
fulfilled all the mitzvot of the Torah.
The observance of the laws of kashrut
encompasses all the other laws of the Torah. In
the Garden of Eden the snake was only able to
entice them [Adam and Chava] to sin by creating
a desire for the forbidden food [the fruit of the
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil]. Someone
who is careful about only eating kosher foods
and imbuing them with holiness thereby keeps
all the mitzvot of the Torah, because the only way
that the Evil Inclination can rule over a person is
through eating and drinking, as the verse states,
You shall eat and drink Be careful lest your
heart lead you astray (Devarim 11: 15-16).

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In the Zohar it states, The tree that Adam

HaRishon ate from was wheat, others say it
was grapes, and others say it was a fig. These
opinions do not disagree with one another, but
are all true. How can they all be true when they
disagree about the facts of what happened?

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The truth is that when the Torah states, The Tree

of Life, was in the middle of the garden This
means that the inner spirituality of each tree in
the garden was the same as that of the Tree of
Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
If Adam had eaten first from the Tree of Life in
every other food that he ate he would have tasted
the taste of Torah, which is life. But when he ate
from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
he made every other food contain within it the
taste of that tree, and this is the source of all sin.
When a person corrects this sin through eating in
holiness, he thereby keeps all the mitzvot and is
saved from the challenges of the Evil Inclination.

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This class was prepared by Rabbi David Sedley

and edited by the Morasha Curriculum Team

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