The most identifiable feature of Judaism are the dietary laws, known as Kashrut. The underpinnings of this dietary observance are found in the Book of Leviticus. The ancient Israelites were told to eat only animals that had a split hoof and chewed their cud, a select list of birds and fowl (notably omitting birds of prey), and fish that had fins and scales. The only rationale the Torah gives for this practice is, “You shall sanctify yourselves and be holy, for I am holy (Lev. 11:44).”
Probably no other subject in the Torah has elicited so many explanations and speculative justifications as the dietary restrictions. Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides) in the 12th century suggested Kashrut helped one achieve good health. His speculation was repudiated hundreds of years ago. One 15th century scholar argued, “Were that so, the Torah would be denigrated to the status of a minor medical treatise or worse!”
2,000 years ago the Alexandrian philosopher Philo taught that Kashrut was intended to teach one to control bodily appetites. If one can discipline what goes into one’s mouth, how much more so what comes out of it.
In our own times, authors Dennis Prager and Rabbi Joseph Telushkin have written, “keeping kosher is Judaism’s compromise with its ideal of obtaining food without killing, namely vegetarianism.” This explanation is based on an interpretation of the first chapters of the book of Genesis, where Adam and Eve are told to eat only of the fruits and vegetables in the Garden of Eden. Since not all people are capable of achieving this ideal, the dietary laws were developed to acquiesce to humankind’s appetite for meat by limiting the animals, birds, and fish one could eat. The ancient rabbis of the first centuries of the common era further defined these limitations by requiring a specific method for animal slaughter.
Bible scholar Pinchas Peli reminds us, “Kosher does not mean “clean” nor “holy” or “blessed” by a rabbi. Kosher means proper. The purpose of the laws of kashrut is to help us choose guidelines to what is proper in our habits in this basic human activity of eating, and our treatment of living things in general.”
All the above explanations have one thing in common, they all suggest Keeping Kosher is a means to an end and not an end, in itself. The late Professor Abraham Joshua Heschel makes the same point when he writes, “Most hotels in Israel are Kosher. This is not enough. As we have supervisors to oversee the Kashrut in restaurants and butcher shops, we should also put them in banks and factories. A drop of blood in an egg makes it non-kosher, how about spots of blood in the way business is done and employees are treated.”
Rabbi Howard Siegel