Dietary Laws of the Jewish Religion

In the Jewish religion dietary laws are one of the most important parts of keeping the faith. These laws are thought to be sent from God to keep the Jewish people pure. Over the year it has became easier for Jews to eat kosher but many people have chosen to assimilate with passing time. A tradition that started around 3500 years ago that has kept its importance.

Around 1275 B.C.E many of the Jewish prophets started to talk about kashrut otherwise known as keeping kosher. They talked about how God wanted them to eat only certain foods so that their souls would stay clean. The definition of kosher means fit or proper, which is what God desired for his people. In these times people were very skeptical about what they ate because of becoming tainted so they listened to the prophets. Many people would rather die then eat foods that were known to be not kosher.

One example of this is that Ezekiel had a vision where the Lord came to him and spoke about kashrut. Ezekiel (4:14), in his vision he spoke about what he said which was "Ah, Lord God; behold my soul hath not been polluted, for from my youth up, even till now, have I not eaten of that which death of itself, or is torn of beasts; neither came there abhorred flesh into my mouth." When looking at this you see that it talks about how the soul can be polluted and how severe the consequence of breaking the rules that God had set.

The rules in more detail were set up like a poem in Leviticus 11:3 and Deuteronomy 14:6 they said, “Of the beasts of the earth, you may eat any animal that has cloven hooves and chews its cud. Any land mammal that does not have both of these qualities is forbidden”. In the Torah it says that things like the camel, hare, and the pig lack at least one of t...

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...struggles such as the crusades and the holocaust is truly an amazing feat.

Works Cited

The Torah, [Torah the Five Books of Moses. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1963. Print.

The Torah, [Torah the Five Books of Moses. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1963. Print.

The Torah, [Torah the Five Books of Moses. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1963. Print.

Chronicle of Solomon b. Samson, in: A.M. Habermann, Gezerot Ashkenaz ve-Zarefat (1945), 57

"History of Kosher." The History of Kosher. Diversified Business Communications, 2013. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.

Rabinowicz, Harry, and Rela Mintz Geffen. "Dietary Laws." Encyclopaedia Judaica. Ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. 2nd ed. Vol. 5. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 650-659. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.