In the Torah, Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 give many food laws, which are still strictly observed today. “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”
“But this is what you shall not eat from among those that bring up their cud and have split hooves- the camel, for it brings up its cud but its hoof is not split- it is unclean to you”
The food laws used in today’s society- i.e. the meat that is eaten in modern society are as follows;
“And the pig, for its hoof is split and its hoof is not completely separated, but it does not chew cud- it is unclean to you”
“This you may eat from everything that is in the water- everything that has fins and scales in the water, in the seas, and in the streams, those you may eat:
And everything that does not have fins and scales in the seas and in the streams- from all that teems in the water, and from all living creatures in the water- they are an abomination to you”.
A key aspect to the food laws, which all Jews must follow, is the law to do with milk and meat. Meat and dairy products may not be eaten or cooked together and separate cooking may are used: “you shall not cook a kid in the mother’s milk”. This means that there are three different types of food:
- Meat (fleischig-Yiddish): this covers all kosher meat and non kosher meat.
- Milk (milchig- Yiddish): all milk and dairy products- cheese made with animal products is not permitted.
- Parev or Parve are all the foods in which are not milk or meat such as eggs, vegetables, fruits, cereals, beans, pulses, fish and according to the bible, locusts. Honey is also included in the same group although the bee itself is not kosher. The argument is honey is not actually part of the bee just carried by it.
Utensils (pots, pans, plates, flatware, etc., etc.) must also be kosher. A utensil picks up the kosher "status" (meat, dairy, pareve, or treif) of the food that is cooked in it or eaten off of it, and transmits that status back to the next food that is cooked in it or eaten off of it. Thus, if you cook chicken soup in a saucepan, the pan becomes meat. If you thereafter use the same saucepan to heat up some warm milk, the fleishik status of the pan is transmitted to the milk, and the milchik status of the milk is transmitted to the pan, making both the pan and the milk a forbidden mixture.