Why are some foods considered taboo in different cultures? Why is it forbidden for Muslims and Jews to eat pork? We decided to find out how these prohibitions were formed, and what is behind them.
Kosher, hooves and shellfish
Kashrut or kosher is a set of strict food restrictions based on the laws of the Torah and Talmud. Kosher only allows you to eat the meat of those animals that are both artiodactyls and ruminants - from sheep to giraffes.
However, kosher forbids eating pork and hares, because pigs do not chew gum, and hares do not have hooves. There was also an explanation for the behavior of "semi-kosher" animals: in a dream, pigs, supposedly, proudly exhibit their "correct" hooves, but hide their muzzle, and hares, on the contrary, squeeze their paws out of shame.
The meat of kosher animals should be prepared by a professional butcher, shohet, who slaughters livestock with one special movement, in no case piercing the meat or delaying the movement of the knife.
Shohets go through a long training before taking on duties. There are a lot of laws for cutting meat in the Jewish tradition: it is important not only to participate in the slaughter of livestock, but also to check the animal for disease, which is performed by the mashgiah, and to clean the carcass from the fat and veins prohibited by kosher by the menaker.
The use of seafood is also strictly regulated: they must have scales and fins, that is, shellfish and crustaceans are strictly prohibited.
Promotional video:
Each housewife is obliged to sift the flour in order to avoid worms getting into it and carefully examine vegetables in fruits in search of larvae. The ban on eating insects gives only one exception: locusts can be eaten (Lev. 11:22).
Also, kosher prohibits eating foods containing blood (therefore, when cutting meat, sprinkle with salt that absorbs it), bird eggs with the same, blunt or sharp ends (as a rule, the eggs of birds of prey have the same ends), and alcohol that is not made religious Jews in compliance with many special rules.
It is strictly forbidden to "boil a kid in mother's milk", to mix milk with meat in one meal. However, it is hardly possible to check the kosher of ready-made food by formal methods, and therefore this right is usually given to the rabbi.
Halal
Muslim food preferences are also severely limited. All food in Islam is divided into three groups: halal, makruh and haram, which correspond to Indian sattva, rajas and tamas, and of these, only halal is completely allowed for consumption.
The Koran, like the Torah, is primarily a set of laws that determines the life of Muslims. The Qur'an forbids eating pork, carrion, improperly slaughtered livestock (without mentioning the name of Allah) and blood (5: 3).
However, the violation of the prohibition, as it is often especially indicated in the Quran, is possible in extreme cases: "If someone, suffering from hunger, and not from a tendency to sin, is forced to eat forbidden things, then Allah is Forgiving and Merciful."
In addition, Islam forbids killing animals without reason, and some Muslim theologians believe that the profession of a slaughtering cattle is sinful. Halal rules are less strict than kosher laws: Muslims do not have a special person who slaughters livestock, and the slaughter rules themselves are also slightly different from Jewish ones. On the other hand, Islam prohibits kosher-legal alcoholic beverages.
