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Laws of Religion

 

Laws of Judaism Concerning Food

 

3.  Blood and Fat

from the Biblical Books of Moses (Torah)

and the Code of Maimonides (Mishneh Torah)

 

 

Blood and Fat

From the Biblical Books of Moses (Torah)

 

It is forbidden to consume blood of either animals or birds.[1] In fact, it is forbidden to eat anything with its blood.[2] Blood must be poured out on the ground, like water.[3] Both Israelites and the strangers who live among them are commanded to pour out the blood of any animal or bird they hunt and catch and cover it with earth.[4]

 

A person who eats blood shall be cut off from his people.[5] Elsewhere, it says that refraining from eating blood is necessary to ensure that all will be well with you and your children.[6] Blood may not be eaten because it is the life.[7] The Lord says that he gave the blood of animals to the Israelites upon the altar so they can atone for their sins.[8]

 

Similarly, it is forbidden to eat fat.[9] It is specifically forbidden to eat fat of an ox, a sheep or a goat.[10] The fat from an animal that died by itself or was torn by animals is forbidden for eating, but may be used for any other purpose.[11] A person who eats fat from an animal that people use to make a fire-offering to the Lord will be cut off from his people.[12]

 

Blood and Fat

Jewish Law (Halakha) from the Code of Maimonides (Mishneh Torah)

 

It is permitted to eat the fat of a clean^* wild animal. The penalty for intentionally eating a quantity of fat equal to the size of an olive from the three species of clean domesticated animals, ox, sheep or goat (Leviticus 7:23, cited above), is extinction (karet), which includes a flogging.[13] The punishment of extinction only applies to fat on the digestive organs, on the kidneys and on the flanks.[14] Maimonides explains what parts of the animal are included in these designated areas from which fat is forbidden.[15] It is only fat that is on the flank or kidney that is forbidden, not the fat that is covered by meat or inside the kidney.[16] A butcher who leaves a quantity of forbidden fat the size of a barleycorn after cleaning meat is to lose his position as butcher; if it is the size of an olive, he is to be flogged for disobedience as well.[17]

 

It is also forbidden to eat fat of a nebelah (an animal that died other than by proper ritual slaughter) or terefah (from a part torn from a living animal). Violation is punishable by two floggings: one for eating nebelah or terefah and the second for eating forbidden fat.[18]

 

While there are restrictions on benefiting from foods whose eating is prohibited, forbidden fat is the only such food exempt from all these restrictions. One may even traffic in forbidden fat and utilize it in one’s business or work.[19] (This has been discussed on a previous page, Forbidden Foods – General Rules.)

 

The blood of a wild animal, but not that of a domestic animal, must be covered.[20] Only the blood of animals or birds that are killed by valid ritual slaughter, so that their meat is permitted for consumption, must be covered.[21]

 

There are procedures, described by Maimonides, for distinguishing between clean domestic animals and clean wild animals by examining their horns.[22] It is forbidden to eat the fat, or leave the blood uncovered, of an animal when one is uncertain whether it is domesticated or wild or if the animal is the offspring of a domesticated animal and a wild one, but there is to be no punishment of flogging for eating such fat.[23]

 

The punishment for consuming blood from an animal or bird (but not from fish, insects, locusts, creeping things or humans) equal to the size of an olive is extinction (karet).[24] The Scribes, rather than the Torah, forbid consumption of human blood, but only after it has emerged and not, for example, if it is swallowed immediately from bleeding teeth. So the penalty for consuming human blood that has emerged is flogging for disobedience (since it is based on the Scribal authority of the Oral Law^* rather than on the Written Law of the Torah).[25] Nevertheless, a person performing a circumcision is required to suck up any blood that comes forth as a result of this procedure.[26]

 

In order to remove blood from meat, the meat must be rinsed, left in salt for the amount of time it takes to walk one mil (approximately one kilometer[27]), rinsed again until the water is clear and then put into boiling water.[28] The salting should be done in a perforated container and the salt should be as coarse as sand so that it extracts the blood rather than being absorbed itself into the meat.[29] Meat that is to be roasted rather than boiled can be salted and then cooked immediately.[30] Eating hot food from a container in which meat has been salted is forbidden since the blood has been absorbed by the earthenware.[31]

 

The Scribes forbid the eating of a variety of blood vessels and membranes, some because of blood and others because of fat. However, if the meat is to be roasted, it is not required to remove those forbidden because of blood. On the other hand, those forbidden as a result of fat must be removed from the meat whether it is to be boiled or roasted. Violation incurs a flogging for disobedience (since this is based on Scribal authority of the Oral Law rather than on the Written Law of the Torah).[32]

 

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^* We use the words "clean" and "unclean" to refer to animal species that are permitted (kosher) or forbidden for eating; other things or people are referred to as being "pure" or "impure" or, occasionally for more clarity, as "ritually pure" or "ritually impure." A separate section of this website is devoted solely to the issue of ritual purity in Judaism.

 

^**The Oral Law and the Written Law are explained on the page Source Texts Used for Laws of Judaism.

 

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Abbreviations used in footnotes:

Gen: The Biblical book of Genesis.

Exod: The Biblical book of Exodus.

Lev: The Biblical book of Leviticus.

Num: The Biblical Book of Numbers.

Deut: The Biblical Book of Deuteronomy.

 

MT:  The Mishneh Torah of Maimonides (Code of Maimonides). The names of the specific books and treatises within each book are given according to the Yale University Press translation and also the Moznaim/Touger Hebrew transliterations to facilitate locating the texts posted here.

F:  indicates page numbers in the Feldheim Publishers, Ltd., translation of Book 1 of the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides, the Book of Knowledge.

M:  indicates page numbers in the relevant volume of the Moznaim Publishing Corporation’s Touger translation. (Some of the books of Mishneh Torah are published in several volumes by Moznaim, so the Moznaim volume numbers do not correspond to the Book numbers of Maimonides’ work.)

Y:  indicates page numbers in the translation of the Yale University Press Judaica Series.

    

●  The sources cited are described on the page Source Texts Used for Laws of Judaism.