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Food Laws of Judaism, Table of Contents

 

Index – Food Laws of Judaism and Islam

 

 

Laws of Religion

Laws of Judaism Concerning Food

 

2.  Forbidden Foods – General Rules

from the Biblical Books of Moses (Torah)

and the Code of Maimonides (Mishneh Torah)

 

 

Forbidden Foods – General Rules

Overview of Forbidden Foods

 

The pages that follow describe the detailed rules concerning forbidden foods.

 

According to the Torah, forbidden foods include:

 

-      the blood of animals or birds;[1] fat,[2] specifically the fat of an ox, a sheep or a goat[3] (page 3);

 

-      animals that don't have cloven hooves or don't chew their cud, which includes swine, which have cloven hooves but do not chew their cud[4] (page 4);

 

-      flying insects that creep on all four[5] except for those (including the locust and grasshopper[6]) that have legs for hopping[7] (page 7);

 

-      animals that go on their paws, among those who go on all four;[8] animals that go on their bellies, go on all four or have many feet;[9] creeping animals including the weasel, the mouse, the lizard (or tortoise), the gecko and the chameleon[10] (page 8);

 

-      animals from water that do not have fins and scales[11] (page 9);

 

-      and certain listed birds[12] (page 10).

 

The Torah forbids boiling a kid (young goat) in its mother's milk.[13] This law leads to the more general prohibition in rabbinic law against cooking or eating milk with meat[14] (page 5).

 

The Torah forbids the eating anything that died by itself[15] and also meat torn by animals in the field.[16] Under rabbinic law, any bird or animal of a type that is permitted for eating but which has not been killed in accordance with the rules of ritual slaughter is considered to have died by itself[17] (page 6).

 

There are also restrictions on the planting, harvesting and eating of grains and fruits at particular times[18] as well as a prohibition against the planting of mixed varieties of crops in the same field[19] (page 11). 

 

Under rabbinic law, wine that has been touched by a heathen is generally forbidden.[20] Although the Torah does not so specify, the Sages of the rabbinic law have forbidden drinking with heathens or eating their cooked food or bread in order to prevent social contact that might lead to intermarriage[21] (page 13).

 

Specific punishments, including flogging, are generally applicable when a quantity of a food forbidden for eating by the Torah exceeding the size of an olive is consumed (discussed below).

 

It is permitted to give meat from an animal that died by itself to a non-Israelite resident in Israel or to sell it to a foreign non-Israelite.[22] 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.[23]

 

Forbidden Foods – General Rules

From the Biblical Books of Moses (Torah)

 

In the story of Creation, God said to Adam that he has given Adam for food every herb that produces seed and every tree whose fruit produces seed.[24] After the worldwide flood at the time of Noah, God expanded the realm of edible items to include the animals on the land, the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea in addition to every green herb.[25]

 

It is permitted to slaughter animals and eat as one's soul desires. Both people who are ritually pure^* and those who are ritually impure may eat meat.[26] The Israelites are responsible for distinguishing what is clean and what is unclean, what is permitted for eating and what is forbidden.[27] It is forbidden to eat any abominable thing.[28]

 

The Lord told the Israelites to follow his commandments, but not to add anything to them or remove anything from them.[29]

 

Forbidden Foods – General Rules

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

 

Contents

 

Mixtures of forbidden and permitted foods

 

Exceptions to prohibitions

 

Types of punishment

 

Deriving benefit from forbidden food

 

Modifying the laws

 

 

It is required to know how to distinguish permitted and forbidden domestic animals, wild animals, fowl, fish and flying insects (“locusts” in the Moznaim and Yale translations of Maimonides).[30] In order to ensure that no prohibited foods are eaten, it is only permitted to buy wine, meat, cheese or cuts of fish that cannot be identified from a Jew who is known to observe the dietary laws. Milk, however, may be purchased from any Jew.[31]

 

 

Mixtures of forbidden and permitted foods (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah).  If a quantity of a forbidden food is added to a permitted food, it is still permitted to eat the food if its taste is not changed or if the taste has become bad.[32] In general, this is to be determined by having a heathen taste the food. If no heathen is available to taste the food, then its permissibility is determined by the proportion of forbidden food that has contaminated the permitted food, the limit being one part to sixty, one part to one hundred or one part to two hundred for different types of forbidden foods.[33]

 

For example, beer or vinegar that has a mouse in it exceeding one-sixtieth of the total amount may not be consumed since the mouse may improve its flavor. However, wine, oil or honey with a mouse in it is permissible for eating since the mouse will spoil its pleasant taste and odor.[34] Another example would be if one cooked food in an earthenware pot that had been used to cook forbidden meat, such as from an animal that died by itself or creeping things. If the food now cooked is meat, it is forbidden. (Editor’s note: This is because one cannot determine if there was any flavor transferred from the pot to the food). If the food now cooked is something other than meat, then its permissibility depends upon whether the flavor was absorbed from the pot.[35]

 

 

Exceptions to prohibitions (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah).  No violation is incurred if the minimum amount of a forbidden food is consumed to satisfy the craving of a pregnant woman or a sick person or if it is used to feed someone in the wilderness who has no other food or someone who is suffering greatly from extreme hunger.[36] (Similarly, pregnant and nursing women are exempted from participating in communal fasts conducted as a result of some great community difficulty,[37] though they must fast along with everyone else on the ninth day of the month of Ab,[38] a fast day that commemorates several important calamitous events in history that befell the Jewish people.[39] On Yom Kippur, if a pregnant woman smells food and craves it even after being reminded that it is Yom Kippur, she should be given the food to eat until her craving is gone.[40])

 

 

Types of punishment (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah).  Maimonides discusses several types of punishment for transgressions of the law: flogging (for Torah transgressions), flogging for disobedience (for violations of rabbinic decrees), execution ordered by a court, extinction (or excision – karet in Hebrew), death at the hand of heaven and summary execution by a fellow Jew.

 

However, if a forbidden food is eaten without enjoyment, no punishment is warranted unless the food is milk and meat or the mixed species from a vineyard.[41] For example, if the food is burning hot or raw fat or rotted food that smells bad, no punishment is incurred.[42] Forbidden foods other than milk and meat or mixed species from a vineyard are permitted for use to heal a sick person when no pleasure is derived directly from their use. In fact, any food, including milk and meat or mixed species from a vineyard, can be used to heal a person whose life is in danger even if consuming them is pleasurable to the sick person.[43]

 

Flogging (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah). According to Maimonides, consumption of food in violation of a negative commandment (“You shall not…”) of the Torah is usually punishable by flogging.[44] This is discussed on the following pages for specific prohibited food types. If one food has more than one forbidden characteristic, then the flogging is multiplied accordingly.[45] A product, such as milk or eggs, of a forbidden species is also forbidden and consumption of such products is to be punished by flogging if consumption of the animal itself is a flogging offense.[46]

 

It is prohibited to consume any quantity at all of a food forbidden by the Torah. However, the punishment of flogging is incurred only if a quantity of the food consumed is the size of an olive. If less than this amount is eaten, then the flogging prescribed for disobedience (discussed below) may be inflicted.[47]

 

Flogging can only be meted out by a court if witnesses testify that the transgressor was warned of the violation and its penalty and then proceeded to perform the forbidden act in knowing disregard of the warning.[48] Thus, if a person commits a forbidden act, the punishment of flogging,[49] cannot be imposed if the accused refused to explicitly acknowledge the warning before committing the prohibited act. However, refusal to acknowledge such a warning is cause for a flogging for disobedience (discussed below).[50]

 

Flogging is still a valid form of punishment at the present time and may be administered anywhere (either within or outside the Land of Israel)[51] Floggings imposed by courts outside the Land of Israel are seen as flogging for disobedience.[52]

 

Flogging is to be performed on bare skin of the chest and back[53] using a lash containing straps of calf and donkey hides,[54] administering as many strokes as the person can bear, but not exceeding thirty-nine for any single transgression.[55]

 

Flogging for disobedience (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah). Flogging for disobedience, which can be incurred for violating the Oral Law^** (rabbinic decrees)[56] rather than a negative commandment of the Torah, leaves the number of lashes to the discretion of the court.[57] Flogging for disobedience is to be performed on bare skin of the chest and back[58] using a lash containing straps of calf and donkey hides.[59]

 

If, when eating, one’s hands or the utensils (“utensils” in the Moznaim translation; “tablecloth” in the Yale translation) are dirty, then the food eaten is revolting and one may incur a flogging for disobedience.[60]

 

If a person commits a forbidden act, the punishments of flogging,[61] the flogging of a person subject to extinction (karet – discussed below)[62] or the death penalty[63] cannot be imposed if the accused refused to explicitly acknowledge the warning before committing the prohibited act. However, refusal to acknowledge such a warning is cause for a flogging for disobedience.[64]

 

Death penalty (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah). Death penalty cases can only be tried when the Temple (in Jerusalem, which was destroyed in the year 70 A.D.) is standing[65] and when the Sanhedrin (the highest Jewish court) meets there.[66] The Sanhedrin was exiled from the Temple forty years prior to the destruction of the Temple.[67] The reestablishment of the Sanhedrin in the rebuilt Temple, which will permit the restoration of all the laws (including resumption of the death penalty)[68], will occur when King Messiah arrives [69].

 

The death penalty[70] can only be meted out by a court if witnesses testify that the transgressor was warned of the violation and its penalty and then proceeded to perform the forbidden act in knowing disregard of the warning. However, refusal to acknowledge such a warning is cause for a flogging for disobedience.[71]

 

A person who performs an action punishable by the death penalty three times after refusing to acknowledge proper warnings is placed in a cell until he dies.[72]

 

Extinction (karet) and death at the hand of heaven (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah). Punishments prescribed for consuming certain types of forbidden foods are extinction (also translated as excision, extirpation or a soul being cut off from his people; karet in Hebrew) and death at the hand of heaven, rather than flogging. These punishments, like flogging, are generally applicable only when a quantity of food the size of a medium olive is consumed.

 

Punishment by extinction (karet) or by death at the hand of heaven for violating a negative commandment, such as eating a forbidden food, includes flogging.[73] In fact, any further penalty is removed after the flogging of someone being punished by extinction.[74] A second offense of the same type incurs a second flogging. However, upon a third offense of the same type, punishable by extinction, the person is to be confined to a small space in which he cannot lie down, fed only on bread and water to shrink his intestines and then given barley to eat so that his stomach will burst[75] and he dies[76].

 

The flogging of a person subject to extinction (karet) cannot be imposed if the accused refused to explicitly acknowledge the warning before committing the prohibited act.[77] However, refusal to acknowledge such a warning is cause for a flogging for disobedience.[78]

 

A person who performs an action punishable by extinction three times after refusing to acknowledge proper warnings is placed in a cell until he dies.[79]

 

In addition, Maimonides says that those who are subjected to the punishment of extinction (karet) will not have eternal life in the world to come after death, but will die like animals.[80] The eternal life Maimonides is referring to is the life of the soul without the body – so there are no bodily functions like eating or drinking in the world to come.[81] Such eternal life is the highest possible reward[82] and the punishment of a soul being cut off (karet) is the greatest possible punishment.[83] The pleasures of the world to come are not those of physical satisfaction since there are no bodies, so they can only be understood metaphorically by comparison to bodily pleasure. Maimonides specifically criticizes the Arabs (meaning Muslims) as foolish, lewd and decadent with their belief in a reward that includes sensual pleasure after death.[84] (However, elsewhere in the Mishneh Torah, Maimonides states that denying belief in the resurrection of the dead will cause a person to lose his place in the world to come,[85] thus implying that bodies as well as souls can live on after death. Nevertheless, according to a note in the Moznaim translation of the Mishneh Torah, Maimonides’ emphasis in the Mishneh Torah on the eternal life of pure souls without explicitly describing bodily resurrection caused such controversy that Maimonides felt compelled to write a later work explaining in detail his belief in the resurrection of the dead which, for him, is distinct from the eternal life of the pure soul. It is, however, the eternal life of the pure soul that the punishment of extinction, or karet, cuts off.[86])

 

Summary execution (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah). It is a worthy act to kill a person who commits a violation, such as eating meat from an animal that has not been properly slaughtered, for the purpose of demonstrating his disbelief. It is preferable to do this in public using a sword. However, if that is not possible it should be done by other means, such as by removing the ladder upon seeing that the transgressor has descended into a well, claiming that you need the ladder to get your son off a roof, or by carrying out some similar plan.[87]

 

 

Deriving benefit from forbidden food (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah).  In general, food that is prohibited by the Torah for eating cannot be used for any benefit (such as giving or selling it to a non-Jew or giving it to dogs). Exceptions to this prohibition for benefit include nebelah (from an animal that died other than by proper ritual slaughter) (Deuteronomy 14:21) and forbidden fat (Leviticus 7:24). In addition, the Oral Law^** (as distinguished from the written law of the Torah) permits benefit from other forbidden foods: insects, creeping things, blood, a limb taken from a living animal, the sinew of the thigh vein (all of which are discussed on following pages). Someone who benefits from a food for which benefit is prohibited is liable to a flogging for disobedience, though money obtained from the sale of such a food can be kept. Despite the exceptions of Deuteronomy 4:21 and of the Oral Law, it is nevertheless forbidden, according to Maimonides, to traffic in or otherwise utilize in one’s business or work any food prohibited for consumption other than forbidden fat.[88]

 

 

Modifying the laws (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah).  Although the Torah (Deuteronomy 12:32) says that nothing can be added to or removed from the commandments of the Lord, this does not mean that the law can never be changed. In addition to the written law of the Torah and the Oral Law^** received from the Lord by Moses, the courts are able to issue rulings that forbid things that are not forbidden in the Torah or the Oral Law. Similarly, the courts may, at least on a temporary basis, rule that certain things prohibited by the Torah or the Oral Law are, in fact, permitted. Such rulings are valid as long as they do not claim to be the actual law of the Torah or the Oral Law. For example, the Torah says that it is forbidden to boil a kid (young goat) in its mother's milk. The tradition of the Oral Law interprets this as meaning that it is forbidden to eat milk with meat but that it is permitted to eat milk with fowl. A court may issue a ruling prohibiting the eating of milk with foul as long as it explains that this is not a commandment from the Torah but, rather, an extension of the law to help ensure that the prohibition against eating milk with meat is not violated – building a fence around the Torah.[89]

 

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^* We use the words “clean” and “unclean” to refer to animal species that are permitted or forbidden for eating, as does the Yale translation of Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah. The Moznaim translation uses the words kosher and non-kosher to refer to types of animals that are permitted or forbidden for eating. While these words, clean and unclean, are used in the Moznaim and Yale translations of the Mishneh Torah to refer to ritual states of purity and impurity of people or things, we describe these 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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Food Laws of Judaism, Table of Contents

 

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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.