KOSHER is the Hebrew word for the Hebrew Bible’s many dietary regulations for the Jewish People. Food that complies with these regulations is known as “kosher.” In Genesis 2:16, God gave mankind the produce of “any tree in the garden” for food. But when Noah left the ark God specifically permitted mankind to eat animals. In Genesis 9:3-4, God told Noah: “Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I have given everything to you, as I gave the green plant. But you shall not eat flesh with its blood.”

God’s covenant with the children of Israel changed that for Jews. In Leviticus 11, God gives Moses specific commands regarding which animals are “clean” and which are “unclean.” The “clean” animals were acceptable for eating; the “unclean” were not. Animals with split hooves that chewed the cud (cows, sheep, goats) were “clean”; others, which either had split hooves (like pigs) or chewed the cud (camels, rabbits, etc.) were “unclean.” Insects with jointed legs (locusts, crickets, and grasshoppers) were “clean”; other insects were “unclean.”

Several types of birds were designated “unclean” – for example, eagles, vultures, hawks, ravens, and owls (see Leviticus 11:13-19). Any type of fish with fins and scales was acceptable for eating; anything without fins and scales was unacceptable. So shellfish (shrimp, crabs, lobsters, clams, oysters, etc.) were not permitted (Leviticus 11:9-12).

In Deuteronomy, Moses reviewed God’s commands for the new generation of Israelites. He repeated the designations of acceptable and unacceptable animals (Deuteronomy 14:3-20), but added two more restrictions. They were not to eat anything “which dies of itself,” and they were not to........

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