Dietary Laws: Kashrut & Dhabiĥa halal

I was sitting with my aunt and my grandmother - two women I feel are well versed in the Bible and all that...and the question of why Jews and Muslims do not eat pork came up. After some diligent research this is what I have found. Knock yourself out correcting me if you want; it's great to learn.

According to the Torah, there are dietary laws (Kashrut). Two important terms are kosher (permissible) and traif (prohibited). The guidelines as I understand them are:

1. For land animals, animals that have cloven hooves (meaning the hoof is split) & "chew their own cud" (cud being that the animal partially digests the food and then regurgitates it to chew it some more) are OK to eat. An example: cow. Examples of excluded animals: rabbit, camel, pork.

- *pork - pork/swine is a special case because the animal is "cloven," but it does not chew its own cud & it is considered dirty.

2. And you might be thinking, well what about chicken? Remember, chicken is a bird, so the ruling on birds seems to be that birds that aren't scavengers are OK, so sea gulls are out, chicken is in. I read something that said there is a list of "forbidden birds" in the Torah (20 of them), but people who have studied these laws go with the scavenger idea which makes sense with the way the other laws are set up.

3. For the sea, shellfish are excluded (not eaten) as the rules only allow for those with "fins" and "scales."

4. Vegetables are cool, you just have to check for little critters.

5. Dead animals are not eaten - meaning if they were found dead (i.e. not slaughtered properly).

6. No blood.

So, there is also a special way the animal must be slaughtered whereby it is sliced at the neck so the blood can drain out very quickly. The idea here is that it is a humane way of killing and also the most expeditious way to drain out the blood. All the blood must be drained out. Certain parts of the animal can be eaten, but I am not going into all that, so if your interest is piqued, go look it up! And, as many people know, meat and dairy cannot be consumed together.
- Addendum: Apparently, chicken and milk are not eaten together because the rabbis made a law because it is too easy to confuse chicken meat from other meats, so to answer the question I was posed, I suppose chicken parm is not kosher :o)
- And "Parve," which you may see on some labels, means there has been no dairy or meat that has come into contact with that food!

So, what do we make of all this? It seems that through the years of scientific research, much has been shown that many of these rules may have been made in part to maintain hygiene & health of the body. The animals forbidden tend to harbor more disease than others, and the method of kosher slaughter are cleanlier than regular slaughter.

As far as Muslims, the rules are termed Dhabiĥa halal. Two terms are halal (permissible) and haram (prohibited).

1. No pork.

2. No alcohol.

3. No blood.

4. The fish issue - some consider all fish OK & others consider only scales & fins OK (meaning no shellfish)

5. Clawed & fanged animals are debatable.

6. No scavengers

7. Dead animals are not eaten.

Animals must be slaughtered in accordance with halal rules, which include invocation of the name of Allah.