Lesson video

- [Rabbi London] Hi everyone, my name is Rabbi London.

And today we're going to learn about Jewish food laws.

Before we get started, I'd like you to try to close down any apps or notifications if you're able to.

Try to end any conversations you might have been in the middle of And try to find a place where you're going to find the least distractions.

Today we're going to learn about what the term Kosher means.

And we're also going to learn about what foods are kosher and not kosher.

And what are some of the Jewish food laws.

Today, you're going to need a pen or pencil and some paper, or something to write on and something to write with.

If you don't have these things with you, press pause and then press play when you're ready to begin.

So keeping kosher, what does this mean? Both the Tanakh and Talmud and other codes of Jewish law provide guidance as to what is allowed and what is not allowed to be eaten according to Jewish law.

These laws are known as Kashrut, which means what is kosher.

There are some Jewish people who follow these rules very strictly.

And there's some people who don't.

It varies from community to community and person to person.

So we're going to go over some of the basics of what are some of the basic ideas of keeping kosher, but know that some people will follow this as I'm saying, and some people won't follow this.

And both ways are totally okay.

Two words we're going to use quite a bit are kosher and tref.

Kosher means foods or items that one, according to Jewish law, is allowed to eat.

Tref means anything that's not kosher, meaning that it's not allowed by Jewish law.

So kosher means allowed, and Tref is not, is really just the opposite of kosher.

And in these terms is not allowed to be eaten.

Kosher land animals.

Where do we get this idea from? The idea comes from the Torah.

It says in Deuteronomy, and we're going to see some of the verses.

It says in the Torah about some of the kosher animals.

It's primarily written in Deuteronomy and in parts of Leviticus.

We're going to look at some of the verses today together.

So in Deuteronomy 14, it states: you should not eat anything that is considered an abomination.

These are the animals you can eat, ox, sheep, and it goes on with a list.

And any animal that has cloven hooves and chews their cud, these you can eat.

So the main rule that's given by the Torah is that for a land animal, it needs to be able to have cloven hooves, and chew their cud.

Cloven hooves means that it has, it kind of looks like two in the hoof, and chew their cud means that they eat their food, spit it out, eat it again.

And it then gets digested.

The Torah also lists some non-kosher land animals.

The Torah says in again in Deuteronomy, but those who do have cloven hooves and chew it's cud, you may not eat the camel and the hare.

So there are some animals that actually do follow the rules of having cloven hooves and chewing its cud.

But the Torah says Jewish people are not allowed to eat those.

The Torah then continues, and the pig, although it has cloven hooves, does not chew its cud.

And so pig is not kosher.

So kosher animals need to have cloven hooves, and chew their cud, or not be part of the list that is in the Torah.

Now we'll go into sea animals.

What makes a sea animal kosher? From the water, you may eat anything that has fins and scales.

That's a quote from Deuteronomy.

So that means any animal in the water that has both fins and scales can be considered a kosher animal to eat.

But that means that anything that doesn't have both fins and scales, or doesn't have either, isn't kosher.

For example, salmon would be kosher.

Shrimp would not be.

What I'd like you to do now is, we're going to pause the video, and I'd like you to fill in this chart of what's considered a kosher animal in the Torah, and what's not.

If you want, you can divide on your piece of paper and write on one side kosher, on the other side tref, and go back and look at the verses.

Write down anything that you learn about what makes an animal kosher, and what makes an animal tref, or not kosher.

Please pause the video and to complete your task, and press play to resume when you're finished.

How'd you get on? Here's my list.

In my kosher side, I have animals that have cloven feet and chew their cud, and fish with fins and scales.

On my tref side, I have mammals with no hooves, or who don't chew their cud, all types of shellfish, birds of prey, and any animals specifically listed.

There is a long list of animals that are specifically listed, that are said not to be kosher.

Another aspect of kosher meat, is that it's slaughtered in a specific way, that is passed down from the rabbis from generation to generation.

This process is known as Shechita, and the person who is doing the slaughtering is known as the shochet.

A shochet goes through special training to know how to slaughter in the appropriate way according to Jewish law.

Another aspect of keeping kosher is some Jewish people believe that they should not mix meat and dairy together.

Now, what this means in practise is that there are some Jewish people who won't eat meat and dairy together.

So they won't eat things like a cheeseburger.

Some also won't cook meat and dairy together.

So it's not just about going out and eating something that has meat and dairy, but it's also mixing meat and dairy.

So they might not put milk inside of a soup, a chicken soup that they might be making.

Some people, some Jewish people, will have separate kitchenware for meat and dairy.

That means they'll have separate pots and pans and cutlery, and sometimes even different sponges and ovens.

That way, the meat and dairy in their kitchen is never going to touch.

Some people also, wait a certain amount of time between having eaten meat and dairy, so they might wait three or even six hours between, let's say, having a hamburger and then having ice cream.

All these ways are done so that meat and dairy are not put together.

Again, there are some Jewish people who will be doing all of these, and there are some who are going to be doing some of them.

We'd like you to pause the video and complete the following task.

Please write in complete sentences.

In your own words, describe what are some ways a Jewish person might separate meat and dairy.

Press play and resume when you're finished.

How'd you do? Let's go over again.

What are some ways that Jewish people will separate meat and dairy? Some will not eat meat and dairy together.

Some will not cook meat and dairy together.

Some have separate kitchenware, dishes, plates, um, pots and pans cutlery, even an oven that are separate for meat and dairy.

And some people wait between eating meat and dairy.

Some Jewish people will do all of those, and some will do some in different ways.

In Jewish law, there's actually a third category.

Things are not only meat or dairy, but there can also be something that's called parve.

We'll go over what that means.

Dairy means anything that's made with cheese or milk, or anything made out of cheese or milk, such as milk or ice cream or pizza, anything that might have touched any of those things.

So sometimes if you, if one would make cookies with butter, those cookies would then be considered dairy under Jewish law.

Meat means any meat dishes, or things made with meat.

So if I wanted to use chicken stock in my soup, I was making vegetable soup, but I had some leftover broth from the chicken soup.

Then my soup would then be considered meat, even if there might not actually be meat there.

Or it might be that I made chicken, a chicken dish, or hamburgers, or had a barbecue.

All of that would be considered meat.

Now parve.

Parve are things that are neither meat nor dairy.

They're kind of neutral, and can be eaten both with meat and with dairy.

Things that fall into the parve category are things like eggs, or fruits and vegetables that haven't been cooked, or rice and pasta.

Lots of things fall under the parve category, and they get to be moved between both meat and dairy.

So let's go over what these words mean.

I'd like you to guess or write down what are these objects? So here is a picture of a glass of milk being poured.

Is this meat, dairy or parve? Dairy.

The glass of milk is dairy.

Here, I have a picture of a hamburger.

Would this be meat, dairy, or parve? It will be considered meat.

Here's a picture of a cheese pizza.

Would this be considered meat, dairy or parve? The cheese pizza would be considered dairy.

Now here's a fried egg.

Would a fried egg be meat, dairy or parve? It's going to be considered parve.

I'm guessing that butter wasn't used there.

Maybe it was a little bit of oil.

Here's some chicken and vegetables.

Would that be considered meat, dairy or parve? That would be considered meat.

The chicken is considered meat.

You did a great job.

What I'd like you to do now is write a bullet point summary on keeping kosher.

Here's some sentence starters: Animals need to Fish need Meat needs to And meat and dairy Press pause to complete this task and press play to resume when you're finished.

Great job.

So animals need to chew their cud and have split hooves.

Fish needs to have fins and scales.

Meat needs to be slaughtered by a shochet.

Meat and dairy are not mixed.

So how'd you do with that? You did a great job today.

We learned about many of the Jewish rules around food laws, learning about what are some kosher foods, and kosher animals.

Mainly that kosher animals chew their cud, and have split hooves, and kosher fish has fins and scales.

Another rule about kosher, is that meat and dairy don't mix together, and parve foods are foods that are neither meat, nor dairy.

I'd like you to take the time and opportunity to write down three things that you learned today.

Feel free to share that with your friends, or parent, or carer or teacher.

And don't forget to take the end of the lesson quiz.

[Rabbi London] If you want to share your work with us here at Oak national, please ask your parents or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnWithOak.

I hope you have a wonderful rest of the day, and happy learning.