The mishpatim are laws in regard to righteousness and justice that straightforwardly make sense why God commandeered them while the chukim are laws that do not straightforwardly make sense why God commanded them and they do not come with an explanation, so they almost invite us to ponder what they are teaching us about His eternal character through them. In Ezekiel 36:26-27, the Spirit has the role of leading us to obey both the mishpatim and the chukim.
There are night and day differences between how healthy it is to eat clean or unclean animals and there are countless parasites and diseases that have been transferred to humans through eating unclean animals, so that is one of the reasons that people have discerned for why He commanded against eating them, however, God associated refraining from eating unclean animals as part of being holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16, Leviticus 11:44-45), so there is more to it than that. Meat could be dried to prevent spoilage long before there was refrigeration, so it is not as through we are free to eat unclean animals now that we have refrigeration and can cook meat at high enough temperatures to remove contamination.
Among Jews there are common misconceptions about Kosher food, ranging from the notion that kosher food
means that it has been blessed by a rabbi to the belief that the kosher laws are part of an ancient Jewish health code.
"Pig was forbidden to Jews" one hears many Jews explain, "so that Jews would not get trichinosis"
However, the system known as
kashrut is given a rationale in the Torah that has nothing to do with rabbinic blessings
or with health. The Torah associates
kashrut with holiness (see, for example, Leviticus 11:44-45 and Deuteronomy 14:21)
Kashrut's laws regulate that Jews are not permitted to eat whatever they may want, and that even permitted foods must
be prepared in a special way. For example, the only animals designated by the Torah as kosher are those that have cloven
hooves and that regurgitate their food. The most commonly eaten kosher animals are the cow and the lamb. But even
these animals must be ritually killed by a
shokhet (slaughterer). Jewish law obligates the
shokhet to kill the animal with
one quickly drawn stroke against its throat. If he delays the stroke, thus needlessly prolonging death, the animal is rendered
unkosher and Jews are forbidden to eat it.
Among fish, only those with fins and scales are designated kosher (Leviticus 11:9-12; Deuteronomy 14:9-10); no reason
is given for this law. All shellfish are forbidden, so many popular fish, such as shrimp and lobster, are unkosher. Two fish have
been the subject of long-standing controversy between Conservative and Orthodox Judaism: sturgeon and swordfish.
The argument hinges on whether their scales qualify according to Jewish law; the Orthodox say no, the Conservative say yes.
Among birds, only those specifically enumerated in Jewish tradition are permitted; they include chicken, turkey, and duck.
As a rule, permitted animals are herbivorous. Birds that prey on other birds are all forbidden, as are all meat-eating animals.
The Talmud notes that one of the signs of a forbidden bird is that it has a talon to kill.
In Hebrew the word "kosher" literally means "fit" which is why one can ask about a business venture of questionable
legality: "Is it kosher?" Similarly, one might say of a very fine Jew, "He is a kosher Jew"
The opposite of kosher is
treif. One distinction children growing up in kosher homes learn that certain things in life
are kosher, and others are
treif.
Shalom
