ABSTRACT

According to the Jewish tradition, food must be ritually fit if it is to be eaten. The Bible declares that laws of kashrut (dietary laws) were given by God to Moses on Mt Sinai: thus Jews are obligated to follow this legislation because of its divine origin. A further category of kashrut deals with the method of killing animals for food. Similarly, the rabbis of the Talmud and midrash explored the rationale of the system of kashrut. Generally they believed that observance of such laws aids the development of self-disicipline and moral conduct. Maimonides argued in The Guide for the Perplexed that the laws of kashrut teach mastery of the appetites as well as discipline. Until modern times the rules of kashrut were universally practised by Jewry. Yet in the nineteenth century the Reform movement in Germany broke with tradition, decreeing that the dietary laws were connected with Temple ritual and thus not integral to the Jewish tradition.