Ask The Rabbi!!

[TomHagen]

Originally Posted by Tio Gato

Hello Rabbi, I hope you are well.

When I was studying to be a chef I had many lessons in "Food Safety".
One of my chef instructors mentioned that many dietary laws from different religions are based on what is safe to eat and what is not. (Considering the days of little science and no refrigeration.)

My question is, when people ask you why something is or is not Kosher and how did these things get that way, is there a resource you direct them too? Perhaps a website or book that explains why. (Such as no shellfish, because we know shellfish from contaminated water can kill you.)

As a chef and a fat man that loves food, the Kosher dietary laws have always fascinated me. I hope you can point me in the right direction as to the why.

Thank you so much.

Firstly, let us not confuse human rationalization for the existance of Kosher dietary laws (or any other G-d given Law in the Torah), with the true reason the law was given. The Laws of the Torah were given by G-d to the Jewish people to observe because they are His Will, certain laws we can understand perfectly (aka "Don't Steal", "Don't Kill" etc.), others we can kinda understand (keep Shabbos - a day of rest), still others we have no logistical explanation according to human logic, we only know the spiritual ramifications. Kosher laws really fall into the last category. So we need to be careful when trying to come up with human rationalizations for Divine commandments. So there might not be a "Why?"...

ahhhhhhhhh... that being said a good place to start is probably here:http://http://www.chabad.org/generic...ish/Kosher.htm and this book might be the best in english for Kosher laws
The Laws Of Kashrus
A comprehensive exposition of their underlying concepts and application
By Rabbi Binyomin Forst

and the best Kosher cookbook is

Spice and Spirit: The Complete Kosher Jewish Cookbook (A Kosher living classic) Esther Blau

Hope this helps.