Kosher for Everybody

Chapter One

Kosher is the anglicized version of the Hebrew word kasher, meaning "fit" or "proper." Food is kosher when its ingredients and the means of its manufacture or preparation have adhered to a certain set of stringent and demanding laws and restrictions. You can't make foods kosher just by saying prayers over them. Nor does it have the same meaning as "kosher-style," a phrase used to describe certain ethnic dishes or food preparations (such as "kosher" dill pickles or "kosher-style" delicatessen) or foods derived from eastern European Jewish cuisines.

Kosher means adhering to the Jewish dietary laws-some nearly 3,500 years old-that have their origins in passages of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy). These were later elaborated on by rabbis who, in the Talmud, added further requirements and restrictions. (The Talmud-Hebrew for "learning"-is the massive encyclopedia of Jewish thought, commentary, and civil and religious law compiled in the first few centuries of the Common ... read full excerpt from Kosher for Everybody: The Complete Guide to Understanding, Shopping, Cooking, and Eating the Kosher Way ebook