In Leviticus, God prohibits Israel from eating blood in the strictest terms. This prohibition also includes hunting and eating from the carcass of a dead animal (Leviticus 17:10-16), and the punishment for one who violates this is karet....
Leviticus provides four categories of permitted and forbidden foods. Animals are defined by a rule; split hooves and chewing cud signify a kosher animal. Similarly, aquatic life that is permitted is signified by fins and scales. Bugs are...
The Torah prohibits eating insects, referring to them as “an abomination”: All winged swarming things that walk on fours shall be an abomination for you. Leviticus 11:20 Given that the Torah defines insects as an abomination, it comes as...
Leviticus introduces the classifications of clean and unclean meat. It contains laws regarding not only land animals, but anything edible that comes from the sea as well. The rules for sea creatures are really quite simple, requiring two...
Jews have historically been separated from the other nations by our myriad and complex dietary requirements. This includes both how the food is prepared and the limits on which animals we can eat. God begins to specify dietary restriction...
Exodus 23:19 contains the first of three times the Torah warns Israel, “You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk” (also found in Exodus 34:26, Deuteronomy 14:21). This prohibition is considered a chok (a torah commandment that is...
This week’s portion contains one of the basic fundamentals of kosher eating – the list of animals that are permitted as well as a list of animals that are not. Chapter 11 begins: Speak to the people of Israel, saying, these are the living...
![The Scapegoat, by William Holman Hunt. In Temple times, the scapegoat was a central part of the Yom Kippur service. [Image: Wiki Commons]](https://theisraelbible.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/William_Holman_Hunt_-_The_Scapegoat.jpg)
