'וגו 'הוא אשר דבר ה THIS IS WHAT THE LORD SPOKE, etc. — Where had He spoken this? In the statement (Exodus 29:43), “And there I will be met by the children of Israel and it (the Tabernacle) shall be sanctified by My glory (בכבודי).” Read not here בִכְבוֹדִי, “by My Glory” but בִּמְכֻבָּדַי, “through My honoured ones” (Zevachim 115b). Moses here said to Aaron: “My brother, Aaron! I knew that this House was to be sanctified by those who are beloved of the Omnipresent God and I thought it would be either through me or through thee; now I see that these (thy sons who have died) are greater than me and than thee!” (Leviticus Rabbah 12 2).
Isaac ben Judah Abravanel (1437–1508)
Vayidom aharon - His heart turned to lifeless stone (domem - mineral), and he did not weep and mourn like a bereaved father, nor did he accept Moses' consolation for his soul had left him and he was speechless.
From Kashrut.com - are turkeys kosher???
By inference, the vast number of other bird species are kosher.8 Today, when the 24 non-kosher species can no longer be accurately identified, things are quite a bit more complicated.
Although the Torah did not provide physical indicators by which to identify kosher fowl, the rabbis provided four identifying features to help categorize birds. The Mishnah (Chullin 3:6 [59a]) states: "every bird that is 1) dores ("a predator") is not kosher.9 Every bird that has 2) an extra toe,10 3) a zefek (crop, the biblical more'eh , e.g. Lev. 1:16), and 4) a korkuvan (gizzard, "pupik" in Yiddish) whose inner lining can be peeled, is kosher."
With all the disagreement and confusion, the final halacha follows Rashi (Chullin 62a), who,...ruled that birds may only be eaten based on a mesorah - oral tradition. The Shulchan Aruch (YD 82:3), and even more definitively, the Ramo (ibid), ruled that the only applicable principle is that "no bird should be eaten unless there is a mesorah that it is a kosher species." And this is where the problem for New World birds arises - there simply cannot be an ancient continuous unbroken tradition regarding a New World bird.12
The Turkey13 has gained near universal kosher acceptance. According to the National Turkey Federation,14 Israel leads the world in turkey consumption. At a whopping 28.8 pounds per capita annual consumption in 2001, Israelis consumed considerably more turkey than the second largest consumers, Americans, who consumed approximately 17.5 pounds per capita annually. There is no question today that turkey, the quintessential New World species which Benjamin Franklin proposed as the national bird of the United States because it is "a true original native of America" and does not have the "bad moral character" of the bald eagle, has been universally accepted as a kosher species.
Yet the reason for its acceptability does not seem to have been discussed until the late 18th century, at which time it became a controversial issue. Even at that time the issue may only have been raised because of the controversy that was then brewing in Europe regarding the status of several other birds.
When finally queried, the vast majority of halachic authorities accepted the turkey as kosher. However, a plethora of different reasons, most not fully satisfactory, were ultimately suggested.