- Koschere Tiere
- Landsäugetiere: Koscher ist, wer gespaltene Hufe hat, und wer ein Wiederkäuer ist. Ein koscheres Tier muss beide Merkmale aufweisen, wie z.B. Kühe, Schafe, Ziegen, Rehwild. Dagegen sind Schweine, Hasen, Eichhörnchen, Bären, Hunde, Katzen, Kamele und Pferde nicht koscher.
- Geflügel: Die Tora zählt 21 unkoschere Vogelarten auf. Dazu gehören im Grunde genommen alle Raubvögel und Aasfresser. Koschere Vogelarten z.B. die heimischen Hühnerarten, Enten, Gänse, Puten, Tauben.
- Fisch & Meeresfrüchte: Wasserlebewesen sind koscher, wenn sie Flossen und Schuppen haben, z.B.: Lachs, Tunfisch, Hecht, Flunder, Karpfen, Hering. Nicht koscher sind z.B. Wels, Stör, Schwertfisch, Krebse, Schalentiere, Krabben, alle Meeressäugetiere.
- Alle Reptilien, Amphibien, Würmer, Insekten sind nicht koscher. Eine Ausnahme bilden vier Heuschreckenarten. [von de.chabad.org]
- Schächten
- Fleischig und milchig
- Segnen
- Brot / "Mesonot" / Frucht / Gemüse / Andere
- Wein
Rabbi Moses ben Maimon / Rambam / Maimonides (1135-1204)
I maintain that the food which is forbidden by the Law is unwholesome. There is nothing among the forbidden kinds of food whose injurious character is doubted, except pork and helev (forbidden fat). But also in these cases the doubt is not justified. For pork contains more moisture than necessary [for human food], and too much of superfluous matter. The principal reason why the Law forbids swine's flesh is to be found in the circumstance that its habits and its food are very dirty and loathsome. It has already been pointed out how emphatically the Law enjoins the removal of the sight of loathsome objects, even in the field and in the camp; how much more objectionable is such a sight in towns...
The fat of the intestines makes us full, interrupts our digestion, and produces cold and thick blood; it is more fit for fuel [than for human food]...
It is prohibited to cut off a limb of a living animal and eat it, because such act would produce cruelty, and develop it: besides, the heathen kings used to do it: it was also a kind of idolatrous worship to cut off a certain limb of a living animal and to eat it...
Meat boiled in milk is undoubtedly gross food, and makes overfull; but I think that most probably it is also prohibited because it is somehow connected with idolatry, forming perhaps part of the service, or being used on some festival of the heathen.
Don Isaac Abarbanel (1437-1508)
"Furthermore, we see with our own eyes the [other] nations eating the flesh of the swine, worm and mouse, and other forbidden birds, beasts and fish, and they all live today strongly…none of them are weary or unstable."
Performance of the mitzvot is man’s path to God, an infinite path, the end of which is never attained and is, in effect, unattainable. A man is bound to know that this path never terminates. One follows it without advancing beyond the point of departure...
What, then, is the substance and import of the performance of the mitzvot? It is man’s striving to attain the religious goal.
[from Judaism, Human Values, and the State of Israel]
With the coming of the permission to eat meat, after the sacralization of the mitzvot by the giving of the Torah, (the Torah) qualifies (the permission), as suggested by the words, "(when) you say, 'I shall eat meat,' for you have the urge to eat meat, you may eat meat whenever you wish." There is here a wise yet hidden rebuke and a restrictive exhortation, namely, that as long as your inner morality does not abhor the eating of animal flesh, as you already abhor (the eating of) human flesh then when the time comes for the human moral condition to abhor (eating) the flesh of animals, because of the moral loathing inherent in that act, you surely "will not have the urge to eat meat," and you will not eat it...
As long as the human heart is not naturally set on good and just behavior; as long as the true divine knowledge of doing acts of lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness in the earth is not universally inscribed in the human heart; as long as humanity requires external teachers in matters of moral duty and human uprightness; it will also require many limitations and precautions so that its system of behavior will not be disrupted, until such time as it will be fit to receive the desired guidance.
[From A Vision of Vegetarianism and Peace, first published in Hapeles, Berlin 1903]