Hrt 3m - Dietary Laws

Anthony Lamb                                                                                                                                                 

Mrs.Colangelo

HRT 3M                  

January 13, 2014

The Dietary Laws

            Most religions have rules and laws that their followers believe in and try to practice. The focus will be on the dietary laws for the Catholic, Jewish and Islamic Faith.

            The laws about the Jewish faith are found in the Kashrut, which is the collection of Jewish dietary laws. Any food that follows these rules is then allowed to be called Kosher and allowed to be eaten by anybody of the Jewish faith. The reason people of Jewish faith are so strict about their diets is because it is written this way in the Torah, the main focus of all Judaism. In order for a food to be labelled Kosher it must meet a number of different standards which comes through strict preparation “The mammals and birds that may be eaten must be slaughtered in accordance with Jewish law. (Deut. 12:21).” Some of the ways the food needs to be prepared are, the blood from the animals must be drained, there are certain animals that are allowed to be eaten and not allowed, most specifically pig. The animals that are allowed to be eaten are any animals with cloven hooves and chews its cud, which means that the animal regurgitates its food and digests it a second time. Any land mammal that does not have both these qualities is forbidden to eat. Blood is required to be drained from the animal because it is believed the life of the animal is contained in the blood. There are only a couple parts of an animal that you cannot eat these parts are the fat surrounding the vital organs and the liver. As we can see from these examples the Jewish faith is very strict when it comes to its dietary laws, something that it shares in common with the next faith we will explore, Islam.

            Similar to the Jewish faith, Islam follows a strict code on dietary law, which is called the Islamic Jurisprudence. The Jurisprudence explains what is Halol and what is Haram, Halol meaning what foods are allowed to be eaten and Haram meaning that foods are forbidden. The biggest Haram food in the Islamic culture is pork. Like in the Jewish faith Muslims believe the pig to be a dirty animal. For an animal to be Halol they must be slaughtered a certain way, the animal must be killed quickly, with a sharp knife. It must not suffer and it must not see or smell the blood from the previous animal. Muslim’s are not allowed to use the blood of an animal or any of its products “He has only forbidden you what dies of itself, and blood, and flesh of swine, and that over which any other (name) than (that of) Allah has been invoked; but whoever is driven to necessity, not desiring, nor exceeding the limit, no sin shall be upon him; surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.”( Qurʼan, Sura 2 (Al-Baqara), ayat 173). Another one of the biggest things considered haram in the Islamic faith is alcohol. Being intoxicated is haram according to the Qur’an through several separate verses and at different periods of time. These laws are very strict and Muslims believe it very important to stick to these rules very much like the Jewish faith. Next we will explore the opposite of the last two examples in the Catholic faith, where dietary laws are not considered as important.