I'm having a hard time defining "Kosher", can any one give me the really real definition?

Question

I was under the Impression that Kosher is the name of the Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha (Jewish law) is termed kosher. But a friend (with Jewish friends) claims that only if a Rabbi has blessed it, and only then can food and everything else be kosher. I don't know and I don't know how to find out.

Answer 1

–adjective 1. Judaism. a. fit or allowed to be eaten or used, according to the dietary or ceremonial laws: kosher meat; kosher dishes; a kosher tallith.
b. adhering to the laws governing such fitness: a kosher restaurant.

2. Informal. a. proper; legitimate.
b. genuine; authentic.

–noun 3. Informal. kosher food: Let's eat kosher tonight.
–verb (used with object) 4. Judaism. to make kosher: to kosher meat by salting.
—Idiom5. keep kosher, to adhere to the dietary laws of Judaism.

Also, kasher.


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[Origin: 1850–55; 1920–25 for def. 2; < Yiddish < Heb kāshēr right, fit]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source new! ka·sher (käshr) Pronunciation Key
adj. & v.
Variant of kosher.

(Download Now or Buy the Book) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source new! ko·sher (kshr) Pronunciation Key also ka·sher (kä-)
adj.
Judaism.
Conforming to dietary laws; ritually pure: kosher meat.
Selling or serving food prepared in accordance with dietary laws: a kosher restaurant.
Slang.
Legitimate; permissible: “consolidating noneditorial functions of the papers, which is kosher” (Christian Science Monitor).
Genuine; authentic.

tr.v. ko·shered, ko·sher·ing, ko·shers
To make proper or ritually pure.


[Yiddish kosher, from Ashkenazi Hebrew kóer, from Hebrew kr, fitting, proper, from kr, to be fitting, to succeed. See kr in Semitic Roots.]

(Download Now or Buy the Book) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
WordNet - Cite This Source new!
Kosher

adj 1: conforming to dietary laws; "kosher meat"; "a kosher kitchen" [syn: cosher] 2: proper or legitimate n : food that fulfills the requirements of Jewish dietary law

http://66.161.12.81/search?q=Kosher+&x=30&y=15

Answer 2

I'm Jewish, so I've got a good idea about this. You're right and your friend is somewhat right. The food must not violate the dietary restrictions from the Halakha (don't worry about that word's spelling). In addition, a rabbi must inspect the food to make sure it hasn't touched trace amounts of nonkosher foods. If the food follows the guidelines and is certified by a rabbi, it's kosher. Fruits, vegetables, and other stuff directly from the Earth do not need to be inspected by a rabbi.

You can probably get a more detailed description by looking up koshrut in wikipedia or google.

The general guidelines are that kosher food:
cannot mix meat and dairy.
cannot contain shellfish.
cannot contain meat from animals without hooves (like pigs).

Answer 3

Kosher is a food that according to the jewish laws is kosher, it means:
not every animal meat u can eat, worms and blood are forbidden, the meat (the animal) has to be slaughtered in a certain way and.. wow there are more laws...
a food doesn't have to be blessed by a rabbi in order to be called "kosher", maybe ur friend is confusing the fact that in restaurants food factories it must be a rabinical supervisor in order to supervise that the food is kosher
a kosher food isn't just kosher, but it's also the most healthy

Answer 4

rabbis do not bless something to make it Kosher. if it meets the dietary laws clearly laid out in the old testament- then it's kosher.

however- there are organizations who 'certify' that processed food does meet those dietary standards. So- if you see a package with a U inside an O on the lable, that's one. Another is a 'K'. These are organizations of rabbis that go around checking to see if the companies meet the requirements, and if so, allow them to use their symbol. This provides a service for those who are buying the products so that they can be sure it's Kosher food, and a service to the companies that sell the products- so that they can now sell it to observant Jews.

None of this involves or requires any kind of "blessing". merely does it meet the cleanliness and ingredient laws passed down in the bible.

Answer 5

Food does not need to be blessed by a rabbi. However, some foods -- where there can be a question of whether the ingredients are kosher -- are sometimes given a seal of approval by religious jews (not necessarily rabbis). Processed foods usually have these. Produce usually does not.

Answer 6

Kashrut
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Kosher)

Kashrut or Kashruth, Kashrus (Hebrew: כַּשְרוּת kašrûṯ) or "keeping kosher" (Hebrew: כָּשֵר kāšēr) is the name of the Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha (Jewish law) is termed kosher in English, from the Hebrew term kasher, meaning "fit" (in this context, fit for consumption by observant Jews).

The word kosher has been borrowed by many languages, including English. In its strictest meaning it means only "suitable according to Jewish law", but as slang it generally means legitimate, acceptable, permissible, genuine or authentic in a broader sense.

Answer 7

Edit: "Kosher", in Hebrew, means fit or proper, and is generally used to describe foods that are prepared in accordance with special Jewish dietary laws.

The source of all Kosher dietary laws is the Bible, in the Five Books of Moses (the Pentateuch). The Bible details which forms of meat, fowl, fish and insects are not Kosher. In addition, Jewish scholars have studied, interpreted and applied Kosher law for many centuries. Thousands of volumes have been written about this topic. Many of these books date back as far as two thousand years ago. This vast array of Biblical and Rabbinic literature comprises the body of Kosher law.

Do a search on : What does kosher mean

And thank you, your question taught me the error of what I believed it to be.

Answer 8

That's interesting.. Never heard of this .. by any means.. but I recently took care of an elder lady that was Jewish and her husband ate everything Koshered!

He ate Koshered fish every day!

Answer 9

My understanding was that the food had to be prepared according to the Rabbi's instructions but he didn't have to bless each morsel of it. There are rules of Kosher preparation that must be followed.

Answer 10

I had the same question once. It is not only if a Rabbi blesses it. Here is the best answer I have found.

What does kosher mean?

Kosher does not mean food blessed by a rabbi. The word kosher means fit or proper. The laws for kosher food originated in the Bible. Kosher food is prepared in accordance with the Biblical laws and additional interpretations and decisions by post-Biblical Rabbis. Kashruth is the term used to refer to the observance of the Jewish dietary laws. One key feature of kashruth is the prohibition against the combination of meat and dairy foods that is stated in the Bible.
The prohibition includes not eating any meat or dairy foods or their derivatives together, and not cooking any meat or dairy food together. Cooking refers to baking, frying, roasting, preparing, and so forth. The separation of meat and dairy foods in eating and cooking requires a complete separation of meat and dairy dishes, pots, silverware, utensils, dish sponges, dish towels, tablecloths, dishwashers, and small appliances in the kosher kitchen.


What is a hechsher?
A hechsher is an identifiable symbol or a statement on the label of a product certifying that its manufacture has been supervised by a competent Rabbi and is kosher according to the Rabbi's standards.
A caterer, restaurant, or other establishment can be supervised by a Rabbi and certified kosher according to the Rabbi's standards.

For many processed and packaged foods, the presence of a hechsher is required to assure the kosher consumer of compliance with kashruth. It is not sufficient to rely on reading the ingredients on a label or package without a hechsher since:

an ingredient may not be listed, especially if that ingredient is of minimal quantity
a food processed in a factory where non-kosher products are prepared may have been prepared using non-kosher utensils or equipment
processed foods may contain non-kosher chemical additives that are not readily identifiable to the consumer
Processed or packaged food products requiring a hechsher include:

Bread
Butter
Cake
Candy
Canned vegetables and legumes
Canned fish
Cereal
Cheese
Cookies
Imitation non-dairy products
Meat
Oil
Pasta
Smoked fish
Soft drinks
Spices
Vegetable shortening
Yogurt


Which foods are kosher?
Kosher foods that are permitted according to kashruth include:
Animals
A kosher animal chews its cud and has split hooves, including cows, goats, sheep, deer, bison, gazelle, antelope, ibex, addax and giraffe. Only the front part of the animal up to the end of the twelfth rib is considered kosher. The hind part of the animal contains prohibited nerves and fats that are difficult to remove.

Fowl
A kosher fowl is one that is not listed among the twenty-four types of fowl forbidden in the Bible and that is traditionally accepted as kosher, including chickens and domestic ducks, geese, turkeys, and doves.

Properly slaughtered and "koshered" animals and fowl
Kosher animals and fowl must be slaughtered according to the complex laws of shechitah (slaughtering) which proscribe the type of knife used, its sharpness, and the manner in which one performs the slaughter.

Kosher animals and fowl must be "koshered"--rinsed, soaked, salted and then triple-rinsed--within twenty-four hours of slaughtering to remove blood.

Dairy food
A kosher dairy food is a milk product from a kosher animal. A dairy food cannot contain any meat or non-kosher substances. Dairy foods include milk, butter, yogurt, cheese (hard or soft), cream cheese, and milk derivatives such as sodium caseinate and lactose.

Fish
Kosher fish have both fins and scales and include cod, flounder, haddock, halibut, herring, mackerel, pickerel, pike, salmon, trout, most tuna, and whitefish. Fish is not considered a meat or dairy food. It may be cooked with meat utensils for a meat meal, or with dairy utensils for a dairy meal. It may be served and eaten side by side with dairy foods. For a meat meal, fish must be served and eaten on a separate dish and with a separate utensil than a meat item.

Eggs
Eggs from any kosher fowl are kosher.

Pareve foods
Pareve foods are neutral, kosher foods that do not contain meat or dairy products. The following foods are pareve if they do not contain dairy or meat products: bread, cake, candy, cereal, cookies, crackers, soft drinks, tea, coffee, noodles, juice. All raw fruits, grains, vegetables, and kosher eggs are pareve.



Which foods are not kosher?
Non-kosher foods include:
Animals
Non-kosher animals include pigs, camels, horses, and donkeys.

Fowl
Non-kosher fowl are any listed among the twenty-four types of fowl forbidden in the Bible and that are not traditionally accepted as kosher, including wild ducks, geese, pigeons and doves.

Fish
Non-kosher fish include clams, crabs, lobster, oysters, shark, shrimp, squid, sturgeon, and swordfish.

Eggs
An egg from a non-kosher fowl is not kosher. A blood spot in any egg makes that egg unkosher.

Insects and rodents
Rodents, worms, amphibians, and creeping, swimming, or flying insects, are not kosher. Fruits, vegetables, or grains are not kosher when worms, insects, ants or mites are present on or in the item.