All religions of the world include dietary rules for believers, prescribed in the scriptures. The faith of the Jewish people is Judaism. The Tanakh (Holy Scripture of the Jews) clearly spells out the rules of nutrition and foods that are allowed for consumption by believers. Food allowed for consumption is called kosher.

Why can't Jews eat pork? What is kosher food?

Many denominationals and atheists assume that "kosher" means "blessed by the rabbi." This is not true. The concept of kosher includes:

1. List of allowed products. For example, Jews are allowed to eat the meat of ruminants with cloven hooves, vegetables that are not affected by insects, fish - only those that have scales, etc.
2. Determination of their suitability for food. Suitability is determined by the inspection of products (both animal and vegetable) by the rabbi, shochet, or the believer himself. For example, in slaughtered carcasses, the trachea, esophagus, heart and other organs are examined to identify signs of diseases that were previously transferred or progressing at the time of slaughter (growths, scars, adhesions, inflammation, etc.), and vegetables are carefully examined for the presence of insects in them, larvae, traces of their vital activity.
3. Method for slaughtering meat carcasses. Even animals permitted by the Holy Scriptures, if the rules of slaughter are not observed, pass into the rank of non-kosher (club) products. Among the Jewish people, cattle are slaughtered by a shochet (a specially trained person), who is able to cut the carotid artery, trachea, jugular vein, esophagus and vagus nerve with one blow. This method of slaughter relieves the animal of suffering, and allows you to completely bleed the carcass.
4. Rules for the use of products. Holy Scripture strictly defines the compatibility of products and the way they are prepared. For example, it is forbidden to consume meat and milk at the same time, to combine these products in one dish. A certain time must pass between the intake of meat and dairy products (2 hours between dairy and meat, 6 hours between meat and dairy). Jewish women have separate utensils for preparing each product.

The points described above are far from a complete list of provisions and rules that determine the kosher of a product and prepared food in Judaism. Even the best meat of a kosher animal can be transferred to the “club” category when a few drops of milk or blood get on it.

There are several versions that answer the question "Why can't Jews eat pork?". The most important reasons include religious prohibitions on the consumption of meat from animals that cannot be defined as ruminant artiodactyls. These include pigs, hares, horses, camels, bears, dogs and others.

Pigs have a cloven hoof, but they do not chew the cud and are considered not kosher, therefore forbidden for Jews. As the Tanakh points out, eating the meat and fat of pigs causes enormous harm to the soul of a Jew, and there can be no exceptions for the use of this product.

You can argue on the topic “Why Jews can’t eat pork” for an infinitely long time, but every Jew will answer without hesitation that he does not eat pork because God forbade it.

Those people who consider themselves Jews will never dare even touch the smallest piece of pork. They believe that this food is unworthy of a normal person, it is a dirty and illegal food product. The Jewish book of the Torah tells them which animals are worthy of eating their meat, and which ones cannot even be looked at. Many are interested in why the Jews do not eat pork, everything is very simple - only those representatives of the animal world that are ruminant and have cloven hooves are worthy of eating. This rule is legal when the animal fulfills both requirements, in other cases the Jews will not even approach it.

The Torah book states that a person who consumes a product such as pork is not a Jew. All these rules are spelled out in the laws of this people. And the main products that are contraindicated for this people are a pig, a rabbit, a camel and a hare. In ordinary people, pork is one of the most environmentally friendly products, but the Jews are sure that this is the dirtiest food. But to tell the truth, the pig in its existence is a fairly clean animal.

There are other reasons why the Jews do not eat pork, this is an ancient legend, which is also the law for this people. When one of their cities was under siege, the people were starving and their food was one ram a day. But time passed, and the sheep ran out, but the people found a way out and agreed on an exchange. This exchange consisted in the fact that they would daily buy a ram for a basket of gold from Roman soldiers.

But the days went by, and the commander-in-chief of the warriors could not understand where the poor people got their strength from and how they hold the defense so staunchly. After all, a long time ago the people should become weak from lack of food and surrender. But there was also an enemy and a traitor among the Jews, who told everything about the exchange and that every day the people of Jerusalem are gaining strength, having eaten a young ram brought by their soldiers, and with renewed strength stands in defense of their city, their holy land. Then the commander-in-chief decided to take revenge on the people of the Jews and ordered his soldiers to stop feeding the enemy and put a pig in a basket instead of a young ram, and took the gold for himself. After these actions, the holy land shook and became dead, the Jews could not defend their city and honor, were expelled from their possessions, they could not forgive the betrayal of their own man, who took the side of the enemy and remembered him forever.

But besides laws and legends, Jews believe that, from a medical point of view, pork also destroys a person and is unfit for consumption. But all these are only the concepts of the Jews, because in modern medicine nothing is said about pork as a product unsuitable for human consumption. Many peoples consider it the only useful meat product.

Why can't Muslims eat pork?

Christian Europeans are often surprised by unusual traditions found in other cultures, in particular, in Islam. Despite the fact that at first glance there are many identical elements in these two world religions, in each of them there are some

Its unique features. Surely everyone knows that not a single believing Muslim will ever eat pork and drink wine (because of this, as we remember from history, Ancient Russia never accepted the faith of the Prophet Muhammad). And if everything seems to be clear about alcohol, then why shouldn't Muslims eat pork? Eating this meat is forbidden because the pig is an unclean animal; the believer, using it, will defile himself, which is not pleasing in the face of Allah.

Modern scientists put forward two rational hypotheses for the emergence of such a taboo:

1. Islam originated on the territory of the Arab Caliphate, where the climate is very hot and arid. Meat could be stored for a very short time, and eating spoiled pork very often caused poisoning - this is why Muslims should not eat pork.

2. Recently, Spanish scientists made an amazing discovery: it turns out that pork is harmful to human health. In the blood and muscles of this artiodactyl found

Can Christians eat pork?

"Stupid question! - perhaps, many will say. - Why can't you eat pork?" Muslims are directly forbidden by the prophets, and in the New Testament there is not a word about the prohibition of eating pork meat. However, you should not be so categorical - you just need to remember that Islam is not at all the first religion in which there are food taboos. It is Judaism. In the Old Testament, Moses and Aaron are given a set of rules for living, which also contains a list of food restrictions. In particular, Jews are forbidden

there is all carrion, blood and meat of animals whose hooves are not cloven and which do not chew the cud - the pig is one of them. Jesus in the New Testament tells his disciples: "I did not come into this world to cancel the words of the prophets!" - that is, food bans have not been canceled by anyone. However, many opponents of the restrictions say that the ancient covenants were given exclusively for the Jews and are not binding on the descendants of the Gentiles. In addition, there is a verse in the Gospel of John that says that "sin is not what enters a person's mouth, but what comes out of them." The final decision of this issue was formulated at the Assembly of the Apostles in 49 AD: "Avoid fornication, idolatry and do not do to others what you do not want to yourself."

Why Jews do not eat pork? In fact, Jews do not eat not only pork, but also, for example, rabbit. In addition, they do not consume certain types of fish and seafood, such as crabs, crayfish, oysters, squids. So what's the reason?

Let's see why Jews don't eat pork:

Even ancient Greek scientists noticed that the Jews live longer and more actively than the peoples around them. For centuries, the situation has not changed. Today, the average life expectancy of Israeli men is 76.6 years, women - 80.4 years, and the birth rate in Israel is higher than in any developed Western country.

The reasons for such "survivability" of the Israelis could be reduced to the high quality of medical services in the Promised Land, but this is only one side of the coin. Another, and no less important, is the ancient spiritual and dietary system of the Jews, called kashrut.

For three millennia, the selection and preparation of food for the Jews has been a serious ritual. At first glance, this ritual with many dogmas and prohibitions is unacceptable for modern people who do not profess Judaism. But here is the paradox: the science of nutrition - nutritionology - proves the practical benefits of the laws of kashrut.

So why don't Jews eat pork? It is believed that the criteria for kosher (“suitability”) of food come from the commandments of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), created by the prophet Moses after communicating with God on Mount Sinai. Since then, the ancient Jewish sages taught their people to understand food intake not only as a replenishment of physical energy, but also as a spiritual process of turning the gifts of nature into a part of man.

Let's start with the fact that the Jews are one of the few nations that did not know mass epidemics. And the reason for such luck is simple: the Torah teaches to wash hands before eating, and this rule in ancient times was greatly underestimated by other peoples. In addition, Judaism obliges to achieve perfect cleanliness of dishes and foods that are cooked - they must not contain insects, larvae, worms and other foreign organisms.
Among animals, only ruminant artiodactyls are considered kosher: goats, sheep, cows and all their wild relatives, almost all types of deer and even giraffes. Creatures with solid hooves, like a donkey or a horse, are not kosher (clubs), which is not objectionable by most nations, because these animals are intended for transport, not food needs. But pigs are a separate issue. With pigs, a special dialectic is obtained. Their hooves are bifurcated, but they feed on everything in a row and do not chew the cud (that is, they swallow food without chewing many times). But, apparently, in the Torah, pigs are branded as "unclean" not only because of their omnivorous nature.

The fact is that pork in a hot climate deteriorates faster than any other type of meat, and therefore carries the risk of poisoning. You can argue before a fight about whether this animal is “clean” or not, but the fact remains: if 100 g of beef contains 20 g of protein and 9 g of fat, then pork contains 13 g of protein per 39 g of fat. At the same time, lard is a powerful source of cholesterol, which causes "self-suffocation" of the arteries, in other words, a heart attack. And heart attacks are the leading cause of death for men aged 40 to 60.

You don't have to be a religious Jew to understand why Jews don't eat pork and why kashrut laws forbid eating predatory animals - wolves, bears, foxes, dogs, etc. Carnivores often eat carrion, their tissues not only do not contain many useful substances that are in the meat of herbivores, but also accumulate toxins. The same with non-kosher birds of prey - ravens, eagles, owls, pelicans. They are, on top of that, tasteless. The Jewish taboo on crabs, crayfish and lobsters is also justified from a scientific point of view: ptomaine (cadaveric poison) settles in the meat of crustaceans due to their indiscriminate diet.
Most of the thousand-year-old rules of Jewish nutrition are consonant with the current nutriciology. The well-known Israeli writer and journalist Pyotr Lukimson, in his book “Jewish Dietetics, or Deciphered Kashrut”, claims that “having looked through hundreds of diets in various books designed to help a person lead a healthy lifestyle, he did not find a single non-kosher diet.” All diets developed by both Western and post-Soviet experts, according to him, are absolutely kosher from the point of view of Judaism.

I think we have dealt with the question: Why do Jews not eat pork.

According to the site www.boruh.info

2 signs of clean animals, the meat of which the Bible allows to eat:

The Bible says, “Every livestock that has cloven hooves and a deep cut in its hooves, and that chews the cud, eat; only do not eat of those who chew the cud and have cloven hooves: a camel, because he chews the cud, but his hooves are not cloven, he is unclean for you; and the jerboa, because it chews the cud, but its hooves are not cloven, it is unclean for you, and the hare, because it chews the cud, but its hooves are not cloven, it is unclean for you; and pigs, because her hooves are cloven and the cut on her hooves is deep, but she does not chew the cud, she is unclean for you; do not eat their meat and do not touch their corpses; they are unclean to you” (Leviticus 11:3-8).