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Kosher Dietary Laws
(also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), from the Ashkenazic pronunciation (KUHsher) of the Hebrew (), meaning "fit" (in this context: "fit for consumption"). Although the details of the laws of are numerous and complex, they rest on a few basic principles: * Only certain types of mammals, birds and fish meeting specific criteria are kosher; the consumption of the flesh of any animals that do not meet these criteria, such as pork, frogs, and shellfish, is forbidden. * Kosher mammals and birds must be slaughtered according to a process known as ; blood may never be consumed and must be removed from meat by a process of salting and soaking in water for the meat to be permissible for use. * Meat and meat derivatives may never be mixed with milk and milk derivatives: separate equipme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Food And Drink Prohibitions
Some people do not eat various specific foods and beverages in conformity with various religious, cultural, legal or other societal prohibitions. Many of these prohibitions constitute taboos. Many food taboos and other prohibitions forbid the meat of a particular animal, including mammals, rodents, reptiles, amphibians, fish, molluscs, crustaceans and insects, which may relate to a disgust response being more often associated with meats than plant-based foods. Some prohibitions are specific to a particular part or excretion of an animal, while others forgo the consumption of plants or fungi. Some food prohibitions can be defined as rules, codified by religion or otherwise, about which foods, or combinations of foods, may not be eaten and how animals are to be slaughtered or prepared. The origins of these prohibitions are varied. In some cases, they are thought to be a result of health considerations or other practical reasons; in others, they relate to human symbolic systems. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shemitta
The sabbath year (shmita; he, שמיטה, literally "release"), also called the sabbatical year or ''shǝvi'it'' (, literally "seventh"), or "Sabbath of The Land", is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah in the Land of Israel and is observed in Judaism. During ''shmita'', the land is left to lie fallow and all agricultural activity, including plowing, planting, pruning and harvesting, is forbidden by ''halakha'' (Jewish law). Other cultivation techniques (such as watering, fertilizing, weeding, spraying, trimming and mowing) may be performed as a preventive measure only, not to improve the growth of trees or other plants. Additionally, any fruits or herbs which grow of their own accord and where no watch is kept over them are deemed ''hefker'' (ownerless) and may be picked by anyone. A variety of laws also apply to the sale, consumption and disposal of ''shmita'' produce. All debts, except those of foreigners, were to be remitted. Chapt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
613 Commandments
The Jewish tradition that there are 613 commandments ( he, תרי״ג מצוות, taryag mitzvot) or mitzvot in the Torah (also known as the Law of Moses) is first recorded in the 3rd century AD, when Rabbi Simlai mentioned it in a sermon that is recorded in Talmud Makkot 23b. The 613 commandments include "positive commandments", to perform an act (), and "negative commandments", to abstain from certain acts (). The negative commandments number 365, which coincides with the number of days in the solar year, and the positive commandments number 248, a number ascribed to the number of bones and main organs in the human body. Although the number 613 is mentioned in the Talmud, its real significance increased in later medieval rabbinic literature, including many works listing or arranged by the . The most famous of these was an enumeration of the 613 commandments by Maimonides. Many of the cannot be currently observed, following the destruction of the Second Temple, though they ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jewish Philosophy
Jewish philosophy () includes all philosophy carried out by Jews, or in relation to the religion of Judaism. Until modern ''Haskalah'' (Jewish Enlightenment) and Jewish emancipation, Jewish philosophy was preoccupied with attempts to reconcile coherent new ideas into the tradition of Rabbinic Judaism, thus organizing emergent ideas that are not necessarily Jewish into a uniquely Jewish scholastic framework and world-view. With their acceptance into modern society, Jews with secular educations embraced or developed entirely new philosophies to meet the demands of the world in which they now found themselves. Medieval re-discovery of ancient Greek philosophy among the Geonim of 10th century Babylonian academies brought rationalist philosophy into Biblical-Talmudic Judaism. The philosophy was generally in competition with Kabbalah. Both schools would become part of classic rabbinic literature, though the decline of scholastic rationalism coincided with historical events which drew ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aharon Pfeuffer
Aharon Pfeuffer (אהרן פפויפר, also "Pfoifer"; 1949–1993) was a Rabbi and Posek, and a recognized authority on Kashrut. Pfeuffer studied in various Yeshivot, primarily Hebron and HaNegev in Israel, as well as Lakewood in the US; he later studied in ''chavruta'' with Shmuel Rozovsky, famed '' Rosh Yeshiva'' (dean) of Ponevezh, and came to consider him his primary Rabbi. He received ''Semicha'', Rabbinic ordination, from Tzvi Kushelevsky. He was active in Israel, London, and then Johannesburg: He taught in yeshivot in Hadera and Kfar Haroeh; He co-headed the Etz Chaim Yeshiva (London) from 1976; He founded and headed the Yeshiva Maharsha Beis Aharon from 1982 (later named "Beis Aharon" for him), and lead the Yeshiva gedolah program at the Yeshiva College of South Africa in the early 1980s. He died in a car accident on his way to the Kruger National Park. Rabbi Pfeuffer produced several scholarly works. He is best known for his series on Kashrut, with volu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kosher Certification Agency
A kosher certification agency is an organization or certifying authority that grants a ''hechsher'' ( he, הכשר, "seal of approval") to ingredients, packaged foods, beverages, and certain materials, as well as food-service providers and facilities in which kosher food is prepared or served. This certification verifies that the ingredients, production process including all machinery, and/or food-service process complies with the standards of '' kashrut'' (Jewish dietary law) as stipulated in the ''Shulchan Arukh'', the benchmark of religious Jewish law. The certification agency employs ''mashgichim'' (rabbinic field representatives) to make periodic site visits and oversee the food-production or food-service process in order to verify ongoing compliance. Each agency has its own trademarked symbol that it allows manufacturers and food-service providers to display on their products or in-store certificates; use of this symbol can be revoked for non-compliance. Each agency typically h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sefer Ha-Chinuch
''Sefer ha-Chinuch'' ( he, ספר החינוך, "Book of Education") is a Jewish rabbinic text which systematically discusses the 613 commandments of the Torah. It was published anonymously in 13th-century Spain. History The work's enumeration of the commandments ( he, mitzvot; sing. ''mitzvah'') is based upon Maimonides' system of counting as per his Sefer Hamitzvot; each is listed according to its appearance in the weekly Torah portion and the work is structured correspondingly. The book separately discusses each of the 613 commandments, both from a legal and a moral perspective. For each, the Chinuch's discussion starts by linking the ''mitzvah'' to its Biblical source, and then addresses the philosophical underpinnings of the commandment (here, termed the "''shoresh''", or "root"). Following this, the ''Chinuch'' presents a brief overview of the ''halakha'' (practical Jewish law) governing its observance - usually based on Maimonides' ''Mishneh Torah'' - and closes with a sum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rashbam
Samuel ben Meir (Troyes, c. 1085 – c. 1158), after his death known as "Rashbam", a Hebrew acronym for RAbbi SHmuel Ben Meir, was a leading French Tosafist and grandson of Shlomo Yitzhaki, "Rashi". Biography He was born in the vicinity of Troyes, in around 1085 in France to his father Meir ben Shmuel and mother Yocheved, daughter of Rashi. He was the older brother of Solomon the grammarian as well as of the Tosafists Isaac ben Meir (the "Rivam") and Jacob ben Meir ("Rabbeinu Tam"), and a colleague of Rabbi Joseph Kara. Like his maternal grandfather, the Rashbam was a biblical commentator and Talmudist. He learned from Rashi and from Isaac ben Asher ha-Levi ("Riva"). He was the teacher of his brother, Rabbeinu Tam, and his method of interpretation differed from that of his grandfather. Rashbam earned a living by tending livestock and growing grapes, following in his family tradition. ubiousKnown for his piety, he defended Jewish beliefs in public disputes that had been arrange ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guide For The Perplexed
''The Guide for the Perplexed'' ( ar, دلالة الحائرين, Dalālat al-ḥā'irīn, ; he, מורה נבוכים, Moreh Nevukhim) is a work of Jewish theology by Maimonides. It seeks to reconcile Aristotelianism with Rabbinical Jewish theology by finding rational explanations for many events in the text. It was written in Classical Arabic using the Hebrew alphabet in the form of a three-part letter to his student, Rabbi Joseph ben Judah of Ceuta, the son of Rabbi Judah, and is the main source of Maimonides' philosophical views, as opposed to his opinions on Jewish law. A small minority believe the ''Guide for the Perplexed'' was written by an anonymous heretic and not Maimonides; most notable amongst these is the revered 18th-century scholar Jacob Emden. Since many of the philosophical concepts, such as his view of theodicy and the relationship between philosophy and religion, are relevant beyond Judaism, it has been the work most commonly associated with Maimonides in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewish cultural life and was foundational to "all Jewish thought and aspirations", serving also as "the guide for the daily life" of Jews. The term ''Talmud'' normally refers to the collection of writings named specifically the Babylonian Talmud (), although there is also an earlier collection known as the Jerusalem Talmud (). It may also traditionally be called (), a Hebrew abbreviation of , or the "six orders" of the Mishnah. The Talmud has two components: the Mishnah (, 200 CE), a written compendium of the Oral Torah; and the Gemara (, 500 CE), an elucidation of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Hebrew Bible. The term "Talmud" may refer to eith ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mishnah
The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Torah. It is also the first major work of rabbinic literature. The Mishnah was redacted by Judah ha-Nasi probably in Beit Shearim or Sepphoris at the beginning of the 3rd century CE in a time when, according to the Talmud, the persecution of the Jews and the passage of time raised the possibility that the details of the oral traditions of the Pharisees from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE) would be forgotten. Most of the Mishnah is written in Mishnaic Hebrew, but some parts are in Aramaic. The Mishnah consists of six orders (', singular ' ), each containing 7–12 tractates (', singular ' ; lit. "web"), 63 in total, and further subdivided into chapters and paragraphs. The word ''Mishnah'' can also indicate a single paragraph of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oral Torah
According to Rabbinic Judaism, the Oral Torah or Oral Law ( he, , Tōrā šebbəʿal-pe}) are those purported laws, statutes, and legal interpretations that were not recorded in the Five Books of Moses, the Written Torah ( he, , Tōrā šebbīḵṯāv, "Written Law", label=none), but nonetheless are regarded by Orthodox Jews as prescriptive and given at the same time. This holistic Jewish code of conduct encompasses a wide swathe of rituals, worship practices, Godman and interpersonal relationships, from dietary laws to Sabbath and festival observance to marital relations, agricultural practices, and civil claims and damages. According to Rabbinic Jewish tradition, the Oral Torah was passed down orally in an unbroken chain from generation to generation until its contents were finally committed to writing following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, when Jewish civilization was faced with an existential threat, by virtue of the dispersion of the Jewish people. The ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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