[Sca-cooks] Kosher Laws

[Terry Decker]

The basis of Judaic dietary law (kashrut) are found in Exodus, Deuteronomy 
and Leviticus.  According to Judaic tradition, this would place the origins 
of the dietary law at least as early as the 14th Century BCE, although the 
first written version was 400 to 600 years later.  Rabbinical 
interpretations of the dietary law occur inb the Talmud as part of the 
Mishna, the Jewish Oral Law, written down around 200 CE, and the Gemara, the 
rabbinical elucidation of the Mishna from about 500 CE.

Islamic dietary law derives from the Qu'ran (written between 610 and 632 
CE).  The basic law is very similar to the Judaic dietary law.  The base law 
is largely fixed, but the determination of whether a food not mentioned in 
the Qu'ran is halal (lawful) or haram (unlawful) falls to the religious 
judges.  As there are four major sects of Islamic law, differences of 
opinion do occur, so that one sect may see a food as halal while another 
sees it as haram.  All sects recognize varying degrees under halal and 
haram.

Bear


----- Original Message ----- 


How old are the Kosher laws? My apologies for not remembering the Islamic 
name for the laws too.
Aelina