No, rabbits are not kosher. If you’re familiar with Jewish traditions, you know that an animal is only considered kosher if it has split hooves and chew cuds. Rabbits do not have hooves, let alone split hooves. Also, they cannot regurgitate their food to chew it again. Those two reasons make bunnies to be non-kosher.

Other non-kosher animals include hares and pikas (other lagomorphs). So, which animals are kosher? The following table opens you up to the kosher and non-kosher details, citing what the Torah says about this intriguing Jewish tradition:

Group of Animals	Specification	Kosher	Non-Kosher
Mammals	Should have split hoovesShould chew cud	DeerGoatsSheepCows	RabbitsSquirrelsPigsBearsDogsCamelsCatsHorses
Birds (Fowls)	No detail	DucksTurkeysChickensPigeons	Mostly, scavenger and predatory birds – owls, hawks, gulls, and eagles
Reptiles	No detail	None	All
Amphibians	No detail	None	All
Worms	No detail	None	All
Insects	No detail	Some four types of locusts	The rest
Seafood and Fish	Should have scalesShould have fins	TunaSalmonCarpFlounderHerring	CatfishSwordfishLobsterShellfishAll water mammalsCrabs

Now, let’s get to know the ins and outs of kosher foods.

Kosher Food: All There Is To Know

In traditional Jewish law, ‘kosher’ is used to describe and set aside food that sits well with the culture’s dietary standards. For many practicing Jews, kosher goes beyond food and health safety. Eating needs to be in line with what Yahweh prescribes. You only eat what glorifies God and shows Him reverence and respect. 

But usually, kosher does not apply to all the Jewish communities in the world. Others may choose to follow parts of it or abandon it entirely. In Season 4 of The Good Doctor, Dr. Asher Wolke (who was brought up by his Jewish family) breaks kosher by eating a cheeseburger.

From this article, be sure to get a clear explanation of the meaning of kosher. Then, you will get its major dietary stipulations on what should be in or out of the kosher bracket.

The Meaning Of Kosher

Kosher can be likened to the words halal in Arabic-Islamic tradition or pure in English. If something is kosher, it means that it is acceptable, suitable, proper, and in the case of food, fit for consumption.

The kosher dietary laws are found in the Torah. Within the pages of those sacred texts, you see the foundation of the nutritional patterns: kashrut. Apart from the text, the kosher guidelines have also been made clearer via oral tradition.

The oral tradition plus the texts go beyond outlining the allowed and disallowed foods. They tell practicing Jews how the permitted foods should be prepared, produced, and even processed before anyone eats them.

Some Food Combination Details

Some kosher guidelines guide people on how not to combine certain types of food – specifically dairy and meat. In kosher, there are three main classes:

1. Fleishig (or meat): Fowls (birds) or mammals together with their products (broth, bones)

2. Milchig (dairy): butter, yogurt, cheese, and milk

3. Pareve: anything that is neither dairy nor meat: plant-based foods, eggs, and fish

Kosher tradition provides that food that falls under the ‘meat’ category shouldn’t be eaten together with a dairy product. Moreover, the equipment and utensils used to clean and process the dairy and meat should be separated.

And what of the waiting time detail? If you’re done eating kosher meat, you should wait for some time before taking anything from the dairy-product category. The time may go up to 6 hours and down to an hour, depending on the specific Jewish community.

The Permitted Animal Products

For the most part, kosher rules talk about animal-based foods, pointing out how they should be prepared or slaughtered. Now, let’s go through each kosher category and lift the most important pointers:

On Fleishig (Meat)

In the context of kosher, meat points out the edible flesh of some fowls and mammals, including products like bones and gravy. For meat to be on the good side of kosher, it needs to check all these boxes:

1. The animal involved should include a ruminant that has split hooves. I’m talking deer, oxen, goats, cows, lambs, and sheep.

2. The meat cuts should not come from anywhere else apart from the forequarters of the animals.

3. One can eat some specific fowl like quail, turkey, dove, geese, and chicken.

4. The only person who should butcher the kosher animals is a shochet. This is a person who is certified to slaughter the meat under the law.

5. Before cooking, the meat should be soaked. This should help to remove all blood traces.

6. The items (or utensils) used in the slaughtering should only be designated for that business and not any other.

On Milchig (Dairy)

Yogurt, cheese, milk, and butter all have a green light when it comes to kosher. However, some rules need to be adhered to for the milchig to be taken as kosher-compliant. And here they are:

1. The products need to be sourced from a kosher mammal or fowl or any other kosher animal.

2. You are not allowed to mix them with any meat-based products like rennet or gelatin. So, hard cheeses are out of the question.

3. Like the meats, they need to be processed using kosher-specific equipment and utensils. Those items should not have prepared meat before. Otherwise, that will be a kosher violation.

On Pareve (Eggs And Fish)

Kosher rules include fish and eggs in the pareve category – the neutral class. Both food items don’t have any meat or milk (in the kosher sense).

As noted in the table at the start, kosher fish come from sea animals with scales and fins. I’m talking mackerel, halibut, salmon, and tuna. The non-kosher sea beings are like lobster, oyster, shrimp, and crab.

While eating any kosher meat or dairy product, a food item from this (pareve) category can be included. For example, you can eat tuna meat and together with a glass of yogurt. Also, you can have your beef plus eggs on the side.

Final Words

Earlier, we had identified that rabbits are not kosher. And the article went further to explain and highlight kosher details. At this moment, you know that kosher is like a dietary framework for preparing, processing, and consuming Jewish food.

While Jewish communities observe kosher differently, some basics cut across all of them. For example, dairy products should not be paired with meat-based food items. Also, the utensils should not be mixed up.

That’s all for this read, hoping you enjoyed it.

Other rabbit-related subjects:

1. Do Rabbits Recognize Their Owners?

2. Do Female Rabbits Hump?

3. Do Rabbits Have Periods?