Illustration Credit: Noa Kelner
Halakhah הֲלָכָה
When it comes to birds, the Torah doesn’t give us signs to tell which are kosher and which are not. It just gives us lists of birds not to eat. Our parashah lists 21 (Devarim 14:11-18), and there’s a similar list in Parashat Shemini, although it’s not exactly the same. (Look it up! Vayikra 11:13-19.)
What’s the deal with these lists?
גָּלוּי וְיָדוּעַ לִפְנֵי מִי שֶׁאָמַר וְהָיָה הָעוֹלָם שֶׁעוֹפוֹת טְהוֹרִין מְרוּבִּין עַל הַטְּמֵאִין לְפִיכָךְ מָנָה הַכָּתוּב בַּטְּמֵאִין.
It is well known before God that there are more tahor (kosher) birds than tamei (non-kosher) birds. Therefore, the Torah lists the ones that are tamei, and we know that the rest are tahor.
If you combine the lists from our parashah and Shemini, you find that there are only 24 kinds of birds in the world that aren’t kosher. All other birds are ok to eat, and if you’re an expert in which birds are on the non-kosher list, you’re allowed to eat all the others (Hullin 61b).
The problem is that no one really knows all the birds the Torah was talking about anymore. So, our Sages figured out the signs that can help us know if a bird is kosher (Mishnah Hullin 3:6):
- Birds of prey that are דּוֹרֵס (dores, kill with their talons) are not kosher. Even if it’s not a dores, a bird also has to have:
- One toe that sticks out behind and above its other toes,
- A crop (a pouch in its body that stores food), and
- A gizzard (which digests its food) whose surface is easy to peel.
Even so, the Shulhan Arukh (Yoreh Deah 82:2) says we can only rely on these signs for birds that have webbed feet and bills. For any other bird to be kosher, it has to have an established מָסוֹרָה (masorah), a long tradition passed down from generation to generation. According to the Rema (Yoreh Deah 82:3), even webbed-footed birds need a masorah to be kosher!
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רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן יוֹחַי אוֹמֵר: מִפְּנֵי מָה נֶאֱמַר בִּשְׁלֹשָׁה מְקוֹמוֹת? אֶחָד לְבִשּׁוּל, אֶחָד לְאִסּוּר אֲכִילָה, אֶחָד לְאִסּוּר הֲנָיָה,
Variantly: Once to forbid eating, once to forbid derivation of benefit, once to forbid cooking.