Well, not “Kosher,” exactly, but why isn’t fur–particularly the types most people wear, like from rabbit or members of the weasel family–considered unclean?
Yet fur–particularly, big fur hats–are common (popular?) among Orthodox Jews.
Ritual impurity of the sort is only relevant to entering the Temple. As the Temple isn’t standing nowadays, most of the laws of impurity aren’t in practice.
Now, some Jews will argue that the modern fur industry is unkosher because it’s so cruel, but that’s probably way ot of the scope of your question…
<nitpick>The hats you speak of - the streimel and the spodik - are worn specifically by Hasidim and Yerushalmis, not the general population of Orthodox Jews. </nitpick>
Kosher laws are only relevant to food, and purity laws are (as mentioned above) largely not relevant today. There are decent odds that at least some of the leather in my shoes, belts, etc. is made from pigs, but I’ve never felt the need to investigate the matter, because I’m not planning on eating my boots.
Data point: The black felt Borsalino fedora worn by many orthodox jews is made from rabbit fur.
Even without the Temple, though, wouldn’t it still be considered preferred to avoid ritual impurity? I mean, if the Messiah were to come tomorrow and rebuild the Temple, you wouldn’t want to have to throw out your entire wardrobe.
You wouldn’t have to throw up your things- your clothes can just be immersed in a mikva. Even if it was dry-clean only, the prohibitions of impurity are only about being in the Temple itself. Out on the streets of Somewhereville, you can eat impure food or walk around carrying a dead reptile, and it wouldn’t make any difference. Just remember to take a ritual bath one week before the pilgrimage festivals, and you’re off. (IIRC, archeologists have found signs of lots of mikva pools and stalls selling sacrificial animals in the Temple area, for last-minute preparations. Kind of the Biblical equivalent of those street vendors who sell umbrellas on rainy days).
Though there is one instance I can think of where the purity laws are practiced for when the Messiah comes. Before eating bread Jews wash their hands in a certain way and make a blessing. This is rememberence of how the Israelites would wash their hands before eating to keep from… er, Askmoses.com is more articulate than I am. So there you go.
No. Everybody is impure due to such commonplace activities as being in the same building as a dead body (e.g. a hospital). Due to rather complicated reasons, it’s not practical to get rid of that impurity in the absence of the Temple.
For most people (everyone other than priests) going to the Temple was a fairly uncommon event. According to the Talmud, most Jews did not commonly pay attention to issues of ritual purity during the second Temple period.
GilaB reminds me that I may not have been entirely clear. There are still-observed purity laws with regards to sex, but that’s a whole 'nother story. Not specifically Temple-related.
Which, I would add, have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with negiah, the laws about not touching members of the opposite sex. It’s a common misconception that I’d rather nip in the bud here, which is why I didn’t post that example myself.
[bolding mine]
So wait—if there is no temple (until the Messiah comes), then why bother with any of the ritual purity laws? Why bother with all the kosher food stuff??
Kosher isn’t about pure/impure. It’s about kosher/not kosher, which is totally, completely, 100% unrelated. Ritual purity laws have to do with matters that require ritual purity, which are all about entering the Temple and storing/preparing/eating from sacrifices or other specially separated foods. (There’s probably something else that I’m forgetting, but obviously, this isn’t something that I’ve ever personally dealt with or spent that much mental energy on.) Kosher is, “has this food been prepared in accordance with a set of specific dietary rules?” It’s entirely possible (and is generally the case) to have food that is both kosher and impure. Everything I’ve ever eaten has fallen into both of those categories, in fact.
Ah. So, could you have Kosher-prepared pork? (i.e., treat it the same way you would cattle/beef?)
Pigs aren’t not kosher because they’re impure. They’re not kosher because they don’t have split hooves and chew their cud, the requirements of a kosher animal. (Birds are different, but all the birds commonly eaten in America are kosher.) For cow/sheep/goat/deer/bison/etc meat to be kosher, the animal also needs to be slaughtered in a kosher manner, and then the meat needs to be soaked/salted in a particular way in order to draw out as much blood as possible. The sciatic nerve isn’t kosher and needs to be removed, which is a painstaking process, so it’s usually just more cost-effective to sell the whole back half of the animal to a non-kosher meat producer and skip that bit. At that point, the meat needs to be cooked in implements that have never been used to cook anything non-kosher, with no dairy products at all. It’s then served on dishes that have never been used for dairy or non-kosher foods. Voila! Kosher meat.
Or, to make things simpler: I am pretty sure that nothing you have ever heard of that relates to modern-day Judaism has anything to do with purity laws. Nada. Zip. If someone told you it did, they were either mistaken, or vastly oversimplifying matters. Even ‘family purity’ laws are a euphemism that has very little to do with the Biblical notions of purity/impurity.
Kosher* in thirty seconds- it has to be the right species, killed in the right way by the right people, cooked the right way, the way you know it’s been done the right way is if it has the right certification.
*I’m talking about meat, obviously. For vegetable matter skip the first two steps. [And don’t ask about tithes and shmitta fruit and wine and such, because my brain is already asleep].