Excuse my ignorance, but what does this mean? :o
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Ostrich is not kosher because it is one of the birds mentioned in Leviticus, where the Torah lists non-kosher birds.
Strictly speaking, any bird not on that list is kosher. Thus, if a new bird is discovered tomorrow, in theory, it is a kosher bird.
As a practical matter, the exact translation of some of the names of the birds mentioned are not 100% clear. As a result, we only eat birds today that are known from tradition to be kosher.
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The word atalef is usually translated as bat, and hence, is not kosher. Yes, I know a bat is a mammal and not a bird. However, it is possible that the Hebrew word of (meaning bird) does not necessarily equate to what is zoologically referred to as a bird today.
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There are several species of grasshopper that are, techinically, kosher. Again, however, since the precise definitions of which ones they are are lost to us, as a practice, we don’t eat them. If you knew which one was kosher, it (like fish) would not need a ritual slaughter. One would simply have to make sure it was dead.
That’s a very interesting question, which is only beginning to be dealt with. Come back and ask me again in twenty years.
As an aside, Harry Turtledove wrote a short story about a scientist who engineered a pig (which already has split hooves) that chewed it’s cud. He had the main character try to figure out whether or not the “pig” was kosher. In the end, the Rabbi ate from the pig, but I wouldn’t hold Harry Turtledove to be an authority on Jewish law.
Zev Steinhardt
It means I can’ t spell. Linnean… linnean…Lineus? The whole Kingdom / Phylum / Class / Over / For / Great / Spaghetti thing. Cladistics (again, watch out for my spelling) is the art of putting divergent species together along ancestral (genetic) lines. If you ever get to NYC, hit the Natural History Museum. The redid the top floor a few years ago to make one giant evolutionary cladagram. Walking through it is an awe inspiring glimpse into evolution.
A side note. There is one species of pig, the babirussa, that chews its cud. This wild pig lives in indonesia, has greyish skin, and huge bizarre tusks growing out of its head.
This pig is kosher. However, just because an animal is kosher doesn’t mean Jews have to eat it.
Bats are not kosher, even if they had not been listed with birds that aren’t kosher. After all, they don’t have cloven hooves, nor do they chew their cud.
But it is not surprising that ancient hebrews had different ideas about animal classification than modern scientific phylogenists do. Even in english we have such ideas. “Bug”, “Fish”, “Invertebrate”, and “Zebra” lump together species without regard to cladistic branching. There is no such thing, scientifically, as a zebra! Yes, some horses have stripes, some don’t, if you want to call a horse with stripes a zebra fine, but it is only a descriptive term.
I’m under the impression that this is not true.
Wow… fantastic. Thanks Zev, Lemur and the host of TM! 
Grasshoppers don’t fall under aiver min hachai?? (eating the flesh of a living animal). That’s news to me. I could be wrong. Have a source?
Zev Steinhardt
<< What do you mean “some”? Who says otherwise? >>
There is no disagreement that insects are not kosher (excluding the even more esoteric locusts mentioned by zev). The question is whether broccoli, even if cleaned, can be kosher. My understanding is that some rabbis have declared that it can never be clean enough to be sure there were no insects hiding in the crevices, and therefore broccoli itself is not kosher. Other rabbis have said that if it’s cleaned, it’s cleaned, and that brocolli is not inherently non-kosher.
I’m sure someone else will correct me, but I thought that the halachic requirement is simply that the blood be removed from the meat. If broiling works for liver, from which the blood is otherwise impossible to remove, then even more so (chal v’chomer?) it should work for the meats from which it is much easier to remove.
I thought soaking and salting are only required for meats that will be cooked by methods other than broiling. IIRC, traditional kosher butcher shops might sell meat that had not been soaked and salted (although the whole sides would have been washed regularly with cold water while stored). Since the meat would be eaten immediately, there was no worry that it would be stored for too long without cooking or continued regular rinsing. Then the buyer could choose to soak and salt at home for non-broiled dishes, or broil the unsalted meat directly. As a convenience, I think most kosher butchers now pre-soak and salt the meat, so the process won’t have to be done at home. Packaged kosher meat is always pre-soaked and salted, possibly because it is likely to be stored for too long without rinsing.
Orthodox posters feel free to trash this.
Rick
This is true.
I think it’s more for reasons of convenience. Who would want to take the time to have to broil meat to kasher it? Besides, you would have to use an awful lot of aluminum pans, since the drippings from the broiling meat would render the pans traif. Do any butcher shops sell unsalted meat any more?
I thought “orthodox” is out and “observant” is in.
Sure I have. I only live about two minutes away. What non-meat item have you seen advertised as “glatt?”
Zev Steinhardt
News to me.
RickG’s post is on the mark. In general, kosher foods are not immune from the larger trend of prepackaging etc. that has swept modern society. Who wants to be salting or broiling a bunch of meat, if the company will do it for you?
I think there’s a tradition among some Yemeni Jews that talks about what kind of grasshoppers are kosher and which aren’t, so it’s ok for them to eat them. It’s not ok for anybody who doesn’t have that tradition, though. Not that I’ve really been tempted, but…
Izzy, why would the prohibition against eating a living animal not apply to grasshoppers?
OK, one clarification please. Catfish don’t have scales, so are they not kosher?
Fish: No scales = not kosher
Zev Steinhardt
Dear Lord, give me strength to resist playing Jewish Geography…
So you probably know my friend (who went to YOF, and I can never remember which Young Israel shul his family goes to), but I’m not going to mention names <grin>…
Where was I? Oh, yeah, what I’m thinking about is this fruit store, rather expensive, on Avenue J right near the D train. There was some sort of sign assuring that everything was glatt, and my friend rolled his eyes.
Just as vegetarianism blends into veganism as one gets more and more strict, are there sects of Judaism that would prohibit eating yogurt or other foods with ‘active live cultures’?
I wish I had something more constructive to add to this, but I just wanted to send out a thank you for all who have answered this. Most informative.
Now, however, my best friend won’t go out for a nice yakburger. Some people… 
To my knowledge, there is no group in Orthodox Judaism that prohibits eating yogurt (or other foods) with live cultures.
The Torah doesn’t list any prohibitions for animals smaller than an insect. One does not have to worry, therefore, about bacteria and other microscopic creatures that may or may not be on one’s food.
Zev Steinhardt
I haven’t seen it. But if I had, I would have rolled my eyes too…
Zev Steinhardt