Parashat Acharei Mot, 5774/2014 edition

Basics here.

Pre-Rabbinic kashrut:

Leviticus Chapter 17 וַיִּקְרָא

יג  וְאִישׁ אִישׁ מִבְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, וּמִן-הַגֵּר הַגָּר בְּתוֹכָם, אֲשֶׁר יָצוּד צֵיד חַיָּה אוֹ-עוֹף, אֲשֶׁר יֵאָכֵל--וְשָׁפַךְ, אֶת-דָּמוֹ, וְכִסָּהוּ, בֶּעָפָר.

13 And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among them, that taketh in hunting any beast or fowl that may be eaten, he shall pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust.

 . . .

 

טו  וְכָל-נֶפֶשׁ, אֲשֶׁר תֹּאכַל נְבֵלָה וּטְרֵפָה, בָּאֶזְרָח, וּבַגֵּר:  וְכִבֶּס בְּגָדָיו וְרָחַץ בַּמַּיִם, וְטָמֵא עַד-הָעֶרֶב--וְטָהֵר.	15 And every soul that eateth that which dieth of itself, or that which is torn of beasts, whether he be home-born or a stranger, he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even; then shall he be clean.

According to the rabbis of the Talmud, only animals slaughtered using shechitah (the kosher slaughter method) are kosher.  Neither an animal killed in the hunt nor an animal that died by itself would be kosher by rabbinic standards, and since the days of the Talmud, no kashrut-observant Jew would be caught dead eating either one.
 

Some previous Acharei Mot posts of mine:

~ Acharei Mot-Kedoshim: Startling omissions (Sunday, April 25, 2010)

Highlight:  It's a bit shocking to me that the Torah Sheh-BiCh'Tav's/Written Torah's anti-incest laws don't specifically condemn father-daughter incest.

~ Parshat Acharei Mot and Parshat Kedoshim (Thursday, April 28, 2011)

Highlight:  "Do not mock the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind" should be interpreted literally (p'shat), in addition to midrashically.

~ My main 2012 contribution was to recommend that you follow the links to DovBear's posts aboutAzazel, and, in 2013, I recommended Conservadox's post regarding xenophobia, rather than homophobia, being the real issue.

  

D'vrei Torah (Words of Torah) from other folks (always welcome):

~ This year, Conservadox cautions against " . . .  a common but not-always-correct view: that the most countercultural and non-modern-looking Jews are more authentically Jewish than the rest of us . . ."

~ Rav Shai Held reminds us that G-d insists that we try to "repair" our sins against other humans before we ask for forgiveness from G-d.