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The Torah refers to four categories of animals:
- Mammals
- Fish
- Fowl
- Sheratzim
Each category includes kosher animals (biblically referred to as pure), which may be eaten, as well as non-kosher animals (biblically referred to as impure), which may not be eaten.
Mammals: Kosher mammals have two signs that indicate they are herbivores and not predators. First, they chew their cud, meaning their digestive systems are designed to digest grass. Second, they have split hooves, rather than claws to plunge into their prey. Kosher mammals include cows, sheep, goats, gazelles, and deer. Most mammals are non-kosher. These include pigs, horses, donkeys, camels, hyraxes, rabbits, dogs, lions, leopards, bears, and elephants.
Fish: The signs of kosher fish are fins and scales. Fins on the side of a fish help it swim and navigate. Scales are a covering which grows on the skin and provides additional protection.
Fowl: While the Sages provide some guidelines to determine which birds are kosher, they are not absolute, so in practice we rely on tradition. Included among the kosher fowl are chickens, turkeys, domesticated ducks, domesticated geese, mute swans, and pigeons. Included among the non-kosher fowl are vultures, hawks, ostriches, owls, storks, and hoopoes.
Sheratzim: As we have seen (section 7), eating sheratzim is prohibited. However, there is one kosher type of sheretz, namely the ĥagav, a jumping locust which travels in gigantic swarms. Some of these locusts are kosher. While Ashkenazic and some Sephardic Jews have lost the tradition as to which locust is the permissible type, Yemenites and Moroccans have preserved it.
