Recently, I talked about the connections between Islam and the Jewish people, and how building bridges inspires me in the kitchen. Yet here is another question about the distances between Jews and Muslims, and once again, it deals with food.
Almost five and a half years ago, when I was an intern in Washington, D.C., I was working on keeping kosher so far away from home. There weren’t a lot of people on my trip who were kosher. However, there were quite a few Muslims, and they often asked me where I was getting meat – they were halal, but they also could eat kosher meat.
It was around this time that I started to research Halal and find out about it. I then wondered to myself, Can I eat Halal meat?
It’s a question that my friends at PunkTorah have recently brought up (the video is up above), and it’s one that’s worth discussing even further in depth. Although I am pretty confident that many Orthodox Jews would say that you absolutely can’t eat halal meat, I find it a question worth bringing up.
After some special research, it turns out that halal and kashrut processes aren’t that different. The slaughtering ritual is very similar; shechita and dhabiha require the same attention to being humane during the course of slaughter. Also, there must be attention to the fact that the animal must be completely drained of blood before consumption, despite the different methods of doing so -- Jews use salt, Muslims often use vinegar. Many of the animals that are deemed halal are also kosher, although there are exceptions such as camel. Then again, when was the last time you saw that camel was for sale as meat in the United States?
There are differences, of course. For example, shellfish fall under Halal, whereas Jews cannot eat them. Also, with Halal, there is no separation between milk and meat, there are no separate dishes and Halal allows for the entire animal to be eaten (kashrut requires that certain veins, fats and sinews are removed, and typically the back half of the animal is not used unless being butchered by a very experienced Sephardic butcher in Israel). Interestingly enough, that summer in D.C., I was told that kosher meat was more restrictive than Halal.
Interestingly enough, the Qur’an dealt with this in Surah 5:5. It says there that, “The food of the people of the scripture is lawful for you.” Often, this interpretation is led to be “the People of the Book,” namely Jews and Christians. Conversely, it also encourages people who aren’t Muslim to accept halal as a valid form of food.
For someone like me, who got into being kosher almost as a form of being nice to animals, this brings up some interesting questions. After all, I have been going up to LA, dragging along my little cooler and loading up on super-expensive kosher meat and bringing it back to my freezer. If I chose that I could eat Halal meat, all I would have to do is go to the little Persian market in Anaheim and bring it home. Locally, I could have all the lamb I wanted to eat at a price much less that I am paying in LA. The thought of that just makes me drool.
I’m sure there is going to be a divide on this issue between the Orthodox and Conservative communities, that age-old battle between tradition, modernity and everything in between. But I think it’s something we should talk about with our Muslim friends. We should see what they think too, and engage in some friendly debate. Could we reach a middle ground on this? Could we find a way to eat together? I think we can – after all, food is a lot less divisive than suicide bombers and settlements.
In the meantime, I made a salad last night that I think both Muslims and Jews can get behind – that unless, some Jews will think the name of the salad is unkosher.
“CHEESEBURGER” SALAD
2-3 cups baby spinach or chopped romaine lettuce
¼ fresh chopped cilantro
1 red pepper, diced
1-2 carrots, peeled and sliced
3 green onions, sliced
1 can olives, drained and sliced
10 marinated artichoke hearts
½ cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 package soy crumbles
½ cup tzatziki (see quick tip 1)
Combine all the vegetables in a large bowl. Heat soy crumbles in the microwave for three minutes or in a large saucepan.
Pour the soy crumbles on top of the salad and top with cheese. Use the tzatziki as a dressing and toss to coat. Serve immediately.
QUICK TIP 1: I have a great guy at my local farmer’s market who makes what could be the most awesome tzatziki, so I used it for this recipe. However, if you don’t have a tzatziki monger, try this recipe from Ina Garten at the Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/tzatziki-recipe/index.html.
QUICK TIP 2: If you don’t like red pepper, feel free to substitute it with tomatoes, if that’s your thing. Personally, I don’t like the texture of tomatoes and I find red peppers to be a nice and crisp substitution.
For meat to even be considered Kosher meat, it must be killed by a trained Shochet who is God fearing and Sabbath Observant. The lungs of the animal need to be inspected. There are MANY other details that simply do not at all correspond to Halal. Certain fats are forbidden, parts of the animal, the soaking and salting and the amount of times that this has ti be done etc. While Halal meat seems nice - its not kosher.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that many of the underlying principles and values of the practices are the same, which must be why people of both religions choose to follow these rules. And, there is prayer required before and after slaughtering Halal meat and like the God fearing Sochet, there is someone killing the animal that is God fearing- and I think they are both speaking to the same God.
DeleteIn any case, Halal and Kosher meat are much closer to each other than to regular meat and this must mean something.
Why don't you Jews have your trained butcher utter the name of God right before sliding the blading on the animal, when following your process. It would then be made permissible to around 3 billion people ( all Muslims ), just by the utterance of " In the name of God ". Would that be profitable and beneficial for you all?
DeleteI agree 100% with Rabbi Yonah. Jews should NOT consume non Kosher meats. It's not just a mattr of "cleanliness" or the process being "pretty much" like what G0d asks of us... The problem is that all non Kosher meat has not been dedicated to the G0d of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, PERIOD! Unless you have absolutely nothing else to eat and halal meat is the only thing available, run the other way!
DeleteAllow me to revise that... unless you have absolutely nothing else to eat and halal meat is the only thing available and your life depended on it, run the other way. We only eat kosher meats because God said for us to be holy because he is Holy. It's a calling as Jewish people because it's for the benefit of the world.
DeleteGreat Post! Only if we start with the similarities can we celebrate and grow from our differences.
ReplyDeleteWhy kill animals at all??? Some of the so-called 'halal' abbatoirs in Indonesia use such brutal methods it is impossible to comprehend. And Rabbi Yonah, I sincerely hope 'kosher' methods are more humane....though, I have heard to the contrary. Maybe instead of being so concerned about religous methods of slaughter, we should embrace a vegetarian lifestyle, and co-exist with God's animals...peacefully.
ReplyDeleteLeave it to the Rabbi to point out the differences. Religion as a means of understanding the world lost its legitimacy with the rise of modern science, yet we still fight over whose make-believe invisible man in the sky is right. Let's try to understand the best ingredients for our bodies and focus on health rather than words written when people still believed we lived on a flat earth inhabited by sea monsters, witches and supreme beings.
ReplyDeleteWhy do we eat?
ReplyDeleteIf it's to fulfill a set of laws we think we should obey, listen to orthodox rabbis.
On the other hand, if we eat to feel good and be healthy, listen to people who look healthier than orthodox rabbis.
Salaam/Shalom to you and yours. I enjoyed reading this piece and I'm going to have to try that recipe! :-) I'm Muslim, living in New York, where neither halal nor kashrut is in short supply, but when I visit the Mid-West, it's another story altogether. Indeed, we share many similarities and as a Muslim in America I rely heavily on the (K)(U) symbols,etc as well as the symbols of Halal when food shopping. There are some kosher products that are Haraam for us, such as Gefilter Fish in a sauce containing wine, but generally, the differences are few. I know of many Jews and Muslims who gladly share meals together confident that God's laws have been obeyed in the slaughter and preparation of the meals.
ReplyDeleteNeither an observant Jew nor Muslim would want to transgress against our Creator, so we do the best we can and have faith in His mercy:-)
Such self-indulgent insanity. The things people will preoccupy themselves with to allow themselves to feel special and sanctimonious, in order to avoid concern for real moral/ethical issues. If you were really concerned with morality in your eating you wouldn't be eating animals anyway. "God thinks I'm special because of my neurotic obsession with absurd pedantry". Absolutely unbearable.
ReplyDeleteSome people have health issues that keep them from going vegan or vegetarian even if they want to. Allergies, money issues though unrelated to the author, food access, etc. And yes, some of them are "insane", ie. without using sanist slurs, some of them have eating disorders that they need to recover from and, yes, it's easier to keep kosher than to avoid a whole food group even if you have an history of eating disorders. I don't see how the writer consider themselves special, but if you consider yourself a better person because you're not "insane", you should look at yourself in a mirror before making such statements.
DeleteThe bulk of your argument is: killing animals to eat them is bad anyway, plus their conditions of living are awful so I do not care about that. No need to add slurs to that and be condescending to make yourself feel superior. Even if the writer has mental health problems (IDK), it does not mean they're lesser to you, it does not mean they think they're special, it does not mean you're better than they are and it's totally unrelated to what they eat, unless than have eating disorders and then as long as they eat you can't criticize them because it's not helping at all. When they ok, they can take their decision of whether or not it's safe for them to start eating vegan or vegetarian, but they can't now and they can't do it all at the same time, you need to go at it progressively.
Also, some people who are now eating kosher meat and concerned with it are also planning on becoming vegetarian, thus are progressively stopping to eat some animals until they don't eat any, while still being concerned with finding kosher meat as they're still eating some; stop projecting yourself in others' heads, be it by diagnosing them or assuming things about their concerns. You're not a doctor just because you have a keyboard and know a few slurs. Associating mental illness with something inferior is very pedantic, indeed.
For some reason I phrased it as if I listed lack of money and food access issues as health issues! Should reread myself. No I do not consider those to be health issues, though it can be related to health issues and do not help, obviously.
DeleteBoth Halal and Kosher are unnecessarily bring cruel to animals - says the British scientists.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/end-cruel-religious-slaughter-say-scientists-1712241.html
If you are talking about the majority of beef, chicken, and other normal farm animals, then the Jew can eat halal meat, but only if it is cut properly and there were no broken bones. So if you get it from an American Muslim, you have a good chance of it being kosher. As for a foreign one who butchers meat as done in the Middle East, I cannot be sure, because I often see people here cutting the bones of the meat and chicken, so that you cannot be sure that the animal did not already have a broken wing or limb. This is not much of a problem at the major supermarkets in the Middle East. In the U.S., I have often seen unsanitary conditions around meat from small Indian and Pakistani-run "halal" supermarkets. I would imagine this would not be a problem at a butcher who does almost nothing but butchery.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see a label that is both halal and kosher :) Seems to me that if the rabbi is there, and he pronounces the name of God over every animal, then the slaughtere meat should be halal. I believe that rabbis do it for the group of animals, but Muslims must do it over each animal. Most observant Muslims will not each shellfish. But I do, because it's good. Surely, I have never heard of a slaughterhouse or a supermarket that uses the same equipment for meat and seafood - it's a violation of most health codes. I think they even separate the fresh chicken and the fresh beef. As for other foods, the important thing from a Muslim standpoint is not to mark the food halal if it contains alcohol. Also, some products like poptarts :( :( :( and vitamins sometimes contain gelatin from non-halal or non-kosher sources. I imagine that these foods could not get a kosher stamp.
ReplyDeleteYes I also suggested that they utter Gods name before slicing the jugular vein. Its not like it would make the meat imperssible.
DeleteSome vegetarians are such hypocrites. Why do you even kill plants, don't you know they are alive or your vegetarian diet has caused your brain to stop functioning? Stop killing and eating plants best thing for you would be animal droppings but too bad you will be killing bacteria in it.
ReplyDelete