(a.) With regard to cattle and beasts, the rule is given, “Whosoever parteth the hoof and is cloven-footed and cheweth the cud, that you may eat” (Lev. xi. 3).—The clean cattle (‏בהמה טהורה‎) and the clean beasts (‏חיה טהורה‎) are enumerated in Deut. xiv. 4 and 5 respectively. (b.) A number of birds are enumerated (Lev. xi. 13–19) as forbidden, but no general characteristics of the clean or the unclean birds are given; and as we are uncertain as to the exact meaning of the names of many of the birds, we only use for food such birds as are traditionally known as “clean birds.” (c.) Fish that have scales and fins are permitted; others—e.g., the eel—are “unclean” (ibid. xi. 9–12). (d.) “All winged animals that creep (‏שרץ העוף‎), going upon all four, shall be an abomination unto you. Yet these may ye eat of, every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth; even these of them ye may eat; the arbeh with its kind, and the soleam with its kind, the chargol with its kind, and the chagabh with its kind” (ibid. 20–22). These are certain kinds of locusts that satisfy the above condition. (Comp. Maimonides, Mishneh-torah, Hilchoth maachaloth asuroth i. 21–23.) (e.) “And every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth shall be an abomination; it shall not be eaten” (Lev. xi. 41). In this prohibition are included all kinds of worms such as are found in fruit, and mites, snails, oysters, lobsters, crabs, &c. 4. The milk of “unclean” cattle or beasts (e.g., asses’ milk), the eggs of “unclean” birds, and the roe of “unclean” fish (e.g., caviare prepared of the roe of the sturgeon) are likewise forbidden. 5. “Ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat” (Lev. vii. 23). From the context we learn that only those portions of the fat of cattle are forbidden which in the case of sacrifices were burnt upon the altar as an offering made by fire unto the Lord, viz., “the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards, and the fat that is upon the kidneys which is by the flanks” (ibid. iii. 3, 4). The forbidden fat is known by the name ‏חלב‎, chelebh, whilst the fat permitted as food is called ‏שומן‎, shuman. 6. “Therefore the children of Israel do not eat of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank” (Gen. xxxii. 33). This law is designed to remind us of the wrestling of Jacob with the man who attacked him, which struggle forms a type of Israel’s fight against the evil threatening him from within and from without, and teaches us the lesson that, despite temporary troubles and struggles, Israel will ultimately be victorious. The hind-quarters of cattle are not eaten unless the forbidden fat and “the sinew that shrank” (‏גיד הנשה‎) have first been removed from them.