Why is pork non-kosher?

Answer 1

Pork, just like countless other meats, aren't kosher because pigs don't meet the requirements of a kosher animal as specified in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 14 verse 8. Pigs have split hooves, but don't chew their cud.

Answer 2

Kosher animals have to have split hooves and chew their cud. A pig does not chew its cud. Leviticus 11:7 "And the pig, because it has a cloven hoof that is completely split, but will not regurgitate its cud; it is unclean for you."

Answer 3

Land animals have to both chew their cud and have split hooves in order to be considered kosher. Jewish law doesn't specifically prohibit pork, pigs just happen to be an animal that do not meet these two combined requirements.

Answer 4

Because the Torah forbids it (Deuteronomy ch.14).

The laws defining which foods are or are not kosher are known as kashrut or kashrus (כַּשְׁרוּת) and are quite complex - the prohibition on pork is the best-known among non-Jews but many other foods (such as shellfish, Birds of Prey and whales) are also treif (non-kosher). When it comes to mammals, only those that chew the cud and have cloven hooves are kosher - such as cows and goats. Pigs' trotters are cloven, but they do not chew the cud and so are not kosher - it is perhaps because the pig at first seems kosher that it has acquired a reputation for being unclean, with unclean referring not to the animal's habits (which are really no worse than many other animals) but because it could be viewed as a "dirty trick" aimed at getting Jews to break kashrut which are considered highly important. Camels, which do chew the cud but do not have cloven hooves and as such are also treif, have presumably escaped the label simply because of their value in the desert regions from which Judaism originates.

One of the reasons that pork is well known to be non-kosher is that after the Spanish Inquisition, in which Jews and Muslims were often forced to convert to Christianity or killed, the eating of pork was seen as a test to whether the former Jews and Muslims were retaining their old religion.

Kashrut is considered chukim - that is, part of the Taryag Mitvot (613 laws found in the Torah) for which no reason is given. Observant Jews explain them as being the result of some Divine plan beyond mortal comprehension, but in modern times there have been many attempts to explain kashrut in less relgious terms. Common arguments are that pork is less easy to hygienically preserve in hot climates than other meats (I'm not sure if there is any truth in this - as an observant Jew myself I have very little experience when it comes to preserving pork) and because pigs would compete with humans for food resources - pigs require a lot of food, and as such are often allowed to forage in forests. In the Middle East, there are very few trees and so if one was to raise pigs there, one would be required to feed them large quantities of grain - hence, during times of famine and poor harvest, raising pigs would waste grain that could be put to a better use feeding humans.

Answer 5

There have been numerous guesses provided by anthropologists. Some believe it had to deal with ubiquity of pig consumption, so the Jews refusing to eat pigs made them unique. Some believe that early Jews venerated pigs. Some believe that pig-meat was known to be dangerous because of trichinosis and avoided for that reason.

In religious Judaism, there is really only one answer: the Torah says so. As specifically concerns the pig, see Leviticus 11:7 (NIV): 7And the pig, though it has a divided hoof, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you.

Answer 6

No (Leviticus ch. 11).