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This chapter opens with a discussion on some of the contexts in which science was deployed intersected with Jewish observance during the 19th century, including calendar-making, the use of electric light on the Sabbath, and the possibility of chemical tests for non-kosher additives to food. During the early 19th century, some Jewish writers followed Christian authors in trying to ascertain the natural philosophy hidden in the Torah text, but this project was largely abandoned by mid-century. In contrast to Quakers, Anglo-Jewry made little use of design arguments, these being directed primarily to children and, on occasions, to working men. Jewish writers on science appear to have been more willing to entertain speculative hypotheses than contemporary Quakers.

Contemporary commentators have attempted to give kosher practices deeper meanings and purposes beyond arbitrary “divine command.” The left links kosher practices to ethical concerns like the environment and animal protection, while the right foregrounds them as markers of Jewish distinctiveness, reproducing a seemingly unbridgeable gap between ethics and ritual. Navigating between these extremes, this chapter explores the revitalized ethical project of the mussar movement and its use of philosopher Emmanuel Levinas to see how the language of virtue, and the pursuit of character development, illuminates a way of understanding the rituals of postbiblical dietary laws as ethical disciplines.

Where kosher goods and services were once a local business, kosher food is now a multibillion-dollar industry with a massive international infrastructure. The process of kashrut’s industrialization over the course of the twentieth century has created new ethical challenges that invite us to ask again about the meaning of long-held Jewish values. This chapter considers how the mitzvah (commandment) of loving the neighbor might be expressed and how it failed to be enacted in the high-profile scandals at Agriprocessors kosher slaughter plant in Postville, Iowa, the largest glatt kosher slaughter facility in North America. Going beyond describing the problem, this chapter argues for an extension of traditional Jewish understandings of loving the neighbor and asks what the kosher industry might be like if it followed the lead of ethical business leaders like Aaron Feuerstein instead of taking the destructive path that Agriprocessors followed ultimately to its bankruptcy.

This chapter assesses the controversy over the knives used in sheḥitah, or slaughtering of animals. In east European Jewish society, meat was a central element of the diet, and the observance of the kosher laws was one of the most obvious ways in which Jews were distinguished from non-Jews. Moreover, a rigorous observance of these laws was one of the ways in which individual Jews demonstrated their piety. The quality of the ḥalaf, or knife used for sheḥitah, is one of the key elements in determining whether meat is kosher or not. During the early days of the hasidic movement, a dispute over the type of knife that should be used — specifically a demand that slaughtering knives be sharpened or ‘polished’ in a special way — played a major role in the struggle between the hasidim and their opponents, particularly the mitnagedim. The decline of this dispute contributed to the establishment of a degree of peace, or at least coexistence, between the groups.

This chapter assesses how Jews faced particular problems in ‘carnivorous Europe’, where meat was eaten every day, servings were generous, and wine was drunk as though it were water. For Jews, consumption of meat and wine was conditional upon their preparation according to strict rules. Adherence to Jewish dietary law thus entailed waste: on the one hand, of animals which had been found to be unfit after ritual slaughter, and on the other, of remains which could not in any circumstances be eaten by Jews. As such, a Jewish community needed a far greater supply of animals than a Christian one, irrespective of the appetites or financial means of individuals. The cost of a pound of kosher meat would have been prohibitive if the relevant butcher had not been able to sell the rejected parts to Christian customers. In summary, then, the presence of a Jewish community in any town was always dependent on the regular availability of kosher meat. As with meat, Jewish law laid down precise rules defining kosher wine. Wine was inevitably found at the tables of the Italian Jews of the period, above all in such a great wine-producing and consuming area as Umbria, whose countryside is today still characterized by extensive vineyards.

This chapter describes the sacred obligations of the Jewish woman. The mishnah of kinin deals with the problem of the bird sacrifices that a woman who has just given birth or other individuals who have experienced impurity are obligated to bring after they recover. This is connected with the issue of the beginning of a woman's ritually unclean period (menstruation). The chapter then considers the culture of modesty. The battle against immodest dress is at the very centre of the culture of modesty; the modesty of Jewish women saved the Jews from exile. Finally, the chapter focuses on the commandments of kashrut, explaining the necessity for Jewish women to learn the rules regarding kosher food.

This chapter follows contemporary rabbinic leaders, who increasingly blamed the crisis of authority on an external Gentile medium: the Internet, particularly social media. It narrates how rabbinic leaders declared that the internet corrupted innately pure Jewish souls in public rallies and printed edicts, which left them unable to fight their own inclinations for evil and infecting them with invisible doubt. It also mentions the rabbinic leaders' attempt to leverage schools and mothers to enforce emerging standards for kosher filtering in order to protect the faithful and preserve the coming generations. The chapter talks about the religious rulings on the internet that were ultimately enforced through the school systems called the mosdos. It highlights schools affiliated with specific rabbinic leaders that threaten to expel any student whose parents did not comply with its religious standards, such as in dress, behavior, or possession of an unfiltered smartphone.

This chapter talks about observers of American Orthodoxy that were struck by what was labelled as a move to the right during the second half of the twentieth century. It discusses the insistence on the term ‘glatt kosher’ and stricter rules of kashrut in general, as well as the increasing insistence on separation of the sexes in the synagogue during services. It also explores basic sociological factors that explain why Orthodoxy in modern society is adopting a stance of greater isolation from the wider Jewish community and of ritualistic stringency. The chapter mentions Charles Liebman and his pioneering 1966 analysis of American Orthodox Judaism in the American Jewish Year Book. It distinguishes between ultra-Orthodox Judaism and Modern Orthodoxy in terms of attitudes towards the broader Jewish community, modernity, and Zionism.

Eating together and sharing food is often taken as a sign of community—as in rituals of communion, and it was often a site of conflict. This coda explores care workers’ and patients’ reflections on eating and food—from the smells of “African cooking,” to the joys of patients accepting African foods and kosher dietary restrictions—as meditations on belonging and incorporation by patients and care workers alike.

This chapter explains what modern kosher and halal production, trade and consumption are. More specifically the chapter introduces religious consumers as well as the relationship between globalised markets, production, regulation and audit culture. The chapter ends with reflections on methodology and organisation of the book.

This chapter serves as an introduction to Judaism/kosher and Islam/halal in the UK and Denmark respectively. The main function of these discussions is to give the reader a broader historical and societal context for exploring kosher and halal in greater empirical detail in subsequent chapters; we also discuss broader similarities and differences between kosher and halal in the UK and Denmark.

This chapter explores the manufacture and production of kosher and halal meat (both red meat and poultry) in London and Manchester in the UK and also Denmark with specific reference to audits/inspections, legislation, networking, product innovation and certification. The reason for focusing on the UK in particular is, firstly, the UK has large Jewish and expanding Muslim communities as well as some well-known kosher and halal certification bodies. At the same time this market is far more complex than the market in Denmark.

Within the last couple of decades, the trend in both kosher and halal production is that these globalising religious markets have moved beyond meat to include enzyme production, for example, as enzymes are part of a wide range of types of foods and drinks. This chapter explores how multinational companies that are both kosher and halal certified understand and comply with rising requirements in respect to issues such as certification, staff policies, science and innovation, for example – and how non-meat products such as enzymes are produced and qualified as kosher and halal.

In this chapter we explore how Jewish consumers in the UK and Denmark understand and practice kosher consumption in their everyday lives. Many Jewish groups are fastidious about their everyday kosher consumption and this point has reinforced regulation of global kosher production and regulation. A specific focus in this chapter is how consumers make sense of the issues raised in previous chapters, that is, buying/eating meat and non-meat products in a changing global context.  Another important theme explored is how Jewish consumers understand and practice their everyday (kosher) food consumption in our two case countries.

In focusing on the consequences of globalising kosher and halal markets this book has demonstrated that similarities and differences between kosher and halal consumption, production and regulation in different national contexts are not well understood, and that to better understand global kosher and halal markets they must be explored at different levels of the social scale. This conclusion is organised around three keywords from the book’s title: religion, regulation and consumption. We conclude on these themes by bringing in a few examples from preceding chapters and by reflecting on the ‘bigger picture’ these conclusions evoke. 

This chapter studies the practice of fasting. Despite the efforts of the early Christians to distance themselves from the legalism of Levitical food prohibitions, the Church had managed to invent its own intricate food rules, the most important of which was the compulsory fast during Lent. Fasting was always to be accompanied by prayer, and was construed essentially as an act of contrition, to facilitate forgiveness of sins and earn salvation. Meat, which is conceptually corrupting because it is inherently pleasurable, nutritious, and invigorating, and is linked directly to the libido, is excised from the diet as a form of self-punishment. The fast is also a proactive curb to the cardinal sin of gluttony, the first of the seven deadly sins. In sum, eating in a particular way and avoiding certain foods during specific times of the year is considered a devout act of piety.