Locusts are kosher, and they are the only invertebrate that is
Jewish dietary law bans pork, shellfish and frogs, yet it permits one insect: the locust, the single invertebrate allowed on a kosher table. The rules behind kashrut are numerous and intricate, and the Torah rarely explains them. That silence has produced centuries of debate over whether they are meant to be understood at all.
Kashrut is the body of Jewish law governing which foods observant Jews may eat and how they must be prepared. Permitted food is kosher, from a word meaning fit; forbidden food is treif. Only certain mammals, birds and fish that meet specific criteria qualify. Because the Torah's most basic food rule forbids consuming blood, mammals and birds must be slaughtered by a trained, certified specialist called a shochet using a very sharp blade, and the meat then goes through koshering by broiling, roasting, or soaking and salting.
The best-known principle keeps meat and dairy apart. They may never be combined, and kitchens use separate equipment for each. Every kosher food falls into one of three groups: meat, which includes poultry and even gelatin; dairy, such as butter and cheese; and pareve, meaning neutral, which covers fish, eggs, grains and produce. Status can transfer: a vegetable product processed on dairy machinery counts as dairy. Anything that grows from the ground is permitted in principle, though rules about tithes and the Sabbatical year affect some produce from the Land of Israel.
Most of the core laws come from Leviticus and Deuteronomy, with the detail worked out in the Oral Torah, the Mishnah, the Talmud and later rabbinic writing. Jewish philosophy sorts the 613 commandments into those any orderly society might adopt, those that make sense once explained, and those with no evident rationale. Some scholars place kashrut in the last group, a test of obedience to divine authority. Maimonides agreed that such statutes are decrees but urged people to search for reasons wherever possible; others have proposed practical or hygienic ones.
In the past century, certification agencies have begun marking approved products and restaurants with a symbol called a hechsher. Those labels help far more than Jewish shoppers: Muslims with similar dietary rules, people allergic to dairy, and vegans all use them to spot hidden meat or milk ingredients.
Source: Kashrut
