Kosher, halal and the Christian table

Two words for "permitted"

Kosher is Hebrew for "fit" or "proper". Halal is Arabic for "lawful" or "permitted". Both describe food kept within what the faith allows, and both are about more than taste. For an observant Jew or Muslim, keeping these rules is a way of remembering God at every meal.

The overlap is real. In both, pork is out and blood is not eaten, and in both an animal is killed by a swift cut by hand, with the blood drained. The Hebrew Bible, the Gospels and the Qur'an each speak about food in their own ways:

Notice that the Bible box holds a different kind of teaching. We come to that below.

Kosher, in Jewish words

Kashrut, the Jewish dietary law, rests on the Torah and on the rabbis who explained it. In brief, as the Kashrut Division of the London Beth Din (KLBD) sets it out:

• Land animals must have cloven hooves and chew the cud, so beef, lamb and goat are allowed and pork is not. Chicken, duck, goose and turkey are allowed by tradition.
• Fish must have fins and scales. Shellfish and eels are not kosher.
• Meat must come from an animal killed by shechita, a single swift cut by a trained slaughterer, then inspected, soaked and salted to remove blood.
• Meat and milk are kept apart. The Torah says three times, "Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk" (Exodus 23:19, repeated in Deuteronomy 14:21). Observant homes keep separate dishes and wait some hours between meat and dairy. Foods that are neither, such as fish, fruit and vegetables, are called parev and can go with either.
• Wine and grape products, and many processed foods, need rabbinic supervision, shown by a certificate mark (a hechsher).

Halal, in Muslim words

Most food is halal unless the Qur'an or the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (peace be upon him) forbids it. The Qur'an says plainly, "(all) good things are made lawful for you" (5:4, Pickthall). What is forbidden is a short list: pork, blood, carrion, food offered to anything other than Allah, and alcohol and other intoxicants. Meat must come from a healthy animal killed by a swift cut with Allah's name said over it. The Prophet ﷺ taught that when in doubt about whether the name was said, "Mention Allah's Name on it and eat" (Sahih al-Bukhari 5507).

Alcohol is the largest everyday difference for a host. It is not allowed in Islam, including in cooking, while Judaism allows it, and wine has a place at Shabbat and Passover.

Where kosher and halal meet and part

Almost all kosher animals are also halal, and many Muslims accept kosher products, though scholars differ on how far, and alcohol such as wine is the main exception. The reverse is not so. Halal meat is not kosher, and strictly observant Jews will not eat food that is not certified kosher. Roughly:

Christian freedom in food

Christianity has no kosher or halal law of its own. The earliest Christians were Jews, and they argued over food. The Gospel of Mark remembers Jesus teaching that food does not defile (Mark 7:18-19). Peter, in a vision, hears: "What God has cleansed, you must not call unclean" (Acts 10:15). Paul asks Christians not to quarrel over it:

Now accept one who is weak in faith, but not for disputes over opinions. One man has faith to eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Don't let him who eats despise him who doesn't eat. Don't let him who doesn't eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him.

Romans 14:1-3 · WEB (British Edition)

Most churches teach this freedom: eat with thanks. But Christianity also has fasting customs, which are about discipline, not purity. Catholics in England and Wales are asked to keep Friday as a day of penance, by not eating meat or by another penance, and many Christians give something up for Lent. Orthodox Christians keep a longer calendar of fast days with some foods set aside. Some churches, such as the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, keep food customs closer to the Levitical laws. Many Protestants keep none of this, and Christians disagree among themselves about how far such customs bind. See Going without for Lent and the Orthodox fasts.

Hosting a mixed table

A good host asks, listens and does not mind a polite "no, thank you".

Sharing a table is not about agreeing on everything. It is about taking each other's convictions seriously enough to cook around them. The wider story of welcome is on the shared table, and places to visit has ideas for meeting neighbours.