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CHAPTER 1

The seventh tract مقالة of the work ספר המצוות is devoted to food; the introductory part of this tract is about the animals permissible to be eaten according to Torah.
 
Keep in mind that the Creator, blessed be, remembers us in His Holiness, because we are connected to Him by the eternal covenant, and He has chosen us to be His people and His inheritance.
For this reason He forbade us from doing what keeps us out of His Holiness and commanded us to do what brings us closer to His Holiness.
 
A detailed clarification of all these prohibitions and mandates would be too lengthy for this book; therefore, we will deal only with the ritual purity of food and with which animals are allowed and which are forbidden by the Torah.
 
Behold, Allah * has forbidden us from consuming those animals that deprive other animals of the soul, meaning the animals that feed on other animals, and has allowed us the animals that do not do so.
 
* This work is written in Judeo-Arabic language, and from this reason the author uses the Arabic word الله אללה Allah; he uses the word Allah as the Arab word for the One God, not as the name of the One God - the translator's note.
 
He allows us to eat animals that meet the following three criteria: animals that have hooves, that have wholly cloven hooves and that chew the cud; about these animals, Torah tells us: that may ye eat. (3M 11: 3)

And every beast that parteth the hoof, and hath the hoof wholly cloven in two, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that ye may eat. (5M 14: 6)

He forbids us to consume all animals that do not meet every one of these three criteria.
As an example three types of animals that chew the cud but have no hooves **, namely camel, rock-badger and hare, are mentioned first.
After that He prohibits those animals that meet only two criteria: that have hooves, that have wholly cloven hooves, but do not chew the cud.
These animals are also impure to us.
We must not eat them, and we must not touch their carcasses, as it is written:

Nevertheless, these shall ye not eat of them that only chew the cud, or of them that only part the hoof: the camel, because he cheweth the cud but parteth not the hoof, he is unclean unto you.
And the rock-badger, because he cheweth the cud but parteth not the hoof, he is unclean unto you.
And the hare, because she cheweth the cud but parteth not the hoof, she is unclean unto you.
And the swine, because he parteth the hoof, and is cloven-footed, but cheweth not the cud, he is unclean unto you.
Of their flesh ye shall not eat, and their carcasses ye shall not touch; they are unclean unto you. (3M 11:4-8)

** Camels and other members of suborder Tylopoda (meaning calloused foot) do not have regular hooves (as the even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla) have) but two-toed feet with toenails and soft foot pads. These two-toed feet were in the past considered to be paws rather than hooves, and for this reason the camel is mentioned together with the hare and rock-badger - translator's note.