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Is Halal meat Kosher?

  

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Rabbi Gurkow: Welcome to the Rabbi's one on one chat room, how can I help you today?

Magician: Meat...

Rabbi Gurkow: hi

Magician: i was wondering what the difference between completely unkosher meat and halal meat is

Rabbi Gurkow: from a Jewish persepctive there is no differenc, they are both not Kosher

Magician: but on a general level whats the difference

Magician: because someone told me that in worst case scenarios it is better to eat halal meat than completely unkosher meat

Rabbi Gurkow: that is not true

Rabbi Gurkow: they are both the same

Magician: oh ok thanks

Magician: so then what is halal meat and how is it different?

Rabbi Gurkow: To my understanding halal meat is slaughtered

Rabbi Gurkow: but it has no bearing on Jewis law, because there are many details in Jewish law that are not observed in halal meat

Magician: why can muslims eat kosher meat, but jews cant eat halal

Rabbi Gurkow: I cant speak for muslims

Rabbi Gurkow: but one thing is clear

Rabbi Gurkow: this is not about tit for tat or not hurting other's feelings -- this is about doing G-d's will

Magician: ok thank you\

All names, places, and identifying information have been changed or deleted in order to protect the privacy of the questioners. In order to preserve authenticity, the chat sessions have been posted with a minimum of editing. Please excuse typographical errors, missing punctuation, and/or grammatical mistakes which naturally occur in the course of informal chat sessions.

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COMMENTS

Haal Meat

Posted by: Lloyd, Seattle, WA, USA on Apr 10, 2005

I read the onlne Chat between A Rabbi and the Visitor Magician regarding Haal Meat and why we cannot eat it. Of course the meat is Not-Kosher but for more reasons than the Rabbi said, so I think.

Is not Haal meat slaughtered and prayed over to a false God. I beleive any Allah believing Muslim can slaughter an animal.

My point is this. Yes we know the meat is Not-Kosher because it does not follow strict Kastrut laws but to average Jew (Reform, Conservative) they should avoid this meat because it was slaughtered in the name of Allah a pagan God.

I personally eat only those foods that are permissible in Lev 11 but I do not buy Kosher meat.....not availible. But I would not eat any meat sacrificed to a false God.

Editor's Comment

Islam is not a pagan religion; Jews and Muslims both worship the same One G-d. The difference lies in G-d's teachings: Jews believe that only the Torah is the ultimate Truth.

As the rabbi and editor said

Posted by: Michael Makovi on Apr 30, 2005

As the editor said, Allah is the same God that we worship. Jews and Muslims may have different ideas about God, but we both worship the same God. Christians, on the other hand, worship a different god, as they believe in a 3-in-one-come-down-to-earth-etc. god.

Halal slaughter is in fact very similar to kosher slaughter - slice across the throat, drain the blood, minimize pain to the animal, etc. But there are a few small differences that render halal non-kosher. Even if the procedures for kosher and halal were exactly the same in every way, halal would still be non-kosher, because kosher meat must be slaughtered by a pious Jew, and to my knowledge, very few Muslims are pious Jews. :)

But why can Muslims eat halal meat? Because the Quran and imams (Muslim teachers) say they can. In addition, the Noachide laws tell all mankind not to consume blood, and halal slaughter drains the blood in a way very similar to kosher slaughter, so it is very commendable for Muslims to eat halal meat

Editor's Comment

Although I agree with the gist of the comment, it must be noted that there are opinions that a non-Jew may consume blood.

For Interest's Sake

Posted by: Nabila, Canada on May 25, 2005

Interesting discussion. Being a Muslim, I can safely say M.M.'s explanation is fairly accurate. Basically, we are allowed to consume meat from the 'People of the Book', which is the title given to Jews, Christians and Muslims in our holy book, the Quran. Of course, (most?) Christians no longer adhere to the dietary laws in the Bible, so we can't eat their meat.

I think, basically, the two conditions for our meat to be halal are that

-God's name must be mentioned over it (I think by a 'Person of the Book')

-it must be sliced across the throat through the jugular vein (the head not severed though) so that all the blood drains out.

I thought kosher meat satisfied these two conditions, but I'm not sure so I've asked the rabbi.

Halal vs. Kosher

Posted by: Mikha'el, Anchorage, AK on Jul 19, 2005

I have had this discussion before with a Rabbi in Los Angeles. His answer was that the Shochet's laws are more strict than those of the Muslim's laws regarding slaughtering. As the one gentleman said, they are allowed to eat from "people of the book". Jewish law, as it was told to me, is more strict and thorough thus makes it automatically acceptable for those that eat halal.

However, not being a muslim, and eating only Glatt Kosher, I'm not an authority on anything! Take my statement for what it is, a second hand relaying of information, that may or may not be 100% correct. This is just what I was told.

Kol tuv,

halal and kosher

Posted by: Daniela on Jun 22, 2006

I am told that kosher meat is perfectly acceptable for a religious muslim, although, due to the friction felt by a large part of the muslim world against israel and jewry in general, it is not commonly purchased nowadays. Also I understand that muslims are required to eat halal meat only if that's not too difficult to find; if there is no halal meat available in nearby cities, as is the case for some muslim emigrants, muslims (differently from jews) are allowed to eat meat with blood if they wish to eat meat and halal meat is not easily available. As far as jews are concerned, halal meat is certainly not kosher but at least does not violate the negative commandment about eating blood, which the common meat would do. [Funny I should write this, I hardly eat any meat at all, but I had an interesting discussion on the subject with a religious muslim and wanted to share. She says that she can definitely taste the difference between halal and meat with blood.]

Editor's Comment

Although I am not familiar with the methods used by Muslims to rid their meat of blood, I highly doubt that it meets the strict standards and regulations of kosher salting. Either way, this debate is purely academic--the meat isn't kosher because it wasn't slaughtered according to halachah.

Halal - Kosher

Posted by: Menachem Orev, Amsterdam, Netherlands on Sep 12, 2006

When muslim foreign workers (turks, morrocans) came to Amsterdam in the 1960's they bought their meat at the kosher butchers in Amsterdam.
Kosher
Literally means "fit." Commonly used to describe foods which are permitted by Jewish dietary laws, but is also used to describe religious articles (such as a Torah scroll or Sukkah) which meet the requirements of Jewish law.
G-d
It is forbidden to erase or deface the name of G-d. It is therefore customary to insert a dash in middle of G-d's name, allowing us to erase or discard the paper it is written on if necessary.