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From: smb@ulysses.UUCP (Steven Bellovin)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Kosher Meals
Message-ID: <784@ulysses.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 23-Feb-84 21:26:44 EST
Article-I.D.: ulysses.784
Posted: Thu Feb 23 21:26:44 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 24-Feb-84 03:10:01 EST
References: <1359@hlexa.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
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The word "kosher" is an adjective; "kashruth" is a noun form referring
to the practice of keeping kosher.  (When comparing Hebrew words, one
should generally disregard vowels (vowels are usually not letters in
Hebrew; rather, they're punctuation symbols attached to consonants);
also, remember that 'sh' and 'ch' are single letters.  So is 'th', but
it's not the English 'th' sound; it's simply a symbol for a letter that
is pronounced either 's' or 't', depending on your ancestry.  (The 'ch' is
the same as the German 'ch', not the English 'ch'.))

As for 'kosher' vs. 'kosher for Passover' -- Robert Block gave an accurate
and succinct summary of what makes an item kosher (the part about fish
and meat is accurate, incidentally), though there are a few more rules
(for some folks) about wine and cheese.  But a much stricter set of require-
ments applies during Passover.  During this entire week, no grain or grain
product, with the exception of specially-prepared matzoh (an unleavened
bread) may be eaten.  Thus, any food that is "kosher for Passover" is by
definition kosher, but there may be oddities in the ingredient list compared
with a similar product for use during the rest of the year -- for example,
margarine may be made with cottonseed oil instead of corn oil.

		--Steve