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November 29, 2004
Locust of difficulty
Haaretz - Israel News - Focused on locust
1. Some people in Israel apparently claim that locusts are not kosher, even though Leviticus 11 expressly states that they are. I actually had a similar discussion with a Jewish friend about goat once. There's a tendency to claim that whatever you think is gross isn't kosher. At any event, Jews of European background tend to claim that locusts are non-kosher, while those of Middle Eastern or African background say they aren't. Europeans eat anything, seemingly... but not locusts, and it rubbed off.
2. Some people also claim that you can tell if a locust is kosher by reading them. Supposedly, the markings on a locust's thorax have a letter kaf (for kosher) on them, except that sometimes it looks like a tet, and some interpret this as meaning non-kosher.
(Thanks to Haggai.)
Posted by Mac Thomason at November 29, 2004 10:35 AM
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Comments
As the article says, apparently you have to turn the locust sideways to see if it has a "kaf" on it. If you hold it up perpendicular to the ground, you might see what looks like the letter "het," sort of like an upside-down U. It's also the first letter of my name, pronounced with a hard "H" and thus difficult to transliterate directly into English.
Posted by: Haggai at November 29, 2004 11:11 AM