Leviticus 11 is it kosher?

Leviticus 11

Clean and unclean animals are defined in this chapter – which makes me wonder how Noah knew which was which way back in Genesis?

Basically Jews are allowed to eat the following –

Animals with a split hoof and chew the cud, fish with fins and scales, Birds (with exceptions of birds of prey, the hoopoe and bats), Limited insects (Grasshoppers, locusts and crickets)

By the way, before the critics jump in with "Bats are not birds" and "Spiders are not insects" observation, we are fully aware that bats are mammals not birds, perhaps “flying creatures” would be a better translation and Spiders are not insects, perhaps "Crawling creatures" would be a better tranlation

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Note – animals with paws are not allowed as food, nor are lizards ,reptiles, rats etc.

Pork is forbidden as they are not ruminants , camels are forbidden as they do not have a split hoof.

Basically if it is not clean, touching a dead body will pass unclean to anything it touches.

The Kosher rules are not necessarily applicable to non-Jews, and there may not be any particular reason for these rules, observant Jews believe that God gave the Kosher laws to set Jews apart from the surrounding cultures.

While I think on this chapter there are 2 questions from the letter to Dr Laura asked in this chapter - let us look at them

Question - are shellfish as much an abomination as homosexuality? 

My answer would be - what is the penalty for eating unclean food compared to the penalty for homosexuality? Also I notice that ANY violation of God's law is wrong and nobody has ever lived up to the whole law, except (Christians believe) Jesus Christ.

The early church (As well as Jewish scholars) had a debate about what Jewish Laws are univerally applicable and which are only for the Jewish nation, in the end the came up with very few universal laws that are actually illegal in most countries anyway! One set of laws that were deemed to not be applicable to non-Jews are the food laws. The advice to new non-Jewish Christians was don't eat food sacrificed to Idols, which is a relief as I quite like a bacon buttie!

The other question refers to touching unclean animals and football.

My answer is yes, football should be banned and thank you for the opportunity to say this, however this is due to my extreme prejudice against the game of football. To paraphrase Groucho Marx, "I find football very educational, if it on the TV I go into another room and read a book!" 

However I know that I am in a minority whose soft spot for football is actually quicksand. But if you insist on playing, you will be pleased to know that most footballs now are made of synthetic materials which are are not unclean, besides which, unless you are playing some approximation to the British game the only person to handle the ball in play is the goalkeeper and he wears gloves! The rest of the players are not allowed to touch the ball with their hands- there is a clue in the name here FOOT BALL!