The Life-Transforming Diet

The Life-Transforming Diet
based on Health and Psychological
Principles of Maimonides and other Classical Sources

This book offers a unique system, which integrates nutritional and psychological principles for gaining health and losing weight. Behavior modification is simplified and presented in a practical, easy to follow program. It is a breath of fresh air, in a milieu where superficial and unhealthy fad diets grab the headlines and inevitably lead to disappointing results. Based on the genius of Maimonides, this book is recommended for those looking for a meaningful system that actually works.
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David Zulberg has performed an invaluable service by assembling a plan for healthy living that is consistent both with the advice of our sages and the findings of modern medicine. His work is unique among diet/exercise guides in its reasonable tone and moderate approach. It is not only enjoyable, but will earn the respect of Torah scholars and medical professionals alike...
-- Rabbi Leib Kelemen

What is Kosher

Kashrut or Kashruth, Kashrus (Hebrew: כַּשְרוּת, kašrûṯ) or "keeping kosher" (Hebrew: כָּשֵר, kāšēr) is the name of the Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha (Jewish law) is termed kosher in English, from the Hebrew term kashér, meaning "fit" (in this context, fit for consumption by Jews according to traditional Jewish law).

Food not in accord with Jewish law is termed treif, trafe (Yiddish: טרייף from טְרֵפָה ṭərēp̄āh) ("torn"); the Hebrew term refers to animals (from a kosher species such as cattle or sheep) which had been either incorrectly slaughtered or mortally wounded by wild beasts and therefore were not fit for human consumption. Among Sephardim, it typically only refers to meat that is not kosher. Sometimes, non-kosher food in general may be dismissed with the colloquial term chazir-treif, which literally means "as unfit as pork", the pig having become perhaps the most notable symbol of the non-kosher animal.

Many of the basic laws of kashrut are in the Torah's Book of Leviticus, with their details set down in the oral law (the Mishnah and the Talmud) and codified by the Shulchan Arukh and later rabbinical authorities. Many varied reasons have been offered for these laws, ranging from philosophical and ritualistic, to practical and hygienic; see below for examples and explanations.

The word kosher has been borrowed by many languages, including English. In its strictest meaning it means "fit", but as in Yiddish it also generally means legitimate, acceptable, permissible, genuine or authentic in a broader sense.