Kosher locust
A red locust.
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| Halakhic texts relating to this article | |
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| Torah: | Leviticus 11:22 |
| Mishnah: | Chullin 59a |
| Babylonian Talmud: | Chullin 65a-66b and Avodah Zarah 37a |
| Shulchan Aruch: | Yoreh De'ah 85 |
| Other rabbinic codes: | Exodus Rabbah 13:7 |
Kosher locusts are varieties of locust deemed permissible for consumption under the laws of kashrut (Jewish dietary law). While the consumption of most insects is considered to be forbidden under the laws of kashrut, the rabbis of the Talmud identified four kosher species of locust. However, the identity of those species is in dispute.
The Torah states in Shemini (Leviticus 11:21-22), the 26th weekly biblical lection (פָּרָשָׁה, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading:
Yet these may you eat of every winged swarming thing that goes upon four, which have legs above their feet to leap with upon the earth. These of them you may eat: the locust (arbeh) after its kind, and the salʿam after its kind, and the ḥargol after its kind, and the ḥagav after its kind. –Leviticus
The Talmud states in Hullin 59a: "Any kind of grasshopper that has four walking legs, four wings, two jumping legs and whose wings cover the greater part of its body is kosher."
According to Yemenite tradition, the edible locust referred to in the Torah is identified by the figure resembling the Hebrew character chet ( ח) on the underside of the thorax. The most common of these in Yemen was the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria), and whose color ranged from yellowish-green to grey, to reddish in colour when it reached full-adulthood (Hebrew: ארבה, Arbeh; Aramaic: גובאי, Gobai; Arabic: الجراد, Al-Jaraad). What made matters worse for identification purposes was that, in Yemen, the locust and the grasshopper were given the same Arabic name (Jaraad = locust), although Jews in Yemen recognized the differences between the two genera.
In spite of the reference of other edible locusts in the Pentateuch, such as the Chargol (Aramaic: ניפול, Nippul; Arabic: الحرجوان, Al-Harjawaan), and the Sal'am (Aramaic: רשון, Rashona; Arabic: الدبا, translit. Al-Daba), the tradition of recognizing and eating these specific kinds had been lost in Yemen, prior to their emigration from Yemen in the mid-20th century CE. Only certain species of the Chagav (grasshopper) were still eaten in Yemen, such as the species now known as the greyish or brownish Egyptian locust (Anacridium aegyptium), thought by some to be an edible grasshopper, even though it was known in Arabic by its generic name al-Jaraad (Arabic: الجراد).
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