Kosher Laws and Science: The Torah’s Remarkable Prediction About Animal Species

One of many examples of the Torah’s truth can be found in the laws of kashrut (Jewish dietary laws). The Torah states that a kosher animal must have two signs of purity:

1. Split hooves – its hooves are completely divided and not a single solid hoof.

2. Chewing the cud – it digests its food by bringing it back up and re-chewing it multiple times.

The Torah reveals that, in every land animal in existence, aside from four specific animals that it names, these two signs always appear together, or not at all. In nature, these signs are linked:

• If an animal has one sign, it has the other.

• If it lacks one sign, it lacks the other.

In the laws of kashrut, God commands the Jewish people to eat only animals that possess both signs of split hooves and chewing the cud. The Torah then warns of a very rare exception of four animals that have only one sign of purity, and it lists them explicitly so we will not mistakenly think they are kosher.

The Torah’s claim is absolute: throughout the entire world there are only four such exceptions. These are:

• The camel, hyrax (shafan), and hare – they chew the cud but do not have split hooves.

• The pig – it has split hooves but does not chew the cud.

“Any animal that has a split hoof completely divided and chews the cud, you may eat. But of those that only chew the cud or only have a split hoof, you may not eat: the camel, though it chews the cud, does not have a split hoof — it is unclean for you. The hyrax, though it chews the cud, does not have a split hoof — it is unclean for you. The hare, though it chews the cud, does not have a split hoof — it is unclean for you. And the pig, though it has a split hoof completely divided, does not chew the cud — it is unclean for you.” (Leviticus 11:3–7)

The Torah demonstrates knowledge of all land animals and declares: “In all land animals, chewing the cud and having split hooves always go together, except for these four species.”

Throughout history and across all scientific and zoological research, no other animal has been found that breaks this rule. Not a single animal has been discovered that has only one sign of purity besides the four that the Torah lists.

It goes without saying that no human being could make such a claim for all future generations — especially in ancient times, because it would require knowing every animal species across the globe. In those days, there were no advanced research tools, no global expeditions, and no knowledge of faraway continents that people did not even know existed.

Furthermore, if a human had been trying to create a false book and pass it off as divine, they would never include a fact that could so easily be disproven, because one single proven error would be enough to expose the text as false.

Such knowledge could only come from the One who created the world and has complete mastery over nature. Therefore, there remains only one logical conclusion about the source of this knowledge, that the Torah is from Heaven.