LEVITICUS 11:4-8

Q: Maybe it's just that I’m city folk, but what does “chew the cud” mean?

I'm another city folk and have never taken a biology class. So I will cheat by quoting from Jacob Milgrom's commentary (Leviticus 1-16, page 647).

The verb chew (malalat) “literally means 'brings up' and refers to the constant regurgitation of the fodder from the animal's stomachs to its mouth and back again.” And the word translated “cud” is taken from a Hebrew root word “meaning 'drag,' referring to the cud being dragged back and forth from the stomachs to the mouth.” This is part of the digestive process for some ungulates.

Your question brings up a larger question regarding the reason behind the various dietary laws in this passage. The Bible, as far as I am aware, never gives any justification for them. Some of the suggested reasons offered by commentators include:

Hygenic reasons (diseases that can be transmitted by eating pork, for example)

Unclean habits of the animals (carrion-eating birds, for example)

Worship of certain animals by pagan religions (scarab beetles, for example)

Each animal is to be a “pure” representative of its type with no mixed characteristics (animals in water must have fins and scales, for example)

No one of the above reasons, however, can explain all of the dietary restrictions present. Therefore I tend to agree with those who say that the overriding rationale is the fact that these regulations were required by God (1) as a somewhat arbitrary test of their obedience and (2) in order to set them apart from all the other cultures.