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Are there any hechshers that certify food as kosher for B'nei Noach? Or any restaurants that offer such food? If not, how do observant B'nei Noach ensure that the meat that they eat was definitely not taken from a living animal? Presumably eating only meat that is kosher for b'nei Yisrael would be one way to do this; is such practice common among Noachides?

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As I recall, the Ben Yehoyodoh states in Meseches Megilla that the queen in the British Isles in his time would eat shechted meat; I think he means Queen Victoria. Just thought I’d mention it with the current Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations this weekend. – Richie May 30 '12 at 19:12
ummm, all meat was once living. – Shmuel Brin May 30 '12 at 19:21
The queen of his time was indeed Victoria. Does he say she ate only "shechted" meat? And does he say why? – msh210♦ May 30 '12 at 19:27
Hello @Richie, and welcome to Mi.Yodeya! This type of response is best left as a comment, which you will be able to leave once you've accumulated 50 reputation points. For now, I'll convert it to one. – HodofHod May 30 '12 at 19:39
@ShmuelBrin -- The issue is: Was the animal living at the time a piece was removed from it? That's what is forbidden. – Larry K May 31 '12 at 17:39
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2 Answers

up vote -8 down vote

Just keep all the mitzwote not just seven or thirty, but all of them and learn what animals can be eaten and how they need to be slaughtered. Don't eat beef, lamb, goat or other red meat with milk products. That covers most of it. And keep learning.

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I'm not a Gentile, but even if I were, I don't think I'd jump to "just keep all the mitzwote." That's a lot to ask of anyone, and especially someone not in a Jewish community. – SAH May 28 '12 at 23:00
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This hardly seems practical or reasonable. Besides, there are some Mitzvoth that are considered an "Oth", or a "sign", between HaShem and Bnei Yisrael, meaning that it's not appropriate for gentiles to keep anyway. – Seth J May 29 '12 at 1:26
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While there are only 7 Noachide laws, Rav Aaron Lichtenstein in “The Seven Laws of Noah” equates this to 66 of the 613 Mitzvos that Jews are obliged to keep. – Richie May 31 '12 at 10:17
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Also, come on, "[not eating] beef, lamb, goat, or other red meat with milk products" hardly "cover[s] most of" kashrus. – SAH Jun 3 '12 at 2:54
@Richie, I'm not surprised. One of the 7 is not to engage in sexual immorality, which is itself 7 laws (seven prohibited folks). – Ze'ev Felsen Jul 22 '12 at 23:02
up vote 7 down vote

There are certain foods likely to be taken from live animals and most others would not be. So for example, I'd trust that most chicken or beef available on the market is not eiver min hachai. But snow crab legs are apparently often taken from live snow crabs. So if the ben noach knows what foods are likely to be problematic, they can avoid those or devote extra caution when eating those things.

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Hmm. But it seems that observant Jews are a fair amount more careful than this with regards to their own meat; that is, they wouldn't trust mass production/state supervision to make sure standards were upheld. I guess if a Noachide wanted to be stringent, his only option would be to eat Jewish kosher food, then? – SAH May 29 '12 at 19:33
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I heard somewhere that depending on the factory settings, non-kosher meat plants will sometimes begin butchering the cow while it is still twitching, which can be a big problem for a Ben Noach. – Double AA♦ May 30 '12 at 6:58
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@SAH I've read a midrash that Joseph thought his brothers were not Jewish and would therefore "tell on them" for doing things that would be permitted to Jews but forbidden to bnei Noach. There's a technical description regarding a case of ever min hachai that was still kosher. Jews would be permitted it, but not non-Jews. Such a marginal condition is unlikely but means that not 100% of all kosher meat is kosher to non-Jews, but in practice, it's probably fine. – Charles Koppelman May 30 '12 at 22:46

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