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THE COW
Chapter 1 of "Why Kosher?"
by Web Hulon

The requirements are that the animal has a divided hoof and a divided pad and that it chews the cud. These are not random selections but rather details that are meant to teach us. In order to receive these teachings, we will do a case study of a cow, probably the most familiar of clean animals in modern times. We shall apply the old adage "you are what you eat" to our study, as I believe this to be the heart of the matter. YHWH allows us to eat the animals which have the characteristics that He desires for us.

The divided hoof is fairly obvious. A cow is quite sure-footed, although its body shape and relatively thin legs make it appear as if it would be somewhat clumsy. Likewise, we are to walk a sure-footed walk so that we might not stumble:

Deut 5:33
33 "You shall walk in all the ways which YHWH your Elohim has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

The fact that the hoof is divided should also remind us of this instruction concerning our walk:

2 Tim 2:15
15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to YHWH, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

And there is yet another reason to call attention to the feet:

Exod 23:14-17
14 "Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year:
15 "You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty);
16 "and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field.
17 "Three times in the year all your males shall appear before Adonai YHWH.

The words that are translated as "three times" are shalosh regalim. They are literally translated as "three feet". The three major Festivals, Unleavened Bread, Shavuot and Sukkot, are called the Three Feet. While in the land, the Hebrews were required to walk to the Temple in order to celebrate these Festivals, and all men were required to come up to Jerusalem for the Three Feet. So examining the feet of an animal should help us to recall our duty to keep YHWH's Festivals and to "divide" them, or learn the truths that they hold.

A cow walks upon that which it eats, namely grasses. We have seen that to walk with a split hoof is to "walk in all the ways which YHWH your Elohim has commanded you". Like the cow, we are also to eat of that in which we walk, YHWH's commandments:

Deut 8:3
3 "So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of YHWH.

The cow eats only grasses. Likewise, we are to only eat of "every word that proceeds from the mouth of YHWH". We are not to eat of every doctrine, vain philosophy, tradition of men and worldly principle that is tossed before us. We must weigh all things against the Word of YHWH in order to determine if it is manna from Heaven, the grass of our field, or if it is something inedible that we should not take into the body.

Once a cow eats something, an interesting thing happens. The grass goes into the rumen, the first of the cow's four stomachs. In the rumen the grass is partially digested and the rest is formed into small balls called cud. The cud is then returned to the mouth, where it is chewed at length. After being swallowed a second time, the cud returns to the rumen for further digestion. It then moves on to the reticulum and the omasum for still further digestion and finally into the abomasum, which acts likes a person's stomach, digesting the proteins and nourishing the body. The digested proteins also go into milk production, which is used to feed the cow's young.

There is much to learn from this process. Once we read or hear of the Word of YHWH, we begin to digest it, but it is impossible to fully understand the depths of His Word from only one encounter. We, therefore, must regurgitate the Word and chew on it some more. We are to turn it over in our minds, pray about it, consider it from different angles, see what it is connected to, study it in its original context and so forth. This is called rumination. Interestingly Webster's Dictionary defines ruminate as: "to chew the cud, muse upon, to go over in the mind repeatedly and often casually or slowly, to meditate." Even in English the proper connection is made. When we chew the cud, we are meditating on the Word of YHWH. Obviously Moses knew this because he instructed Joshua to chew the cud of the Torah:

Josh 1:8
8 "This Book of the Torah shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

After the cud is chewed, we are to pass on our partially digested understanding to the next stomach, but no human has multiple stomachs. This is why we must be joined to other believers. It is the reason that we are warned not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together (Hebrews 10:25). We need everyone's digesting abilities. We must be in unity with others, each serving the other, joined together and using our gifts, or stomachs, in order to properly digest and process our cud, the Word of YHWH. So the cow teaches us not only that we must be careful of what we take into our bodies, but also that we must search out the depths of His Word, alone and when we are together with our brethren.

Now comes the most beautiful part of all. The milk. The truths that we learn from digesting the Word become milk for us to feed our young. We are now able to feed the babes in Messiah with sound teaching:

1 Pet 2:1-3
1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all guile, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,
2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby,
3 if indeed you have tasted that YHWH is good.

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Below: Web Hulon and his wife Tammy. They are expecting their sixth child early next year.