Religious restrictions on the consumption of pork Torah (Pentateuch) contains passages in Leviticus that lists the animals people are permitted to consume. It first notes what qualifies an animal that is absolutely permitted: Animals that have cloven hooves and chew their cud are ruminants such as cows, sheep, and deer. This text does not specify every possible animal by name, only their behaviors. The text goes on to describe specific animals that are known and meet one, but not both, of those qualifications, thereby prohibiting their consumption. It does not elaborate on the exact reason for prohibition other than physical characteristics. Pigs are described in this section
Kosher animals that naturally live in Canaan, except for primates, and equids (horses, zebras, etc.), which are not mentioned in Leviticus as being either ritually clean or unclean, despite their importance in warfare and society, and their mention elsewhere in Leviticus. In an attempt to help identify animals of ambiguous appearance, the Talmud, in a similar manner to Aristotle's earlier "Historia Animalium", argued that animals without upper teeth would always chew the cud and have split hoofs (thus being ritually clean), and that no animal with upper teeth would do so; the Talmud makes an exception for the case of the camel