Is ostrich kosher?

Why it's not that simple

Almost every bird question is a tradition question. This one is not:

• The Torah gives no physical signs for birds. It names twenty-four forbidden ones and permits the rest, which is why in practice a bird is eaten only where there is a mesorah establishing it as kosher. Why birds need a tradition →
• The ostrich never reaches that machinery, because it is on the list: the bas ha’ya’anah, named among the forbidden birds in Vayikra 11:16.
• There is a well-known derivation attached to it. The phrase reads literally as “the daughter of the ya’anah” — and since a bird has no daughter, Chazal read it as the ostrich’s egg. From there comes the general rule that whatever issues from a non-kosher creature is itself non-kosher. The ostrich is the source case for a rule that governs milk, eggs and every rendered ingredient.
• So ostrich meat, ostrich eggs and anything rendered from an ostrich are out, and shechita changes nothing. Shechita turns a kosher species into kosher meat; it has no effect on a species that is not kosher. What shechita does →
• This matters beyond the butcher counter. Ostrich is farmed commercially as a low-fat red meat, and ostrich oil turns up in cosmetics and supplements. Read where a fat or an oil came from, not just what it is called.