This may you eat from everything that is in the water: everything that has fins and scales in the water, in the seas, and in the streams, those you may eat. Ch.11/9

Even though the Torah says that we need fish to have fins and scales, our Sages have a tradition from Sinai that as long as it has scales, you can assume that it has fins without even seeing them (i.e., if you have just a piece of the fish). But if this is so, why did the Torah have to give us two signs for the fish to be kosher? Let it just say scales! continue reading