The Hebrew verb garar has two primary usages: (1) to drag or pull along, and (2) to chew the cud (ruminate), which is the more theologically significant usage in the Levitical dietary laws. The chewing of cud became a distinguishing mark of clean animals in Israel's purity code.
In Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, the chewing of cud (garar) is one of two criteria for a clean animal (the other being split hooves). This dietary law served multiple purposes: health, distinction from pagan neighbors, and symbolic teaching about spiritual rumination — meditating on and digesting God's Word. The rabbis later compared Torah study to chewing the cud: returning again and again to sacred texts to extract their full nourishment.