Rumination has the following definitions: “the act of thinking carefully and for a long period about something” and “the act of bringing up food from the stomach and chewing it again”. Yet, are these definitions really that different? One is the ‘chewing over’ of an idea in the mind, the other of food in the stomach. The eating definition is associated with a group of animals called ruminants, including cattle, sheep, goats, deer, giraffes, camels, and llamas. Being a ruminant was one of the requirements of clean animals under the Law (Lev 11:3; Deut 14:6), where “chewing the cud” is simply another way of saying rumination.