I was taught clean and unclean parable meant we were free from dietary food laws of the OT.
I just recently re- read this scripture and when I read it, I see Jesus speaks more of washing your hands/not washing… the act of not washing does not make the food unclean.
Where does He speak of us being free from dietary laws of the Old Testament?
I don’t have the quotes you are looking for at this moment but I do think that perhaps you are thinking of two different categories of things.
The ritual washing is one aspect of the Jewish law but there were also certain animals that were considered unclean and could not be ritually cleansed or made clean. The one we are most familiar with to this day is pork.
In Acts we find the vision of St. Peter that showed him by the analogy of the unclean animals that people who were considered “unclean” before God, namely the Gentiles, were clean if they were regenerated in baptism into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
St. Paul, who was considered the apostle to the Gentiles, speaks of this over and over in his letters and even chastised St. Peter at one point for not living up to his own vision.
In the case you mention where Jesus declares that washing of the hands does not defile a man, he is, of course making the point that it is what comes from the heart of mankind that actually defiles him. In other words he is telling the Jewish religious leaders that they are missing the point of the law to begin with.
St. Paul is most notable for his discourses on grace and the law, particularly in Romans. As to the release from dietary laws, the ritual washing was a part and parcel of that, as well as the prohibition on certain animals, so that we may say that all of that was abrogated, the proof of which we can see in St. Paul’s letters in various places.
We also must bear in mind that Jesus did say that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. It means then that we have to take care to distinguish the moral law from the ritual law.
