Now we come to a part of Leviticus which is still in effect for observant Jews. I've done a bit of reading to find out how people have tried to explain the origin of the dietary laws, but I'm not going to give any links because nobody has a very good idea. Some have attempted to explain them as actually being hygienic, i.e. that there is a legitimate public health rationale to them, but obviously there is not. It is true that pork can harbor a parasite called trichinosis, but ruminants can also harbor parasites and they're all destroyed by cooking. Cultures that eat pig meat obviously don't have a problem. The best idea anybody has come up with is that it's basically just a way of enforcing identity. It's difficult to commingle much with your neighbors if you can't eat their food. Today, even many non-observant Jews follow at least a relaxed version of the dietary laws as a sign of ethnic identity. Since the Israelites started off as a pastoral culture they generally ate ruminants and not pigs anyway, so it wasn't much of a sacrifice. Some of the other prohibitions and exceptions, however, are not so easy to explain. Also, Leviticus 11 demonstrates that God has a woeful understanding of biology. He doesn't know anything about many of the creatures he created.
11 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 2 “Say to the people of Israel, These are the living things which you may eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. 3 Whatever parts the hoof and is cloven-footed and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. 4 Nevertheless
among those that chew the cud or part the hoof, you shall not eat
these: The camel, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof,
is unclean to you. 5 And the rock badger, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. 6 And the hare, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you.
Err, no. Badgers and hares do not chew the cud.
7 And the swine, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. 8 Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean to you.
9 “These
you may eat, of all that are in the waters. Everything in the waters
that has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers, you may
eat. 10 But
anything in the seas or the rivers that has not fins and scales, of the
swarming creatures in the waters and of the living creatures that are
in the waters, is an abomination to you. 11 They shall remain an abomination to you; of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall have in abomination. 12 Everything in the waters that has not fins and scales is an abomination to you.
13 “And
these you shall have in abomination among the birds, they shall not be
eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey, 14 the kite, the falcon according to its kind, 15 every raven according to its kind, 16 the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk according to its kind, 17 the owl, the cormorant, the ibis, 18 the water hen, the pelican, the carrion vulture, 19 the stork, the heron according to its kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.
God thinks that bats are birds. I'm not sure why NIV has "water hen," KJV has "swan." Most of these species are not commonly eaten, except for the ostrich and the swan. But this prohibition seems entirely arbitrary.
20 “All winged insects that go upon all fours are an abomination to you. 21
Sine God created the insects you might think he would know how many legs insects have.
Yet
among the winged insects that go on all fours you may eat those which
have legs above their feet, with which to leap on the earth. 22
He got, feet down below his knees . . .
Of
them you may eat: the locust according to its kind, the bald locust
according to its kind, the cricket according to its kind, and the
grasshopper according to its kind. 23 But all other winged insects which have four feet are an abomination to you.
At least I can think of an explanation for this. Locusts can wipe out crops, so you might not have anything else to eat. But insects with four feet are pretty rare.
24 “And by these you shall become unclean; whoever touches their carcass shall be unclean until the evening, 25 and whoever carries any part of their carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening. 26 Every
animal which parts the hoof but is not cloven-footed or does not chew
the cud is unclean to you; every one who touches them shall be unclean. 27 And
all that go on their paws, among the animals that go on all fours, are
unclean to you; whoever touches their carcass shall be unclean until the
evening, 28 and he who carries their carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening; they are unclean to you.
Not clear what it means to be "unclean until the evening." It isn't spelled out but I guess it means other people aren't supposed to touch you?
29 “And
these are unclean to you among the swarming things that swarm upon the
earth: the weasel, the mouse, the great lizard according to its kind, 30 the gecko, the land crocodile, the lizard, the sand lizard, and the chameleon. 31 These are unclean to you among all that swarm; whoever touches them when they are dead shall be unclean until the evening. 32 And
anything upon which any of them falls when they are dead shall be
unclean, whether it is an article of wood or a garment or a skin or a
sack, any vessel that is used for any purpose; it must be put into
water, and it shall be unclean until the evening; then it shall be
clean. 33 And if any of them falls into any earthen vessel, all that is in it shall be unclean, and you shall break it. 34 Any
food in it which may be eaten, upon which water may come, shall be
unclean; and all drink which may be drunk from every such vessel shall
be unclean. 35 And
everything upon which any part of their carcass falls shall be unclean;
whether oven or stove, it shall be broken in pieces; they are unclean,
and shall be unclean to you. 36
This would produce an awful waste of goods, if followed strictly.
Nevertheless a spring or a cistern holding water shall be clean; but whatever touches their carcass shall be unclean. 37 And if any part of their carcass falls upon any seed for sowing that is to be sown, it is clean; 38 but if water is put on the seed and any part of their carcass falls on it, it is unclean to you.
39 “And if any animal of which you may eat dies, he who touches its carcass shall be unclean until the evening, 40 and
he who eats of its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until
the evening; he also who carries the carcass shall wash his clothes and
be unclean until the evening.
41 “Every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth is an abomination; it shall not be eaten. 42 Whatever
goes on its belly, and whatever goes on all fours, or whatever has many
feet, all the swarming things that swarm upon the earth, you shall not
eat; for they are an abomination. 43 You
shall not make yourselves abominable with any swarming thing that
swarms; and you shall not defile yourselves with them, lest you become
unclean. 44 For I am the Lord
your God; consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.
You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls upon
the earth. 45 For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God; you shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”
46 This
is the law pertaining to beast and bird and every living creature that
moves through the waters and every creature that swarms upon the earth, 47 to
make a distinction between the unclean and the clean and between the
living creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not
be eaten.
2 comments:
Wow. As a person with OCD, these dietary rules are a dream and a nightmare.
Not covered here (or perhaps anywhere in the Pentateuch, but perhaps in the Talmud) is the allowance for glass plates to be used for either mild or meat; but there's disagreement about the extent of this. See https://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/38/Q1/
Also, as morbid as this seems, I don't know if kashrut in relation to cannibalism is ever mentioned, but I suppose it goes without saying that Homo sapiens neither chews cud nor parts the hoof. Nor has a hoof.
That said, it is curious to me that grasshoppers are okay.
So much of this seems arbitrary.
The Talmudic rabbis made all sorts of extrapolations and elaborations. That's where the whole meat - dairy separation thing comes from. All the Torah says is don't sizzle a kid in its mother's milk. That's why the Jews are cursed never to eat cheeseburgers although it isn't apparent that was God's original intention.
It would have o be the Talmud that discusses glass plates I think because glassware would not have been available to the Israelis in the 2d millennium BCE which is probably when these rules originated. As we know the Torah was not actually compiled until the 7th Century BCE but it consists of earlier sources. Actually by some accounts it was written during the Babylonian captivity. It's a story that's still a long way off but the "captivity" actually consisted only of a small number of elite individuals who the Babylonians thought would be useful after they sacked Jerusalem, so they carried them off. The rest of the two kingdoms stayed behind and by some accounts started worshipping neighboring Gods, not observing the rituals, etc. So after the Persians conquered the Babylonians and sent the people home, they wrote the Torah as a tool for setting the people straight. That's one hypothesis anyway, makes some sense.
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