From: hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Reform law versus guidelines
Date: 21 Aug 92 14:25:57 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Statistics Department

In article <1992Aug18.124939.22396@cbnewsl.cb.att.com> saal@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (samuel.saal) writes:
>In article <56954@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu
>(Herman Rubin) writes:

>>Even in the section on kashruth, there are statements which presumably
>>were according to the rather poor biological observations of that time,
>>but which we know now to be false.  I claim that this necessarily should
>>cause one to question just what was from God, and what was tribal taboo
>>or based on similar grounds.  There is no other information on this, so
>>we have to use our own soul-searching, and our own attempts to communicate
>>with God, to help arrive at what is wanted of us.

>Please describe (a synopsis of) the laws of Kashrut as you see them.
>Please give an example or two of foods or combinations that would be
>currently forbidden according to Kashrut.

What you have requested I can only answer partially, as soul-searching
still continues.  For a summary, this is how I read the Torah semi-
literally:

For land animals, except birds and insects:  Only two-toed ruminants are
permitted by the Torah.  I consider the prohibition of the camel as 
questionable, and the discussion about non-ruminants who apparently
chew their cud as erroneous.

For birds:  Birds of prey are excluded.

For insects:  There is a real question here.  I suspect that at the time
of the Torah, insects in the locust family were eaten, and these are 
included specifically.  The Torah wording is surprising, as even the
people of that time should have known that insects have six legs, and
worms, etc., even more; but the expression clearly indicates that they
are to be considered as four.

For marine animals:  I think that there is not much disagreement about
what the Torah says.  What it means, however, is another matter.

As to means of slaughter, the Torah clearly indicates that the blood should
be removed to the extent possible.  However, it gives as the reason that the
life is in the blood, which is false.  How much does this invalidate?  Also,
the kashering procedure does not draw blood out of the meat, but serum and
protein breakdown products.  Did God mean serum?  Also, the slaughtering
must be humane.  The specifics of slaughtering are, in my opinion, derived
from what the people understood of this.

An aside:  there are commercial establishments which sell the meat of what
are commonly called "game" animals.  It has been found that killing by
stopping the heart directly forces serum from the blood into the tissues,
which makes them gamy.  Many of these places now shoot the animals in the
head to prevent this.

As for meat and milk, I cannot but read the Torah as more than it says.
Personally, I consider the occurrences of the prohibition of cooking an
animal in its mother's milk as the addition of some redactors to exclude
a ritual practiced in some of the surrounding tribes; it is out of context,
and after the normal end of the section.  But in any case, the Hebrew cannot
be read other than referring to the milk (or as some indicate it might be,
the fat) of ITS mother.

As clearly prohibited by any literal interpretation of the Torah:

	Swine, animals of the horse family, carnivorous mammals,
	rodents, primates, and others.  All of these have been
	eaten by peoples known to the Jews, as well as camels.

	Birds of prey.

For others, the meaning is more questionable.  Does "fish" refer to 
fish, or does it include molluscs and crustaceans?  I do not question
that, historically, these were included.

The other question is what is from God and what from man?  The only
moral commandment is that of humane slaughter.  BTW, eating a limb
from a living animal was a much more common practice in those days
of no refrigeration than now.  Meat could be kept fresh by not 
killing the animal, so that this was a far-from-unknown procedure.


-- 
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
Phone: (317)494-6054
hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet)  
{purdue,pur-ee}!pop.stat!hrubin(UUCP)