Commentary on Parashat Shmini , Leviticus - , Numbers - Of all the rules of kashrut Jewish dietary law , the prohibition against eating pork has perhaps the deepest resonance for Jews.
Historically, the refusal to eat pork has been understood as a symbol of Jewish identity. During the persecutions of Antiochus IV that form the background to the Hanukkah story, Jews accepted martyrdom rather than eating pork in public, since they understood this action as a public renunciation of their faith.
Even today, many Jews who do not observe other laws of kashrut nonetheless refrain from eating pork. When we open Parashat Shmini, the first section of the Torah in which the laws of kashrut are discussed, we might expect a lengthy exposition on the particular evils of the pig. Instead, when we look at the prohibition against eating pork in the context of the other prohibited foods enumerated in Parashat Shmini, it suddenly seems surprising that the pig has achieved such unique notoriety.
The list of forbidden foods begins with more obscure delicacies like camel and rock badger; the pig, the last of the mammals to be mentioned, seems almost like an afterthought. Even more surprisingly, the pig does not violate the standards of kashrut as flagrantly as other animals do.
The Torah teaches that in order to be kosher, animals must chew their cud and have cleft hoofs. The pig does not chew its cud, but it does have cleft hoofs — so we might expect that it would be less offensive than animals that meet neither criterion. In view of this apparent contradiction, how might we understand the widespread Jewish aversion to pork? Biblical scholars have suggested an array of historical possibilities, but a story told by the Hasidic master, Rabbi Meir of Premishlan, offers a unique insight.
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We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. A more common and persuasive argument was made in the Middle Ages by Moses Maimonides, who argued that the Torah prohibits swine for food because both their habits and their own food are dirty and loathsome; eating swine would lead to disgusting homes and streets, making them dirtier "than any cesspool" Guide for the Perplexed Indeed, he cites the Talmudic statement that "The mouth of a swine is as dirty as dung itself" b.
This disapproval of the pig's food and habits is the most common explanation of the prohibition. Swine do have food habits that are different from the main domesticated animals that are raised for food, in both ancient Israel and the modern world, namely cows, sheep, and goats. Pigs not only don't chew cud or graze on grass, but they will also eat waste of many kinds, such as animal and human dung and slop and other leftover garbage, and they will eat meat, including human flesh and that of their own offspring.
Moreover, Maimonides was alluding to the swine's other objectionable behavior of wallowing in urine and excrement when they do not have mud to cover their skin. A more modern explanation of how the eating habits of pigs relate to their problematic nature was somewhat famously described by Marvin Harris, who argued that pigs were shunned by ancient Israelites and other in the ancient Near East because the land does not accommodate them well.
Since forests are also scarce in the Middle East, pigs were difficult to raise there. The prohibition against them, he thought, comes from such practical difficulties.
However, archaeological and written evidence shows that it was possible to raise swine in the Middle East—as in fact the Philistines did, and any difficulty raising them does not adequately explain why they are shunned and considered abhorrent. It seems to have a more deep-seated cultural concern. Other explanations for the prohibition include that eating pork can lead to trichinosis, a parasitic infection that can develop from eating undercooked meat.
Yet there is no evidence that pork is more likely to cause trichinosis than other meats, nor are there any other known health concerns that arise specifically with pork—unlike, say, shellfish, which is also forbidden and which can cause deadly allergic reactions among some people. Why, then, is pork prohibited among the land animals? The prohibition seems to go beyond the practical into the symbolic. Indeed, in the Hebrew Bible, eating pork is not only unclean, it is treated as disgusting and horrific.
The book of Isaiah associates it with death, idolatry, and sin ; Whatever the problem, it appears, in some way, to violate important cultural principles. Though this may be related in part to what pigs eat, there may be other contributing factors that are deeply entrenched in society, and in fact related to the very construction of the social system.
One key way in which pigs are radically different from 'clean' land animals is not how they eat, but rather how they mate, and more specifically how they reproduce. In the Hebrew Bible, for example, both sex and birth are important sources of ritual impurity Lev 12 ; All the clean land animals listed in Deuteronomy have a reproductive feature that is different from pigs: they give birth singly or to twins.
Unlike cows, sheep, goats, and deer of various kinds, pigs give birth in litters. In the modern world, the average pig gives birth to 12 piglets at one time; the record is 37! Reproductively speaking, pigs are incongruous with the Israelite community, yet uniparous bearing singly animals are considered a part of it, and even observe its Sabbath Ex ; Deut The biblical text does not directly discuss this reproductive aspect of pigs, yet the multiparity bearing in litters of pigs comes into direct conflict with other aspects of biblical ritual involving animals.
Aside from the fact that no clean land animal is multiparous, and that most unclean animals are multiparous or egg layers, pigs' manner of reproduction does not allow them to bear a single firstborn in Hebrew, the pe? Either one would need to witness the birth to see which was born first, or possibly the entire litter would be considered the firstborn. This may seem inconsequential, but in biblical thought, the firstborn male of domesticated animals is the most sacred animal, and must be offered to God.
The firstborn of cows, sheep, and goats is either slaughtered or given to the sanctuary Ex ; Deut , or given to the Levites Num According to Deuteronomy, the only animal offerings one must make, aside from offerings at pilgrimage festivals, are one's firstborn male animals Deut Thus the firstborn male of all land animals raised for food must be offered to Yahweh.
Both Judaism and Islam have prohibited eating pork and its products for thousands of years. Scholars have proposed several reasons for the ban to which both religions almost totally adhere.
Pork, and the refusal to eat it, possesses powerful cultural baggage for Jews.
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