Vensuvio wrote:
Didn't the issue about pigs not being kosher have something to do with problems of botulism when the blood from beef and pork gets mixed up on cutting boards and such?
Some people have postulated that kosher food requirements were a sort of "early FDA" since undercooked pork, for example, is considerably more dangerous than undercooked beef. But some of the animals listed seem a bit arbitrary and the fact is almost everything is unclean when taken in context of how many animals there are out there.
Leviticus states that a mammal is ceremonially clean (i.e. kosher) if it both (a) chews its cud and (b) has a completely divided split hoof. If it's one or the other but not both than the animal is unclean. Rabbits and other lapines, guinea pigs and hydrax all chew their cud but don't have a split hoof. Camels and their South/Central American cousins chew their cud but don't have a completely divided split hoof. Swine have a split hoof but don't chew their cud. Bovines, goats and sheep have split hooves and chew their cud so they are kosher. So are deer, antelope and giraffes (yum!) Equines have a solid hoof and are unkosher. Felines, canines, ursines, primates and whatever else all lack hooves and are unclean. The only reason you hear so much about swine isn't because the Jews and Islamics have it out for pigs but because civilization has domesticated swine as a popular food source but hasn't done the same for anteaters and monkeys.
Insects that have wings yet walk upon the earth are unclean but insects that fly aren't and ones that walk
but have jointed legs for jumping are clean. So you can eat a locust but not a weevil despite the fact that both are bugs that live on plants.
Anything that lives in the water but lacks scales and fins is unclean. Fish are clean but sea snakes are not. Nor are molluscs, aquatic arthopods, rays and skates, sea mammals of any type and a host of other aquatic fauna. Reptiles and amphibians are broadly unclean.
Lastly, any bird of prey is unclean as are carrion birds (crows and their allies, vultures). Long legged shore birds are unclean as are gulls. However geese and ducks are fine. Likewise doves, chickens & turkeys, bluebirds, robins and hummingbirds if you can catch 'em.
Oh, and eating bats is explicitly prohibited. Bon appetit!
Edited, Wed Mar 8 02:00:16 2006 by Jophiel
