Why can't Jews eat pork? What kind of meat do Jews not eat and why does a Jewish husband forbid eating pork

Those people who consider themselves Jews will never dare even touch the smallest piece of pork. They believe that this food is unworthy of a normal person, it is a dirty and illegal food product. The Jewish book of the Torah tells them which animals are worthy of eating their meat, and which ones cannot even be looked at. Many are interested in why the Jews do not eat pork, everything is very simple - only those representatives of the animal world that are ruminant and have cloven hooves are worthy of eating. This rule is legal when the animal fulfills both requirements, in other cases the Jews will not even approach it.

The Torah book states that a person who consumes a product such as pork is not a Jew. All these rules are spelled out in the laws of this people. And the main products that are contraindicated for this people are a pig, a rabbit, a camel and a hare. In ordinary people, pork is one of the most environmentally friendly products, but the Jews are sure that this is the dirtiest food. But to tell the truth, the pig in its existence is a fairly clean animal.

There are other reasons why the Jews do not eat pork, this is an ancient legend, which is also the law for this people. When one of their cities was under siege, the people were starving and their food was one ram a day. But time passed, and the sheep ran out, but the people found a way out and agreed on an exchange. This exchange consisted in the fact that they would daily buy a ram for a basket of gold from Roman soldiers.

But the days went by, and the commander-in-chief of the warriors could not understand where the poor people got their strength from and how they hold the defense so staunchly. After all, a long time ago the people should become weak from lack of food and surrender. But there was also an enemy and a traitor among the Jews, who told everything about the exchange and that every day the people of Jerusalem are gaining strength, having eaten a young ram brought by their soldiers, and with renewed strength stands in defense of their city, their holy land. Then the commander-in-chief decided to take revenge on the people of the Jews and ordered his soldiers to stop feeding the enemy and put a pig in a basket instead of a young ram, and took the gold for himself. After these actions, the holy land shook and became dead, the Jews could not defend their city and honor, were expelled from their possessions, they could not forgive the betrayal of their own man, who took the side of the enemy and remembered him forever.

But besides laws and legends, Jews believe that, from a medical point of view, pork also destroys a person and is unfit for consumption. But all these are only the concepts of the Jews, because in modern medicine nothing is said about pork as a product unsuitable for human consumption. Many peoples consider it the only useful meat product.

The ban on eating birds of prey and their eggs is associated with the fear that the aggressiveness of predators will be transmitted to people. The Torah even says that before the great flood all people were vegetarians, but after the Lord gave them animals to eat.

It is possible that this taboo also reflected early religious ideas about the ban on boiling milk, since in them milk had a magical connection with its source, that is, it was part of the whole - a cow or a goat.

Accordingly, boiling milk was likened to boiling it in the udder, which was supposed to harm the animal and deprive people of milk. In addition, many African tribes still have prohibitions on any mixing of milk and meat, including in the human stomach, which can be explained by fear for the health of a cow - after all, one of its dead parts, meat, is mixed with live, milk, and the cow symbolically eats herself, as a result of which her milk is defiled.

It is likely that the ban on the mixing of milk and meat manifested the alienation of two types of crops - agricultural and cattle-breeding, which competed with each other.
The ban on eating pork in Islam and Judaism was most likely a preventive sanitary and hygienic measure, because quickly spoiling pork, in the conditions of the ancient world, devoid of refrigerators and modern medicine, could become a deadly meal.

In addition, the pig, with its promiscuous sexual and food habits and obvious love of dirt, gave rise to a symbolic identification with dirty, slovenly and sexually promiscuous people. Accordingly, the use of its meat for food could promise a person to acquire all of the above qualities.

Sometimes a negative attitude towards pigs gave rise to curious cases: in the 18th century, some rabbis considered the tomato to be a pork fruit and forbade its consumption.

And the Indian ban on eating beef may be closely related to economic reasons: in India, cow dung was used for building and heating purposes, they were used as draft animals and gave milk, which made them more valuable than any other animals. So the image of a cow-nurse began to be sacralized, and in the 4th century AD. the ban on killing cows and bulls became official law.

The ban on bread and wine prepared by non-Jews refers to the desire of the Jews to consolidate fellow believers and prevent the assimilation of other peoples. Accordingly, at any festival organized by representatives of other religions, it will be very difficult for a Jew to keep kosher. In modern cultures, such socially-conditioned reasons for the prohibition of food in Judaism or Islam play a major role in religious unity.

All food prohibitions associated with Judaism and Islam are not accidental.

Pork dishes are the "kings" of the menu of many restaurants, and also the main contender for the title of "nail of the home table", both satisfying and attractive. However, this meal is not for everyone. Pork meat is rejected for various reasons, including religious ones.

unclean animal

The mention of the ban can be found in the Holy Book of Muslims as many as four times. Jews do not eat pork according to the testament of the Pentateuch - the first part of the Torah.

It is not only customary to eat a pig, but also to show it on TV in countries that profess Islam. There you will never see the "Muppet Show" and its heroine Miss Piggy, and children will never read the tale of the three little pigs.

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The main reason for this attitude can be called the uncleanliness of this animal. As you know, a pig eats even its own excrement. In addition, the pig is subject to many of the same ailments that a person suffers from - and they refuse to eat pig meat, including in order not to get infected. And since pigs get sick quite often, even with a dangerous flu, the risk of being infected increases.

And we must not forget that Jews and Muslims are the indigenous inhabitants of hot countries. Meat, and especially such fatty meat as pig meat, spoils rather quickly in these countries if it is not cooked in time.

In addition, when raising pigs for sale, growth hormones are very often used, causing a variety of ailments in those who eat “chipped” meat, from innocent allergies to heart disease.

Fact: According to medical studies, 69% of all raw pork samples are contaminated with the dangerous bacteria Yersinia enterocolitica, which causes fever and gastrointestinal illness with diarrhea, vomiting and cramps. Worst of all, many of the bacteria found in pork are resistant to several antibiotics, making treatment more problematic.

Wrong hooves

In Judaism, such a concept as kashrut, compliance with the laws of the Torah, is very important. Pork is definitely not a "kosher" food.

Reference: Kosher food is considered the meat of ruminant herbivores with cloven hooves, whose habitat is land. Thus, cows and sheep, gazelles and goats, giraffes and elks can be classified as kosher. Pigs, rabbits and camels are not included in this list. In order to become kosher, the meat must not have blood. Religious laws are very strict in this regard. It is believed that eating food with blood (even if it is contained in an egg in the form of a clot) awakens cruelty in a person.

At the same time, in Judaism it is forbidden to mix dairy and meat products (so much so that even different knives are used for butchering), and you can only eat fish that is covered with scales. On Passover, it is customary for Jews to eat not yeast bread, but thin matzah on flour and water.

In addition to pork, the Jews are commanded not to eat shellfish. Also, do not forget that shrimp and oysters tend to spoil quickly.

Who and what not to feed

In Hinduism, beef is not eaten (the cow is considered sacred). However, there is no ban on milk and dairy products.

In Buddhism, mostly all vegetarians, although there is no official ban on eating meat.

Christianity in terms of food prohibitions can be called the most tolerant religion. The only thing is that Christianity does not welcome the eating of an animal that died a natural death, and meat with blood.

Why can't Muslims eat pork?

Christian Europeans are often surprised by unusual traditions found in other cultures, in particular, in Islam. Despite the fact that at first glance there are many identical elements in these two world religions, in each of them there are some

Its unique features. Surely everyone knows that not a single believing Muslim will ever eat pork and drink wine (because of this, as we remember from history, Ancient Russia never accepted the faith of the Prophet Muhammad). And if everything seems to be clear about alcohol, then why shouldn't Muslims eat pork? Eating this meat is forbidden because the pig is an unclean animal; the believer, using it, will defile himself, which is not pleasing in the face of Allah.

Modern scientists put forward two rational hypotheses for the emergence of such a taboo:

1. Islam originated on the territory of the Arab Caliphate, where the climate is very hot and arid. Meat could be stored for a very short time, and eating spoiled pork very often caused poisoning - this is why Muslims should not eat pork.

2. Recently, Spanish scientists made an amazing discovery: it turns out that pork is harmful to human health. In the blood and muscles of this artiodactyl found

Can Christians eat pork?

"Stupid question! - perhaps, many will say. - Why can't you eat pork?" Muslims are directly forbidden by the prophets, and in the New Testament there is not a word about the prohibition of eating pork meat. However, you should not be so categorical - you just need to remember that Islam is not at all the first religion in which there are food taboos. It is Judaism. In the Old Testament, Moses and Aaron are given a set of rules for living, which also contains a list of food restrictions. In particular, Jews are forbidden

there is all carrion, blood and meat of animals whose hooves are not cloven and which do not chew the cud - the pig is one of them. Jesus in the New Testament tells his disciples: "I did not come into this world to cancel the words of the prophets!" - that is, food bans have not been canceled by anyone. However, many opponents of the restrictions say that the ancient covenants were given exclusively for the Jews and are not binding on the descendants of the Gentiles. In addition, there is a verse in the Gospel of John that says that "sin is not what enters a person's mouth, but what comes out of them." The final decision of this issue was formulated at the Assembly of the Apostles in 49 AD: "Avoid fornication, idolatry and do not do to others what you do not want to yourself."

Everyone knows that Jews and Muslims do not eat pork, but few people thought about why they have such a routine. Usually it comes down to explaining that the pig is considered a dirty animal. But after all, at the time when religions were born, the rest of the cattle were not much cleaner! And the people themselves often lived in terrible unsanitary conditions.

What's the matter?

Kashrut or kosher is a set of strict food restrictions based on the laws of the Torah and the Talmud. Kosher allows you to eat the meat of only those animals that are both artiodactyls and ruminants - from sheep to giraffes.

However, kosher prohibits eating pork and hare, because pigs do not chew gum, and hares do not have hooves. There was also an explanation for the behavior of “semi-kosher” animals: in a dream, pigs supposedly proudly put out their “correct” hooves, but hide their faces, and hares, on the contrary, tuck their paws out of shame.

The meat of kosher animals must be prepared by a professional butcher, a shochet, who slaughters the cattle in one special movement, in no case piercing the meat or delaying the course of the knife. Shokhets go through a long training before taking up their duties.

There are a lot of meat cutting laws in the Jewish tradition: it is important not only the participation of the shochet in the slaughter of livestock, but also the check of the animal for illness, which is performed by the mashgiach, and the cleaning of the carcass by the menaker from fat and sinew, prohibited by the kosher. The use of seafood is also strictly regulated: they must have scales and fins, that is, shellfish and crustaceans are strictly prohibited.

Each housewife is obliged to sift flour to avoid getting worms into it and carefully inspect vegetables for fruits in search of larvae. The prohibition against eating insects gives only one exception: you can eat locusts (Lev. 11:22).

Kosher also forbids eating foods that contain blood (therefore, meat is sprinkled with salt during cutting, which absorbs it), bird eggs with the same, blunt or sharp, ends (as a rule, birds of prey eggs have the same ends), and alcohol that is not made religious Jews, subject to many special rules. It is strictly forbidden to "boil a kid in mother's milk", to mix milk with meat at one meal. However, it is hardly possible to check the kosherness of already prepared food by formal methods, and therefore this right is usually granted to a rabbi.

In addition, other peoples are tolerant of pigs, although these animals all over the world are equally fond of wallowing in the mud. So what's the catch then?

It turned out that even scientists were interested in this ban. They say that every food taboo in religion is easily explained in terms of common sense. This is not some whim of believing fanatics, but real precautions!

As an unclean animal, the pig is already mentioned in the Torah (9th century BC). The aversion to the pig among the Jews was so strong that instead of the word "pig" they often said "davar aher", literally - "another thing", that is, something that is better not even to be called by its own name.
The negative attitude of Jews and Muslims towards pigs is explained by the uncleanliness of these animals, devouring even their excrement, and by the fact that in a hot climate ptomaine quickly accumulates in their meat. However, Jewish scribes invariably emphasized that one should not look for any rational reasons here, the motivation of the Lord is hidden from man.

Ethnographers believe that the whole point is in the peculiarities of primitive beliefs, from which many taboos migrated to later formed religions. In one of the early religious systems, animal-deifying totemism, it is forbidden to pronounce the name and touch those animals that are considered the gods of the tribe.

Probably, among the Semitic peoples, the boar was once such a god. The cult of the beast-deity was supplanted by the cults of anthropomorphic gods, but ritual taboos "by inertia" continued to operate. For example, our ancestors could not call a bear by its real name - ber, and this “bear-because”, that is, “honey connoisseur”, took root. By the way, once the Slavs also had a ban on the use of bear meat.

It is worth saying that the Old Testament also says that you can not eat the meat of pigs, but how many Christians adhere to this ban?
The gastronomic preferences of Muslims are very limited. All food in Islam is divided into three groups: halal, makrooh and haram, which correlate with the Indian sattva, rajas and tamas, and of these, only halal is completely allowed to be consumed.

The Koran, like the Torah, is primarily a code of laws that determines the life of Muslims. The Qur'an forbids the eating of pork, carrion, wrongly slaughtered livestock (without mentioning the name of Allah), and blood (5:3). However, the violation of the prohibition, as is often emphasized in the Qur'an, is possible in extreme cases: "If someone, suffering from hunger, and not from a tendency to sin, is forced to eat the forbidden, then indeed Allah is Forgiving, Merciful."

In addition, it is forbidden in Islam to kill animals for no reason, and some Muslim theologians believe that the profession of slaughtering is sinful. Halal rules are less strict than kosher laws: Muslims do not have a special person who slaughters cattle, and the slaughter rules themselves are also slightly different from Jewish ones. On the other hand, Islam forbids alcoholic beverages allowed by kosher.

For Christianity, the taboo of food is less common and strict, but the sacralization of food is also typical. It is forbidden to eat "idol sacrificed", that is, sacrificed by the pagans to the gods, foul eating, and also - during fasting - meat, milk, eggs, butter, fish and some other products.

The absence of significant food taboos is due to the fact that the New Testament abolished those prohibitions that were prescribed in the Old, and coincided with the Jewish laws already listed. According to the teachings of Christ, food cannot defile a spiritual person: “Everything that is sold at the auction, eat without any research, for peace of mind; for the earth is the Lord, and what fills it” (1 Cor. 10:25-27).

Hinduism is characterized by the rejection of beef, due to the fact that the cow is a sacred animal. Many followers of this religion adhere to ahimsa - a doctrine that preaches non-violence, and, accordingly, a special vegetarian diet.

Followers of Jainism, another religion of India, even put special bandages on their mouths and sweep the road in front of them with a broom in order not to accidentally kill living beings. Needless to say, they do not eat them in any form. Hindus try not to eat rajasic foods that are overly savoury, like coffee or tea, and tamasic foods that are "tasteless, smelly, stale" like meat, garlic, or eggs.

The origins of kosher may lie in moral precepts. With proper slaughter, the animal dies almost painlessly. The taboo on eating blood can also be associated with considerations of humanity and the reluctance to shed blood as a symbol of the soul of God's creatures. The ban on eating birds of prey and their eggs is associated with the fear that the aggressiveness of predators will be transmitted to people. The Torah even says that before the great flood all people were vegetarians, but after the Lord gave them animals to eat.

Also interesting is the possible interpretation of the prohibition on mixing milk and meat, which subsequently evolved into a taboo on eating them at one meal: meat, as a symbol of death and murder, should not be mixed with a symbolic new life, that is, mother's milk that promotes growth. cubs. It is possible that this taboo also reflected early religious ideas about the ban on boiling milk, since in them milk had a magical connection with its source, that is, it was part of the whole - a cow or a goat. Accordingly, boiling milk was likened to boiling it in the udder, which was supposed to harm the animal and deprive people of milk.

In addition, many African tribes still have prohibitions on any mixing of milk and meat, including in the human stomach, which can be explained by fear for the health of a cow - after all, one of its dead parts, meat, is mixed with live, milk, and the cow symbolically eats herself, as a result of which her milk is defiled. It is likely that the ban on mixing milk and meat manifested the alienation of two types of crops - agricultural and cattle-breeding, which competed with each other.

The ban on eating pork in Islam and Judaism was most likely a preventive sanitary and hygienic measure, because quickly spoiling pork, in the conditions of the ancient world, devoid of refrigerators and modern medicine, could become a deadly meal. In addition, the pig, with its promiscuous sexual and food habits and obvious love of dirt, gave rise to a symbolic identification with dirty, slovenly and sexually promiscuous people. Accordingly, the use of its meat for food could promise a person to acquire all of the above qualities. Sometimes a negative attitude towards pigs gave rise to curious cases: in the 18th century, some rabbis considered the tomato to be a pork fruit and forbade its consumption.

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