Sunday Sermonette: You are what you eat

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 theLord 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 ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs