Reason that Chicken is considered Meat

Often people are confused about why the Rabbis forbade chicken (birds) with milk - why were they concerned about chicken more than fish, or pareve vege-burgers?

The usual answer given is that 'it looks like meat' which is not really a good answer, because many things look like meat, and many things don't.

Rambam (Hilchos Mamrim end of chapter 2) gives a different answer. He explains the 'slippery slope' argument that Chazal were trying to avoid with their decree. The context is that he is explaining why a decree of Chazal is not considered 'Bal Tosif' - and the reason is because they don't claim that it is from the Torah, even though in practice they are enacting a new rule:

אבל אם אמר בשר העוף מותר מן התורה, ואנו נאסור אותו, ונודיע לעם שהוא גזירה: שלא יבוא מן הדבר חורבה, ויאמרו בשר העוף מותר מפני שלא נתפרש בתורה, כך החיה מותרת שהרי לא נתפרשה; ויבוא אחר לומר אף בשר בהמה מותר, חוץ מן העז; ויבוא אחר לומר אף בשר העז מותר בחלב הפרה או הכבשה, שלא נאמר אלא "אימו" (שמות כג,יט; שמות לד,כו; דברים יד,כא) שהיא מינו; ויבוא אחר לומר אף בחלב העז שאינה אימו מותר, שלא נאמר אלא "אימו". לפיכך נאסור כל בשר בחלב, ואפילו בשר עוף. אין זה מוסיף, אלא עושה סייג לתורה. וכן כל כיוצא בזה.

But if someone says that meat of a chicken is permitted from the Torah, but we (Sages) forbid it, and we tell the people the reason for the decree:
In order that it doesn't lead to ruin, that people may say that just as chicken meat is permitted because it is not explicit in the Torah, so too meat from a wild animal is permitted because it is also not explicit. Then another person will come and say that even meat of domestic animals is permitted apart from goat. Then another person will come and say that even meat of a goat is permitted with milk of a cow or sheep, because the Torah only says "its mother" which means from the same species. Then another person will come and say that even in goat's milk it is permtited as long as it is not the mother of that kid, because the Torah only says "its mother". Therefore we (the Sages) forbade all meat with milk, even chicken meat.
This is not adding to the Torah, but making a fence. And all cases which are similar.

So Rambam is not worried about people who cannot tell the difference between meat and milk, He is worried about the 'lamdanim' who don't understand the system of halacha and will make false analogies, leading them to transgress Torah prohibitions.

He also seems to say that this is the logic behind all Rabbinic decrees.

I suppose a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Shechita Labelling

The EU has decided to label meat that was killed without first being pre-stunned. This is a move aimed primarily at distinguishing kosher and halal meat from 'regular' non-shechted meat.

I'm not sure if people really understand what 'stunning' means. It sounds so nice - kind of like an anesthetic before an operation. But in fact it is quite nasty. They basically shoot a captive steel bolt through the brain of the animal and thereby 'pith' it. Alternatively, for smaller animals, they place electrodes on the animals head which 'stun' it.

If you have a very strong stomach you can watch these youtube videos of electric- and captive bolt-stunning. Or you can take my word for it.





(For chickens they spray them with electrified water (stunning) before ripping off their heads. I've seen these machines back in New Zealand. If I was a chicken I'd definitely prefer shechita - but I'm glad I'm not a chicken at all!)

Since 'stunning' makes the animal into a treifah (an animal that would not live for 12 months), it is impossible to halachically pre-stun kosher animals.

There is no evidence (that I know of) that shows that this is less painful for the animal than shechita. But it does have a couple of other advantages. Firstly, the animal doesn't kick around after it has been stunned. After shechita the nervous system of the animal causes it to kick and move for several minutes afterwards. Because stunning affects the brain, the nervous system shuts down and the animal stops moving straight away. This is very important for the guys holding the chainsaws who have to cut the animal up after it has been killed. (For this reason most kosher meat is stunned - but only after it has been shechted.)

Another difference is that the blood stays in the body, which changes the flavour of the meat. Kosher meat tastes saltier, because of the kashering process, but also has less blood in it, so does have such a 'rusty' taste.

The real reason for the labelling is to limit the spread of fundamentalist Islam in Europe. The irony is that many Muslims will allow pre-stunning before halal killing (it is a machlokes, but I think the majoriy in Europe follow this opinion - but I'm not an expert on this). So in practice this legislation will harm Jews more than Muslims.

And the reaosn it makes a difference (because you would think that most kosher meat goes to Jewish shops, and thus doesn't make a difference) is because Ashkenazim do not eat the hindquarters of animals. Therefore they have to sell half the animal to the non-Jewish meat market. Labelling it as non-stunned will make it harder to sell the hindquarters and therefore put up the price of kosher meat. Whether, ultimately, this will cause the Ashkenazim to re-introduce the halachos of removing the gid hanashe (sciatic nerve) and eat the hindquarters - as most Sefardim do - remains to be seen.

Another irony is that the EU legislation is exactly the opposite of what Rambam writes as halacha. In Hilchot De'ot (2:6) he writes:

לא ימכור לגוי בשר נבילה בכלל שחוטה, ולא מנעל של מתה במקום מנעל של שחוטה.

which translates as: "A person may not sell meat from a non-kosher animal to a non-Jew and claim that it has been shechted. Nor a shoe made from leather of an animal that died from natural causes in place of a shoe made from leather of an animal that was shechted."

So we see that in Rambam's time, the non-Jews preferred to eat kosher, shechted meat. They even preferred shoes made of leather from kosher animals. Therefore it is misleading to sell non-kosher meat to a non-Jew as if it was kosher. A non-Jew from Rambam's time will welcome the EU legislation because he or she will know that meat which is not pre-stunned is of a superior quality. The animal is more likely to be healthy, and the killing process improves not only the flavour of the meat, but even the quality of the leather.

Now - if we can just begin a campaign to teach the non-Jews the value of kosher meat...

Is it kosher?

Nowadays the consumer has to rely very heavily on the mashgichim (supervisors) to ensure the food they eat is kosher. It is impossible for the average person to know all the ingredients in products s/he buys, and extremely difficult for them to check on the kashrus of each one.

In restaurants the diner has to trust that the mashgiach is doing his job, and not off 'davening mincha' when he is supposed to be superivsing. It would be virtually impossible to know whether the food you are eating is kosher or not by the time it lands on your plate.

Nowadays the consumer is reliant on supervisors even for plain meat. Gone are the days when you would take your chicken to the shochet and then the Rabbi and you could see yourself whether it is kosher or not.

So stories like these are very disturbing to me. I have no idea whether they ever sold non kosher meat, or whether they were only storing it in the fridge (and I think we should be 'dan l'kaf z'chus):

On Monday at 5:30 p.m., an official from the Chief Rabbinate's Kashrut Supervision Unit discovered that the Tamar-Biton butcher in Kfar Saba had meat in refrigeration earmarked for retail sale that had not been properly koshered according to Jewish law.

In the report entitled "Severe Stumbling Block - Tamar-Biton Butcher," Rabbi Rafi Ochai, head of the anti-fraud unit, wrote: "From the above findings it can be concluded that there were serious lapses and breaches in kashrut supervision directives that raise the possibility that the public was tricked into eating non-kosher meat."

The business was fined NIS 1,000. The Kfar Saba Rabbinate was advised by the anti-fraud unit head to suspend Tamar-Biton's kashrut supervision certificate.

(look at the strength of the Rabbinate - 1000 shekel fine! You could jaywalk ten times for that price!)

But what does disturb me is that the husband of the owner of the store is the one who pays the salaries of the mashgichim:

In addition to helping in the management of his wife's butcher shop, Yaish Biton is also the treasurer of Kfar Saba's religious council. He signs off on the paychecks of all religious council employees, including the chief rabbi's.

Najati said in response that Biton had promised to add a nikur expert to the Kfar Saba religious council payroll. "As treasurer of the religious council, Biton is the man who controls financial issues here," said Najati.

Ochai said the Kfar Saba case was "just the tip of the iceberg."

He said that although he was not sure if this was the case in Kfar Saba, in many cities and towns the local chief rabbi was weak while religious council officials, often appointed for political reasons, have extensive powers. "As a result, economic interests often take precedence over religious strictures," he said.

The Movement for Fairness in Government's Eisenberg said that in many religious councils there were "bullies" who did not respect the religious authority of the local rabbi. "Sometimes, like in Kfar Saba, there is an extreme case of conflict of interests," said Eisenberg.

"It is not right that the manager of a butcher shop is also the one who gives orders to those who are supposed to supervise him," he said. "There is no doubt that such a state of conflict of interests disqualifies him from serving in a religious council and from being able to sign off on paychecks."

This is a problem which is not really dealt with. In some cases, like this, the conflict of interest is clear. What is not talked about is that most restaurants also pay the salary of their mashgiach. Sometimes the money goes directly from restaurateur to mashgiach, sometimes through an organisation. But ultimately any mashgiach knows that his job and livelihood may be on the line if he says something is not kosher.

That is not a good situation. It is very hard not to be bribed by the knowledge that doing your job properly may get you fired.

I don't have a solution, but next time you eat kosher food think about who you are relying on for the supervision, and to whom (apart from G-d) they are answerable.

Just surfing

This is an article on a blog about the difficulties of keeping nida for a deaf person. I don't think I've ever read a better explanation of the positive aspects of hilchot nida than this. Fantastic read.

Jewish Deaf Motorcycling Dad: The Niddah Difference

Does conservative Judaism always have to be wrong on principle? I don't think so, and neither do the people at 'This is Babylon'. Look at this post about the state of kashrut and ethical behaviour:

This is Babylon.

Even as a vegetarian (or perhaps because I'm a vegetarian) I think that kashrus cannot be used as an excuse to avoid hygiene, health or humanitarian laws (or any other laws for that matter, but that is a different topic).

There is an interesting (if flawed) article here about the impossibility of evolution based on the staggeringly large numbers involved:

Math Formula for the Impossibility of Evolution

(I think the obvious flaw, even if all the numbers are correct is that we are here. Therefore whatever the statistics say, it is a certainty. Statistics only tell us the chances of things happening, but once they have happened the statistics don't mean anything. Otherwise none of us would exist, because the statistical chances of our DNA lining up (with all the things that went before that) and our being born and growing to adulthood are infinitesimally small. But we do - I think (as Descartes would say))

Poor old (young) Gavi is trying to make Aliya. But it is not easy. I wish her and the family every success. Perhaps there is someone who has better connections than me and can help them?

Read about it here

And finally, on a lighter note, what happens if you stick a toothpick in two 'Easter peeps' and stick them in the microwave? Peep jousting of course. A battle to the death! Enjoy (and there are plenty more where that came from).



That was my Monday! Have a happy Tuesday.