I guess it’s pretty common knowledge that a lot of religions do not allow their devotees to eat certain animals, my only question is why, what’s the root cause? The cow is sacred in India, so therefore they don’t eat it, understandable, but I haven’t seen the pig being worshipped anywhere, yet a lot of religions don’t allow it.
I think it is that they are considered unclean, rather than worshipped. Old Testament and Koran should have something to say on the subject.
If I recall from my readings, scavenger animals are not permitted under Jewish dietary law. I can’t remember the C&V, but there is something about not eating owls :eek: !
Lobster is think is also verboten.
Various theories:
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Pigs are scavengers. They’ll eat anything.
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Pigs aren’t clean animals. They’ll wallow in anything
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Perhaps partly due to 1 and 2, Pigs are more prone to disease and can kill you if not cooked properly. Of course, that goes for other animals like chickens that don’t make the list. Although, I’m not sure chickens were used as farm animals when Judaism was young.
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Pigs feel more pain when you slaughter them. Killing an ox the way proscribed in the Old Testament actually immediately severs the main nerve bundle in the neck. Some have postulated God’s mercy comes into play here.
Otherwise, it is that way “because God said so.”
Most of the basis for which animals are kosher and which are not is in Leviticus. Lobster, crab, oyster, clam, mussels, octopus, and any other shell fish are not kosher. Basically, any fish with fins and scales is kosher, as is any land animal with split hooves and chews its cud. (That’s why pigs are out.) Certain birds are OK to eat (chicken, turkey, duck, geese, and some others), and others are not. And yes, it’s true that giraffe is kosher, although no one eats it (as far as I know). 
Reincarnation and ancestor veneration (Japan) affecting a certain type of animal - Crabs with samuri on their backs?.
Um, I don’t remember all of them, but the big reason pigs figure so largely in most of the lists of tabu foods, is it used to be actually dangerous to eat.
Prior to modern agricultural methods, in many places one raised pigs by letting them run loose in the streets, eating whatever. Which pigs will do. Garbage-fed hog anyone? And I’m not talking leftover food, here. I mean dead rats, dead people, chamberpot scrapings . . . which gave them lovely things like trichinosis, which is apparently why one is advised to cook the sh!t out of pork, horse, and wild game. Even now, with better sanitation and rules (in North America, anyways) about what you can feed your porkers, it is still an occasional problem.
And IIRC, I heard somewhere that part of the reasoning behind the shellfish ban for Jewish people was the fact that shellfish have one of the shortest shelf lives, especially in the heat, known to mankind. Back then, if it wasn’t sea-to-plate, it could be REAL iffy.
Anyone else?
Tisiphone
Very simple.
The animals we can and cannot eat are listed in Leviticus and again in Dueteronomy. The basic rules are:
Mammals: Split hooves and chews it’s cud. Must have both.
Sea life: Fins and scales. Must have both. In addition, not all scales are OK. They must be easy to remove.
Birds: The prohibited birds are explicitly mentioned. All other birds are permitted. However, since the exact translations of many of the Hebrew names of the birds are unknown, we only eat those that have a tradition of being kosher (chicken, turkey, duck, turtledove, etc.).
Yes, there is talk that part of the reason the Jews kept kosher is to prevent trichinosis and other such problems. However, that is not the ultimate reason. As jmullaney put it, the reason is “because God said so.” This means that if trichinosis were wiped off the face of the earth tomorrow, we would still be forbidden to eat pig.
Zev Steinhardt
Well, except normal fish have a really short shelf life too, and they can be eaten. Also, nations like the Canaanites, the Philistines, etc, didn’t have any better methods of refrigeration, and there were no bans on them eating seafood.
The real reason that observant Jews don’t eat shellfish, pork, etc., is simply because these are rules that God gave to us. There is no reason given. Some of the laws that observant Jews follow have reasons, some don’t. Others may eat kosher food because it’s “cleaner” (it isn’t) or more healthy (it isn’t) or because “the rabbi blessed it” (he didn’t). 
Just curious - which fish are in the ‘scales that are not easy to remove’ category.
Would this include sharks (they have scales)?
Sharks are not fish, so they don’t count. I believe that the big controversy is about swordfish. Apparently, swordfish have scales that either come off after they are removed from water, or they are not considered true scales. The orthodox opinion is that swordfish is not kosher; the conservative opinion is that it is kosher.
Sharks are cartilagenous fish. Or is there a religious definition of fish? [This is said as an inquiry, completely without sarcasm.]
Or are they considered a scavenger?
Well, not being an ichtylogoist (did I spell that right?), I couldn’t tell you off hand which fish are not kosher for that reason. Sharks, BTW, are not kosher.
Zev Steinhardt
Being a scavenger is not necessarily what keeps a fish (or bird) from being kosher. If a brand new fish were discovered tomorrow, which is a scavenger, but has fins and (qualifying) scales, then it would be kosher.
The whole scavenger thing came about when someone looked at a list of fish/birds that aren’t kosher and noticed that they were mainly scavengers and/or predators. It’s a nice theory, but it doesn’t define which fish & birds are kosher and not kosher.
As for your question screech-owl, the Torah doesn’t use the word “fish” (dagim) in the section. It uses the phrase “of all that is in the water” (mikol asher bamayim*). This includes even animals that aren’t fish (whales, dolphins, shellfish, squid, octopi, jellyfish, etc.)
Zev Steinhardt
I don’t think sharks have scales the same way “regular” fish have scales. Isn’t shark skin more like sandpaper? I know from seeing them in the local aquarium that they certainly don’t look like they have scales.
There is a religious definition of scales, hence the controversy about swordfish. I’ve never seen it in a kosher restaurant.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by elshpen *
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A similar controversy exists about the sturgeon as well.
Zev Steinhardt
[screeching halt]
Topic sidetrack.
I am not an ichthyologist (you were close), but if I recall, sharks have a special type of scale (irony of ironies, I am at work and my books on sharks are at home), made of dentin. As well, the scales overlap very closely, so it is not as apparent as on say one of your bony fish (I can’t recall the $5 word for bony fish (osso-something). Yes, sharkskin has a very sandpapery feel - I’ve petted (very small) sharks before, and there is a rough and smooth feel, depending which direction you are stroking - and dried sharkskins were/are used as sandpaper.
If this topic has not dropped too far down tomorrow, I can get some clarification on the particular types of scales.
[/screeching halt]
Thank you for the clarification on scavenging. I’d been under that mistaken information for quite some time.
I attended a lecture on kashrus by Rabbi Avraham Blumenkrantz (a rabbi well known in the Orthodox community as an authority on kashrus). During the lecture, he brought up that there are four different kinds of fish scales (Placoid, Cosmoid, Ganoid and Cycloid). Unfortunately, I don’t remember which ones he said were signs of a kosher fish and which weren’t. I’m going to have to go back and check my notes (if I can find them, this was some time ago).
Zev Steinhardt
According to this site I found on fish scales, the four types of fish scales are:
- Placoid
- Cosmoid
- Ganoid
- Cycloid and Ctenoid
According to the Orthodox Union’s website, only Cycloid and Ctenoid scales are signs of a kosher fish.
Placoid scales are found on sharks and rays.
Cosmoids are found on lungfishes and are similar to Placoids
Ganoids are found on sturgeons
Zev Steinhardt