Is it legal?
Does it occur?
Are there uses for swine that are acceptable to judaism/islam?
Apparently, it does occur, or did in Biblical times. There’s a passage in Matthew where Jesus drives the evil spirits out of a man and into a nearby herd of swine. What the pigs were doing there in the first place, I have no clue.
The Prodigal Son is also mentioned as having worked as a swineherd, but that is in an (unnamed) faraway land, so it might be a non-Jewish country.
As far as I know, there is not an acceptable use of swine in Judaism. Islam defines the pig as unclean in all ways, and it’s not acceptable to even have them around.
Prior to Islam, though, a lot of Middle Eastern types ate pork. I recall it was a luxury food in pre-Islamic Egypt. And in the time of Christ there were a number of Pagans in the Middle East with no prohibitions on pigs, which would account for their presence.
There are problems with pigs in the hot climate of the Middle East - pigs are prone to heat stroke unless they have constant access to a cool wallow of some sort, because they can’t sweat. Lacking that, they’ll try to cool off by wallowing in their own urine and feces, no doubt leading to a reputation of being unclean (literally). Also, pigs eat food that could be used by humans - they don’t convert grass to meat and milk the way cattle, goats, and sheep do. So, in the desert pigs are an animal that compete with humans for food and, even worse, water. Not really a practical animal for the climate.
As far as I know, there is not an acceptable use of swine in Judaism. Islam defines the pig as unclean in all ways, and it’s not acceptable to even have them around.
Prior to Islam, though, a lot of Middle Eastern types ate pork. I recall it was a luxury food in pre-Islamic Egypt. And in the time of Christ there were a number of Pagans in the Middle East with no prohibitions on pigs, which would account for their presence.
There are problems with pigs in the hot climate of the Middle East - pigs are prone to heat stroke unless they have constant access to a cool wallow of some sort, because they can’t sweat. Lacking that, they’ll try to cool off by wallowing in their own urine and feces, no doubt leading to a reputation of being unclean (literally). Also, pigs eat food that could be used by humans - they don’t convert grass to meat and milk the way cattle, goats, and sheep do. So, in the desert pigs are an animal that compete with humans for food and, even worse, water. Not really a practical animal for the climate.
Sorry for the double-post - can a wandering mod fix it? Thanks.
And here I was sure this was going to be a feminist complaint about women dealing with their male-chauvinist-pig husbands…