Where is this verse in the Bible?

[Badtz_Maru]

I recall reading in the Old Testament somewhere a part where it said that if a man is sick or starving he could eat food that does not meet the Kosher dietary laws, but now I am trying to find that verse and I can’t. I could have sworn it was in Leviticus, but perhaps it is somewhere else. Does anyone else know what I am talking about and where it is?

[DAVEW0071]

No doubt someone more learned in Jewish law will reply to this with a cite. Fortunately, there is no dearth of folks on the board to help out in these matters.

FWIW, I’m pretty sure that Jewish Law places human life higher than the letter of the law. For instance, the Law which proscribes working on the Sabbath can (indeed, I believe it must) be ignored if it means attempting to save a person’s life. At the same time, I don’t know if that’s actually Scriptural or if it’s found in commentaries. The same may be true of your question. In many cases, the Law as written is vague or doesn’t cover every contingency, and the commentaries help to clarify specific cases. If I’m correct, they carry as much (or nearly as much) weight as the Scriptural Law.

[zev_steinhardt]

There is no explicit verse stating that the Torah’s laws can be ignored when life is threatened.

The principle is derived from the verse in Leviticus (18:5) “Ye shall therefore keep My statutes, and Mine ordinances, which if a man do, he shall live by them…”. The Talmud comments “that you should live by them and not die by them.”

That being said, as a matter of Jewish law, you are required to violate Jewish law to save a life. Thus, you must violate the Sabbath to save a life. If there is nothing to eat and you are in danger of starvation, you must eat non-kosher food. If threatened with death unless you burn a Torah, then you burn a Torah.

There are three exceptions to this rule, where martyrdom is required:

1. Murder. You cannot murder someone (who is not threatening another person) to save your life. So, if Harry says to you “Kill Pete or I’ll kill you,” then you cannot kill Pete. (You can, of course, try to kill Harry – that’s self defense).

2. Idolatry. If someone comes to you and says “Worship my god or I’ll kill you,” then you cannot worship his god.

3. Forbidden sexual relations. If someone says to you “Sleep with Pete’s wife or I’ll kill you,” it’s forbidden to sleep with Pete’s wife.

Zev Steinhardt

[JeffB]

Although not directly related to kosher foods, isn’t there also something about David and his men eating food from the Temple? Or is this just a New Testament story from Matthew 12:

1 At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat.
2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.
3 But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him;
4 How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?

(This account also appears in Luke 6.) I don’t have my cross-reference Bible handy, and I can’t find any Old Testament passages for what Jesus was talking about.

[DAVEW0071]

Although not directly related to kosher foods, isn’t there also something about David and his men eating food from the Temple?

Yep. From I Samuel 21. David was being pursued by Saul, and went to a priest for help in getting rations and weapons. All the priest had was the consecrated bread, but he gave it to David and his men, so they would not starve. My commentary states that the priest recognized the moral obligation of preserving life by providing food superceded the ceremonial regulation concerning who might eat the consecrated bread.

While it does not specifically address the non-kosher issue, the spirit underlying the action is the same.

[Badtz_Maru]

I KNOW I read this in the Old Testament. I don’t think I dreamed it. Arrgh, this is killing me!

[tomndebb]

Well, The Bible Gateway has a search engine for several translations of the bible. Using “eat” as a search argument returned too many hits and the search stopped. Using “eat unclean” I did not find your passage.

Feel free to put in whatever search arguments on whatever translation you wish.

(I was thinking that you may have been mis-remembering the passage in Mark 7 where Jesus is upbraided because the disciples did not scrupulously follow the law on the Sabbath. Other than that, I’d guess you read one of the Talmudic statements such as that cited by zev.)

[C_K_Dexter_Haven]

I will agree with Zev (as usual), that the commentary you are thinking of is from Talmud, not from Torah.

[zev_steinhardt]

*Originally posted by Badtz Maru *
**I KNOW I read this in the Old Testament. I don’t think I dreamed it. Arrgh, this is killing me! **

I think you’re wrong Badtz Maru. In any event, I can save you some searching. It’s definitely not in the Pentatuch.

Zev Steinhardt

[JeffB]

*Originally posted by DAVEW0071 *
Yep. From I Samuel 21. David was being pursued by Saul, and went to a priest for help in getting rations and weapons. All the priest had was the consecrated bread, but he gave it to David and his men, so they would not starve.

Thanks, DAVEW0071.