"OM" om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_researc h_facility.org wrote
in message ...
On Thu, 13 May 2004 20:25:54 GMT, Doug...
wrote:

I have to say that, from a dietary standpoint, I am quite glad I've
never been in a position to have to try and keep kosher. (I was going
to say "I'm glad I'm not Jewish," but I have eaten and enjoyed quite a
few traditional Jewish foods. I just like a lot of things that kosher
rules prohibit.)

...Keep in mind, tho, that about 90% of the kosher regs came about in
an attempt to curtail food poisoning and other maladies associated
with improper food preparation. The primary motivation for the banning
of the consumption of pork products stemmed from the fact that if you
don't cook pork correctly, back then you pretty much guaranteed
yourself a case of parasitical trichinosis, if not botulism or other
diseases associated with eating swine and/or poultry products that
weren't cleaned properly before and during prep & cooking. The
additional fact that in a desert condition cleaning water is far less
important than drinking water, and therefore far less available, is an
additional factor.

That's a theory. Unfortunately, there is a lot of evidence against it being
the sole reason. First, by your argument then chicken's shouldn't be kosher.
Trichinosis (and salmonella) are killed by temperatures which still leave
the meat unpleasently rare. There are two alternate theories that I'm aware
of. One is that the laws of Kashrut are G-d's way of making Jews prove their
loyalty by making them follow silly rules. The other, perhaps more
reasonable, is that the laws are moral object lessons. There are really
three types of unkosher foods:

1. Foods that are unkosher because they are made from dirty animals. (For
instance non-scaly seafood tends to live at the bottom of lakes/rivers. Pigs
roll in the dirt. Non-flying insects tend to live in the dirt.)
2. Foods that are unkosher because the animal was not killed humanely. Note
that for an animal to be killed properly it must suffer the least amount of
pain. Probably associated with this is the prohibition against milk and
meat, which is only present biblically in no stewing a kid in its mother's
milk.
3. Weird rules associated with symbology. For example, the prohibition
against eating blood, which means that the meat must be drained and salted,
and that the hindquarters of cattle must have the blood containing fat and
large blood vessels removed. (This has something to do with blood being
associated spritually with the soul, and also that these portions were
sacrificed at the Temple.) Also why fertilized eggs are not kosher. It may
be that the prohibition against eating carnivores comes in here as well.
This is also why wine, which has religious significance, must be certified
kosher, even if it is prepared without the use of animal products.

There is probably a confluence of a lot of factors, only some of which are
health related.

There are probably a confluence