To me it seems more like hygiene codified into religion.
I dont see how not eating shrimp will get me into heaven. But I do know how not eating crab would keep me from it, so good.
2007-02-22 05:40:59 · 8 answers · asked by elvatoloco2025 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
You are really asking why the Torah forbids things that the natural logic would not have predicted.
There are halakhot like this, called huggim. Another example if the red heifer.
2007-02-22 05:49:53 · answer #1 · answered by Ivri_Anokhi 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It was about hygiene, bu tit also wasn't. Many of the dietary restrictions came about as common practices of the time as well as reactions against some common practices. I'll explain.
It was prety well known that pigs were scavengers, and in fact most of the restrictions are scavenger animals, i.e. shrimp and crabs, and so it was very common to get sick from these animals because they ate . . . well . . . s**t. Religion takes over here and says people are unclean because of certain reasons up to and including menstruating (sorry ladies) so eating a scavenger that ate s**t would be considered eating an animal that itself was unclean.
It is also a reaction against other religious practices. By this I mean restrictions like not being able to eat dairy and meat (of the same kind of animal) within a certain time span of each other. this time span varies depending on how rigidly you interpret the rules. This means no cheeseburgers, or, as was a Babylonian practice, cooking your fatted calf in the mother's milk. These restictions were set up as a way to seperate Judaism from other religions and help give it an identity of it's own.
So, in the end, it was for both hygiene reasons and for religious reasons. I will also say that I know a good number of Jewish people who really like their bacon :)
2007-02-22 13:55:10 · answer #2 · answered by Chris A 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
One of the great misconceptions under which many of us labor is that the Jewish dietary laws (the laws of kashrut) were instituted for health reasons. (Leviticus 11:44-45)
Holiness is the only reason given in the Bible for the observance of dietary laws. Orthodox and Conservative Jews subscribe to the dietary laws (although there are varying degrees of observance). Reforms Jews (like myself) by and large, do not observe them, although many refrain from eating pork or pork products.
2007-02-26 10:43:55 · answer #3 · answered by Sabine 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We don't question God's commandments. When one questions, he is likely to determine that God's laws no longer apply.
As gratvol said, Judaism is about life here on earth, not about death and the afterlife. We learn self-restraint and moderation from many of our traditions.
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2007-02-25 23:09:56 · answer #4 · answered by Hatikvah 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
it has nothing to do with keeping you in or out of "heaven"
the way I have understood it is that it is a mode of self control. When a person learns to control his physical enviorment by regulating what he eats, how he speaks, ect he learns to also control his mental and spiritual state.
in short if one can control what he eats he can also learn to control his emotions and his manner.
but that is just how I look at it.
2007-02-22 14:50:50 · answer #5 · answered by Gamla Joe 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
the dietary laws are not to keep you in, or out of heaven. they are there for the over all health of Gods children. to protect from deseases and obesity.
2007-02-22 13:58:57 · answer #6 · answered by Thumbs down me now 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It was pretty much hygiene encoded into religion. It is part of the Talmud...Jewish book of law.
2007-02-22 13:44:19 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Derived from the Bible, or what you call the OT..
hygiene does not enter into it..
2007-02-22 13:45:53 · answer #8 · answered by XX 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋