Why don't Jews eat pork?

Question

I've heard a lot of explainations for this:
pigs are dirty, they're "evil"...?

Is any of that right? What is?

Answer 1

G-d gave us a bunch of laws in the Tanakh. Jews follow these laws. Among these laws are the laws of kashrut (kosher eating). Pork is not kosher. So we do not eat pork. Why isn't pork kosher? It does not both chew the cud and have cloven hooves.

Answer 2

The Levites were one off the twelve Jewish tribes in the old testament which provided all the priests and high priests for the people.They were also the tribe that provided the medical services. As "doctors" they were knowledgeable in what made people sick. Pork spoils easily,so does shellfish and milk products mixed with meat products in the hot climate they lived in.Pigs also carries a greater variety of diseases because they eat everything.So pork were prohibited to prevent illness.Because they were also the priests these prohibitions were written into the Jewish law and the priests made sure it was observed. This is how these kosher laws were written into Jewish customs and is still observed until today.

Answer 3

You see the bible is really deep in meaning and we shouldn't judge it by each word it says. Pork meat is really bad for the health when not stored properly. In Old days pork was prohibited because of the lack of our new world "refrigerator"
you need to freeze pork in order for bacteria not to develop into the meat so if the people before ate this infected meat, they would become ill, sick and with the lack of modern medicine:die. Modern religions still practice not to eat pork based on the old believes which are mostly conservative groups. Liberal Christians do eat pork and get the sense of the meaning "unclean". I'm not saying also that conservative groups don't know this, every religion has his practices. ^_^V

Answer 4

It has nothing whatsoever to do with health concerns. There are many free classes you can take to learn about Judaism. If you have a Reform congregation in your area, call and ask if they offer the classes.

Kashrut cannot be explained here in just a few sentences. It's something that must experienced and requires at least some knowledge of Judaism. The "real" Judaism, not the Christian version!
.

Answer 5

The Old Testament forbids eating animals that don't chew their cuds OR don't have split hooves.(Leviticus 11:2-4) (Both are needed, having one or none of the signs is equally not kosher.) Many people in trying to explain WHY G-d commanded it, may say that pigs are dirty,etc, but that is just OUR understanding. The bottom line is, if you follow the Old Testament (ie Jews), pig is out. The same is true of ALL the commandments. We can try to understand the logic, but our observance ISN'T based on our logic, it is based on the commandment

Answer 6

There is a lengthy explanation and list of "Clean" and "Unclean" food in Old Testament Levitical Law, in the Books of Moses. They do it to be obedient to the Law.

A "clean" animal is one that (1) chews a cud and (2) has cloven hooves. If it does neither, or only one without the other, it is "unclean" and not to be eaten. A cow is clean, it does both. A camel is unclean, it chews a cud but has a solid foot. The pig has cloven feet but does not chew a cud.

Levitical Law can go on and on for pages and pages and gets quite detailed and lengthy.

Answer 7

Pigs are dirty and carry lots of diseases even if they are cooked properly they still have diseases. They eat garbage and crap and roll around in mud all day and are never clean. Muslims also don't eat pork as well. Plus God ordered Jews, Christians, and Muslims not to eat pork.

Answer 8

In olden times people did not know about tapeworms and food preparation, and the result was that many died who ate pork. This scared many people into believing something magical evil about pigs, when it was only that they carry diseases which, if properly prepared pose no risk. It was good advice to avoid pork until we came to understand the problem. Cook it well and you are fine.

Answer 9

Pork is prohibited to them in the OT; the pig is considered to be an unclean animal and its meat is not supposed to be healthy.
Cheers.

Answer 10

There is a biblical injunction in the Old Testement against eating pig.