robison@eosp1.UUCP (12/09/83)
Regarding the "raison d'etre of jewish laws"... There are a few more angles on this "desire to know" that are worth mentioning: (1) Those who observe traditional Judaism give high priority to a lifetime study of the law. The process of study is simply not based on the idea that there are obvious reasons for things that one should ferret out. There is rather an enormous body of law which, as one gains understanding of it, deepens the accuracy, appropriateness and understanding of one's actions to conform to the law. To those of you who wish to know the "raison d'etre" of dietary law, I would like to suggest that if you spend a long time both practicing and studying it, you will (probably) come to view both the question and the sort of answer sought as trivial. (2) The orthodox view of Jewish law is, as was stated in another letter, that the laws were given by G-d, and no further raison d'etre is required. An important corrollary of this, since we assume that man's intelligence does not compare to G-d's, is that it is unlikely that man can fully comprehend the reasons for the institution of the laws. (3) There is a serious danger inherent in relating religious laws to a sensible scientific groundwork (which is what one does in trying to justify ditary law on scientific grounds). There are fashions in science; some scientifc theories that gain popular acceptance are later found to be greatly in error. If Jewish observance were based upon current scientific knowledge, it would need constant updating based upon scientific advances, and sometime past practices would be found to be greatly in error. For an example of this problem, consult the article on the Barnacle Goose in the Jewish Encyclopedia. (4) Although one should not try to justify the institution of dietary law by science, it is fair game to relate one's experience of dietary observance to our scientific knowledge of food. The relationship is far more fascinating than has been suggested, and provides endless food for thought (sorry about that), e.g.: - In order to observe the dietary laws, you must generally be much more knowledgable about food ingredients, and procedures for making food, than the general population. - In order to observe the dietary laws, and to say the appropriate blessings for eating food, you must generally know more about the origins of raw foods than the general population (a case in point is the distinction between tree-fruits and fruits that grow on low bushes.) - There are a staggering number of ways in which the dietary laws protect one from health problems. My favorite is a recent scare in which some people got worms from pork, due to insufficiently cooking beef that had been sliced with the knife used for pork (at a supermarket, I think). Nonetheless, these are just fascinating parallels. Traditional Jewish diets, overall, are heavy on meat and fats, and could hardly be called unusually healthy. - Kashruth markings on food can provide guidance to anyone who wishes strictly to avoid eating animal products. (It seems that most vegetarians, however, do not have the same attitude toward trace animal products such as might be found on a restaurant spoon, or in packaged food that contains "vegetable oil".) - Contrary t popular belief, food can be Kosher and yet very dirty, as well as being very clean and unkosher. Traditional Judiasm brings very powerful religious and symbolic considerations into the process of observing the dietary laws and eating food, which, to my mind, add more to the dimension of life than simply hunting for justifications. For those of you are interested to find out about this, there are sources to read, but remember that traditional Judaism is a practicing religion, and actually observing the laws conveys to one understanding of them that literally cannot be reduced to words. Tobias D. Robison decvax!ittvax!eosp1 or: allegra!eosp1