Clean vs Unclean

[Cello]

I looked at thread titles in this the Judaism form, but didn't see anything that looked like it addressed this.....I am hoping to get a 'balanced' perspective or opinion from Jews and others.

Why were some animals deemed clean and some unlcean?

Thanks in advance!

[commonman]

I looked at thread titles in this the Judaism form, but didn't see anything that looked like it addressed this.....I am hoping to get a 'balanced' perspective or opinion from Jews and others.

Why were some animals deemed clean and some unlcean?

Thanks in advance!
Because G-d said so! :wink:

A more serious answer might have a lot to do with the digestive systems and diets of the animals. Notice, with the exception of fish, no clean animal is a carnivore. No clean animal, fish included, is a scavenger or bottom-feeder. The clean mammals have multiple stomachs. All this adds up to healthier fare for dinner and less risk of food-born disease. There is probably a really good spiritual reason, but I don't know it.

[Sacrificial Ram]

Because G-d said so! :wink:

A more serious answer might have a lot to do with the digestive systems and diets of the animals. Notice, with the exception of fish, no clean animal is a carnivore. No clean animal, fish included, is a scavenger or bottom-feeder. The clean mammals have multiple stomachs. All this adds up to healthier fare for dinner and less risk of food-born disease. There is probably a really good spiritual reason, but I don't know it.
Cleaness. Scavangers and carnaviors are involved with death.. .. rabbit eat their own excrement..

[Conductor42]

cello, I think this quote that I found on the net best sums it up:


Kosher animals are defined by lists in the Torah. We can make some generalizations about the types of animals that are forbidden -- for example, many of the forbiden animals are predators or scavengers. But in the end, the only rationale for not eating these forbidden animals is that they are forbidden. I believe that some of the kosher laws would fall under the category of a mitzvah that is given, but the reason for it is not understood other than that it will be beneficial to Am Yisrael if adhered to.


Notice, with the exception of fish, no clean animal is a carnivore. I think you're right on this one, but I could have sworn that there were a few predators that were allowed for consumption.


No clean animal, fish included, is a scavenger or bottom-feeder. Actually many fish do scavenge or "bottom-feed", though that may not be their primary means of survival. For example, goldfish (i think) would be considered kosher, and they do that. Also the common "algea eater" (official name is like plecosamous or something like that) I believe would be considered kosher. (don't quote me on that, I'm not sure and I don't like eating fish - I keep them in my aquarium)

[Conductor42]

Also, pearls to you cello for starting a topic that isn't likely to end up as something that should be in the locker room!

[Goose]

...For example, goldfish (i think) would be considered kosher, and they do that.
But they never wipe properly. They always leave something daggling behind them.

:ahem:

[Goose]

Also, pearls to you cello for starting a topic that isn't likely to end up as something that should be in the locker room!
Hear hear!

[Pythagoras]

When Jesus recomended to his Jewish breathen that they absolutely needed to "eat his flesh and drink his blood" to attain "eternal life", he sure did a number on the kosher laws, didn't he?


best wishes,

[InChristAlways]

Because G-d said so! :wink:

A more serious answer might have a lot to do with the digestive systems and diets of the animals. Notice, with the exception of fish, no clean animal is a carnivore. No clean animal, fish included, is a scavenger or bottom-feeder. The clean mammals have multiple stomachs. All this adds up to healthier fare for dinner and less risk of food-born disease. There is probably a really good spiritual reason, but I don't know it.Hi all. It is amazing to me that people would still have to go thru scripture to find out which of the 1000's of species of fish, animal, birds, insects that can or cannot be eaten today.
It appears to me if the NC came by way of the messiah/Savior/redeemer Jesus the Christ, I would like to know what part of the OC would remain. We know the jews can't sacrifice animals anymore because God used the roman army to destroy the temple in the first century as prohecied.
So, how would the NC apply to kosher foods, as us gentiles read in the NC that there is nothing "unclean" that God has made. This is just confusing to me, as I would hate to find out that eating pork or bacon was against the NC God institued in the first century on top of not sacrificing animals to cleanse me of my "sins". Any views on this?

Hebrew 8:8 Because finding fault with them, He says: "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah -- 9 "not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD.

How can Israel be obeying God's voice today if they can't offer up the sacrifices as commanded in the OC laws?

Jeremiah 7:21 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. 22 "For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. 23 "But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.'

[commonman]

I would hate to find out that eating pork or bacon was against the NC

I feel the same way about certain shell fish and sea faring crustaceans.

[Amazing Rando]

When Jesus recomended to his Jewish breathen that they absolutely needed to "eat his flesh and drink his blood" to attain "eternal life", he sure did a number on the kosher laws, didn't he?


best wishes,

:rofl: You could say that. So did this little ditty: "Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’ ”

[InChristAlways]

Kosher animals are defined by lists in the Torah. We can make some generalizations about the types of animals that are forbidden -- for example, many of the forbiden animals are predators or scavengers. But in the end, the only rationale for not eating these forbidden animals is that they are forbidden.

I believe that some of the kosher laws would fall under the category of a mitzvah that is given, but the reason for it is not understood other than that it will be beneficial to Am Yisrael if adhered to. In Matt 23, though this applied to the rulers of Judah, it actually applies to all of us who desire to follow God's will and ways through the Word of Christ. Even without believing in Jesus Himself, one can look back in the OT and see the same things said by God thru the Prophets to His people.
What amazes me is that one can keep the "kosher" laws, but it appears what God and Jesus stressed the most was that one be "clean" on the inside, the mind and heart, and what comes out of a man is what makes him unclean, that which speaks from the Heart. Isn't that what the whole NC is suppose to be about, walking in Truth and Love? What does the NC mean to the jews? Sacrifices and burnt offerings again and being under the bondage of the old rituals and keeping of feasts, holy days etc? Just wondering.


Matt 23:26 "Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. 27 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead [men's] bones and all uncleanness.

Jeremiah 7:21 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. 22 "For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. 23 "But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.'

Hebrew 8:8 Because finding fault with them, He says: "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah -- 9 "not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD.