48.7 F
New York
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Nothing Kosher About a Cloned Pig

Related Articles

-Advertisement-

Must read

Once considered outrageous to even raise in a civilized and learned conversation concerning the complex laws of kashrut, it now appears that an Israeli rabbi by the name of Yuval Cherlow has deemed it totally legit for Jews to consume pig products as long as they are cloned.

Last Thursday, it was reported that Rabbi Cherlow told the Ynet news web site that “Cloned meat produced from a pig shall not be defined as prohibited for consumption – including with the milk.”

According to a report published in Newsweek, Cherlow is advocating for ”rabbinic approval of cloned meats in order to reduce animal suffering, decrease meat industry pollution and stamp out starvation.”

In an interview last Wednesday with the Israeli paper Yedioth Ahronoth, Rabbi Cherlow postulates that cloned meat would not be subject to the same Kashrut dietary laws that guide what is kosher, or “fit,” for consumption by Jews. He proffers the theory that according to the halachic system of governance of the laws of kashrut, “when a pig’s cell is used and food is produced from the genetic material, the cell actually loses its original identity, and therefore it cannot be defined as a prohibited food, nor can it be eaten as milk.”

The New York Post reports that Rabbi Cherlow, a talmudic scholar from the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization was apparently referring to the burgeoning movement where the cells of an animal are used to grow meat in a lab, rather than to clone live animals. Cherlow also asserts that “it wouldn’t even be considered as meat, so you can consume it concurrently with dairy.”

Speaking to the NYP last week, Crown Heights pizza ship owner Shemi Harel said that he would be open to serve the cloned pig to his customers “if the store’s certified rabbi” grants him approval to use it. He added that this might be a customer favorite because “People are curious – they’ve never tasted it and they’re curious to try it.”

On the other side of the vast spectrum of Orthodox Jewish thought, some rabbis have essentially labeled this new kashrut revelation as nothing but hogwash.

Rabbi Menachem Genack, the head of the Orthodox Union’s division of kosher products told the NYP that a cloned pig is no more kosher than a traditional pig which has split hooves but does not chew its cud which renders it absolutely not kosher. “That which derives from something that is not kosher is not kosher,” he told the paper.

Simcha Klein, 25, a manager at Kehilla Butcher Store in the tight Jewish enclave of Boro Park in Brooklyn told the New York Post that “I’m not a scientist, but this sounds crazy to me.”

 

 

balance of natureDonate

2 COMMENTS

Latest article

- Advertisement -