Opus 2024-113: The Evils of Cheeseburgers

I continue to think about the Law given in the Pentateuch.

As I was pursuing a question in trying to understand the Law revealed to Moses, I focused on the statement that we were not to “seethe a kid in its mother’s milk.”  It occurs three times.  Here is the first,

(Exo 23:19 KJV)  The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

I was trying to figure out how this statement evolved into the ban on cheeseburgers.  In case you were not aware, observant Jews will not eat cheeseburgers because they claim it violates this law of God.  Their desire to please God is praiseworthy.  Their logic and Biblical understanding could use some work.

As I did a bit of internet research, one site I was led to was called “Ask a Rabbi”.  That seemed like a good place to start.  It was an interesting study in understanding modern Judaism.  The issue was summed up in a phrase I found,

“Regardless, all the Sages of the Talmud are in agreement that these verses forbid more than the literal meaning implies.”

Modern Judaism is based on the rulings of the “Sages of the Talmud.”  In case you slept through that Sunday School class, the Talmud is a commentary on the Torah.  It was written by Rabbis over thousands of years and it currently over 60 volumes.  The Torah is the Law which is mostly found in the first five books of the Bible.  They may talk about verses in the Bible but their ultimate source of authority is not the written word but the combination of traditions passed down orally from Moses and what the Rabbis have decided they mean over the centuries.

“ When everyone in the Talmud agrees to something, we can be quite certain that the law is a tradition passed from Sinai...” (EO)

Keep in mind that most of what you hear about the Law of Moses and how hard it is to keep, most of what you hear is the opinions of the Rabbis, not what Christians would consider the written Word.  The Rabbis also have something that was called the Oral Torah until it was written down about 200 years after the time of Jesus.  It is like secret knowledge known only to the Rabbis and several sources have told me that the oral law is preferred to the written law.

As I was following various links I came across one from the Times of India.  What could the Times of India have to say about kosher?  Nothing.  It seems that there is a form of medicine used in India that has similar rules.

“As per the books of Ayurveda combining milk and meat or drinking milk after eating meat is considered to be a wrong combination.”

I find it interesting that a law of kosher is almost identical to the teachings of a pagan document thousands of miles away.

The thought process will continue.

homo unius libri