What's Kosher for Bnai Noah?

My daughter came across a website last week called "Kosher Ham". It included a variety of cutesy t-shirts, mostly centered around the tongue-in-cheek theme of "kosher" ham.

It reminded me of a discussion we had a while back about a friend of hers whose young son would grind his teeth, even during the day. The friend purchased most of her groceries at a local health food store. Whenever she ran out of organic meat, her family would eat vegetarian for a few days until she could get to the health food store. She noticed on several occasions, that her son stopped grinding his teeth during that period. At first she thought it was a coincidence, but when she paid closer attention, she noticed a pattern and mentioned it to my daughter.

My health conscious, Noahide daughter suggested that her friend try kosher organic meat. She explained that kosher meat is slaughtered in a way that is specifically designed to quickly release the blood from the animal, and as a result, the adrenaline that is carried in the blood. Her friend tried it and the teeth grinding came to a grinding halt. (Sorry, I couldn't help myself!)

So what is kosher for a Noahide? The word "kosher" simply means fit. In Parasha Noach, Hashem said to Noah, "Every moving thing that lives shall be yours for food: like herbal greenery I have given you everything. But flesh, with its soul its blood you shall not eat." (Exodus 9: 3-4)

Rashi comments that "there you have the prohibition against eating blood taken from a live animal."

There is so much to argue about here, that even rabbis are still arguing about what this means.

We know that crabs and lobsters are cooked alive. What about the new trend of slaughtering cows after being stunned with a stun gun? Can non-kosher meat be devoid of blood from a living animal? If not, then how does a Noahide get ham and pork chops that are kosher for bnai Noah?

Please be assured that this blog is not intended to be a scholarly treatise on the finer points of halacha, (Torah law.) I'm sure you've figured that out by now. Rather it is intended to start a discussion, if only in your own mind, to think about the many ways that we can connect to Hashem.

We really don't know all the reasons for dietary laws, although over time, science has discovered many benefits of kosher practices. Food poisoning from shellfish, not unheard of, but from salmon?

Nevertheless, Hashem was very clear that everything was permitted for food to bnai Noah. This would include grasshoppers, escargot and all sort of delicacies. The only prohibition was strangled meat, or meat from a living animal, and the only explanation was that the soul of the animal is contained in the blood. That does appear to explain the aggression in carnivores, and it appears to explain the teeth grinding mentioned earlier.

One of the great challenges of being a ben or bas Noah, is struggling with issues of unsettled law. The body of discussion and clarification of many of these laws (as they apply to bnai Noah) is not vast, which leaves the Noahide much room for personal study and discovery. Unlike that popular "mainstream" religion, Judaism for both Jews and for Bnai Noah, requires struggle, study, and questioning everything. It involves more work, and ultimately more reward.

Kol tuv.