Ummmm, Yummy

In my last post, I discussed the halachik issues surrounding eating flesh.

In that post i discussed the issur of eating a piece of a living person due to Ever Min Hachay. Sim correctly pointed out that the Rambam in Hilchos Maacholos Assuris Chapter 2 halacha 3 says that there is no Malkis for eating flesh of someone living or dead, indicating that their is no prohibition of Ever Min Hachay that is being violated with the eating of flesh.

We have further researched the issue, and i have the following to report.

First of all, the Ramban understands human flesh to be kosher due to the fact the breast milk is kosher (and it comes in such great packages.) That being the case, human blood is also kosher d'aaraysa, and is only prohibited by the rabbonim due to issues of Morris Eyin. But if your finger is bleeding, there is no halachik prohibition against putting the finger in your mouth and sucking the blood.

Second of all, the prohibition against eating milk and meat does not apply to human flesh. If one were to eat a ground human shoulder hamburger, he could cover it with cheese, and have a nice tall glass of milk with it. Same thing ribs, or any other piece of human.

As for the benefits of eating a jewish body or that of a non jew, the carcas of a jew is considered to be Assur Behana, and is forbidden, except in situations of Pikuach Nefesh. So it is preferable to eat the body of a no jew. Another interesting tidbit to come from this discussion is performing an autopsy on a jewish body in order to find a cure for cancer. Since Pekuach Nefesh is Docha the torah, one would think that it is permitted to use a Jewish body for cancer research, since it might aid in finding a cure. The Nodav B'Yehudah came out with a groundbreaking P'sak that the concept of Pekuach Nefesh Docha Kol Hatorah only applies for an immediate life threatening situation, but not for potentially saving someone down the road. This is the reason why someone working on cancer research cannot work on Shabbos, since even though his work is pekuach nefesh, there is no instant immediacy to his research.

(I wonder if it is a problem that the non-jew has presumably eaten non-kosher food all his life)

There is a theory that the reason the torah doesn't ban human flesh is because the torah is only written for normal life situations, and it is the rabbis job to fight the worlds perversions with their rabbinic decrees. However, if this was truly the case, why is it necessary for the Torah to slepp out the prohibition of incest, particularly with one's mother? It would seem to be unnescessary, and only the rabbis would ban it.

This should probably be the end of the human flesh eating discussion. I do want to make one more correction from my last post, though. In that post I mentioned that if a cow that gives brith to a camel the camel would be kosher because Kashruth follows the mother. However, Sim correctly pointed out that the gemara says the camel is not kosher.

The reason for the error was a misunderstanding between the rabbi and the shuir. The rabbi said that if a camel gives birth to cow the cow is not kosher, because we follow the mother. I assumed from that discussion that if it was reversed, the camel would be kosher. And while it is true that the animal is kosher, the rabbis have banned this camel born from a cow.

Enjoy the rest of the holiday.