www.asknoah.org What Not to Eat?

QUESTION #53 (a) : Does the verse Genesis 9:4, "Flesh with its soul, its blood you shall not eat" mean "Flesh whilst it's alive, its blood whilst it's alive, you shall not eat," or does it mean "Flesh whilst it's alive, you shall not eat. Its blood you shall never eat"? Also, from that verse, it seems that a Noahide should be allowed to take a limb torn from a live animal, and eat it once the animal has died. So he's eating flesh without the soul. > D. T. ANSWER : The translation of this verse in Artscroll's Stone Edition of the Torah is "But flesh; with its soul its blood you shall not eat." In discussing this verse, the Talmudic sages and later rabbinical authorities expressed different possible degrees to which the flesh or the blood of an animal might be prohibited to a Gentile. If a piece of flesh is removed from a living land mammal or bird, that flesh remains forbidden to be eaten, even after the creature has died. This is clear from the rules as they are codified by Maimonides (Rambam) in his "Laws of Kings." Gentiles are allowed to consume blood. This follows Tractate Sanhedrin, p. 59a, and Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings, 9:10.

QUESTION #53 (b) : I'm not sure about that meat law: as a Noahide, am I allowed to eat pork? > A. B. ANSWER : Gentiles are ALLOWED to eat parts from any type of animal, bird, fish, etc. Which types you decide to eat or not eat are up to you. This Noahide commandment prohibits eating meat that was torn or cut from a land mammal or bird before it was dead (which for non-kosher slaughter means before the heart stopped beating). PRACTICALLY SPEAKING, eating store-bought meat that comes from the large U.S. slaughter houses is no longer a problem, because although they aren't required to guard against that specific issue, the slaughtering regulations and guidelines they do have in place make it very unlikely that it ever happens, and it is very unlikely that any given piece of meat was cut from a still-living animal. (However, "mountain oysters" are cut from live steers, and they should not be eaten by anyone.)

QUESTION #53 (c) : As a Noahide, I would like to know if I eat meat, does it have to be kosher? Or do I have to stick to white meat? And how about eggs, fish, etc.? >C. E. ANSWER : There is no requirement per se that the meat you eat needs to be kosher for Jewish consumption. The concern for Gentiles is that they must not eat meat that was severed from the land mammal or bird before it was dead. So it becomes a question of what are the chances that such a thing could happen in a modern slaughterhouse where the butchering follows immediately after the slaughtering, and what decisions should you make for yourself based on those chances. Here is an expert opinion on this: From: Dr. J. M. Regenstein [Cornell University] Date: Sept. 04/02 Subject: Re: For your reference: selected laws of permissible meat for Gentiles ... the "insensitive" standard that is used is actually longer than "heart death" - if the animal is properly bled out, there should be no problems and any of the larger plants leave sufficient time for bleed out to reach such insensitiveness. The only place [for concern is] possibly small plants, those that might not become a part of the upcoming audit plan. So based on this, the recommendation would be for a Gentile to call the plant which is the source for the meat they want to purchase, and find out how reliably it holds to the relevant FDA standards for "humane slaughter" - whether they can certify that 100% of the animals they process go through bleed-out with a long enough delay to insure that "heart death" has certainly occurred before the start of meat removal. Note: there is a by-product from a section in the small intestines of cattle that can be used as a food or cosmetic additive. The U.S. FDA has recently banned this practice, because that is one of the parts from cattle that can transmit "mad cow disease." See www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/BSE_Rules_Being_Strictly_Enforced/index.asp In foreign countries where animal processing is less modernized and not so strictly regulated, there is more need for concern about the possibility of "severed meat." A Gentile does not need to be concerned about any other food products, including eggs, fish, etc. The laws of "severed meat" only apply to land mammals and birds. So things like crabs, lobsters, oysters, etc. are not included. However, this Noahide commandment and the related Jewish commandment do teach us the general lesson that we should not cause needless pain and suffering to any of G-d's creatures.

QUESTION #53 (d) : Is a Noahide supposed to follow the commandments related to kosher foods? >R. ANSWER : Eating "kosher," i.e. observing the Jewish dietary commandments, is not commanded for Gentiles. [However, a Gentile who eats kosher meat is assured that there is no chance that the meat might possibly be "eiver min ha'chai" (meat that was removed from the animal before it died), which is forbidden as one of the Noahide commandments.]

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