12-06-2012, 10:23 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-06-2012, 10:57 PM by Director Michael.)
The web site you looked at is only giving a very shortened description of this topic. There are details it left out, which is the reason for your confusion. In fact, as explained in the "Code of Jewish Law", the Torah is only prohibiting Jews from consuming a certain category of blood which can be known from the context of the verses.
The Torah makes prohibitory statements against Jews consuming "blood" in Lev. 3:17, 7:26-27, and, 17:10-14. In the context of each of those places, the text is speaking about an animal that receives kosher slaughter by a cut through the animal's throat, and it cuts through a major artery with blood pumping straight from the heart. For Jews, the animal's life-blood that flows out has to either be offered on the Temple altar (if the animal is being sacrificed in the Temple), or it has to be allowed to flow out onto the ground. It is only this life-blood that flows out from the wound that is identified as severely forbidden for Jews to consume (because the animal's soul is in its flowing life-blood, while the heart is still beating), for which the penalty is stated in the verses as "karet" ("cutting off") of a Jewish transgressor's soul. Jewish Torah Law goes further, and prohibits (only) any other blood of the animal which has been "flowing", even if it is not life-blood. So after the slaughtered animal is dead, any blood that drips out from the wound is still prohibited for Jewish consumption, but only with liability to a lesser punishment.
After meat is cut off from the animal, the residual blood that is IN the flesh (part of the muscle) is not flowing blood, and after the liquid (flowing) blood on the surface of the meat is rinsed off with cold water, a Jew is permitted by Torah Law to eat the meat raw, as it is, without any need to apply salt to draw out the residual blood inside the flesh, because that blood is not flowing, and it is permitted as part of the meat. (See Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Forbidden Foods, Ch. 6; the actual Jewish Law in detail is found in the Code of Jewish Law / "Shulchan Aruch", and Jews without formal Rabbinical learning should consult with a reliable Orthodox Rabbi).
HOWEVER, if a Jew wants to eat the meat cooked (which is almost always the case), a problem arises, because while the meat is being cooked, the residual blood will begin to FLOW inside the meat, and once it starts flowing, it becomes forbidden for a Jew to eat (and NOT because there is any amount of the animal's soul left in the blood, because there is NOT). So for Jews, meat that is to be eaten cooked has to have the residual blood extracted while it is still fresh, so the blood is still able to be drawn out. That is accomplished by the Jewish procedure of salting and rinsing the meat.
Furthermore, that's why the fresh blood of kosher fish (and kosher grasshoppers, which we can no longer identify) is permitted to be eaten by Jews, because it doesn't flow in the creature in the same way that it flows in mammals and birds.
In any event, this is only a Jewish spiritual commandment, and it does not apply to Gentiles.
The Torah makes prohibitory statements against Jews consuming "blood" in Lev. 3:17, 7:26-27, and, 17:10-14. In the context of each of those places, the text is speaking about an animal that receives kosher slaughter by a cut through the animal's throat, and it cuts through a major artery with blood pumping straight from the heart. For Jews, the animal's life-blood that flows out has to either be offered on the Temple altar (if the animal is being sacrificed in the Temple), or it has to be allowed to flow out onto the ground. It is only this life-blood that flows out from the wound that is identified as severely forbidden for Jews to consume (because the animal's soul is in its flowing life-blood, while the heart is still beating), for which the penalty is stated in the verses as "karet" ("cutting off") of a Jewish transgressor's soul. Jewish Torah Law goes further, and prohibits (only) any other blood of the animal which has been "flowing", even if it is not life-blood. So after the slaughtered animal is dead, any blood that drips out from the wound is still prohibited for Jewish consumption, but only with liability to a lesser punishment.
After meat is cut off from the animal, the residual blood that is IN the flesh (part of the muscle) is not flowing blood, and after the liquid (flowing) blood on the surface of the meat is rinsed off with cold water, a Jew is permitted by Torah Law to eat the meat raw, as it is, without any need to apply salt to draw out the residual blood inside the flesh, because that blood is not flowing, and it is permitted as part of the meat. (See Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Forbidden Foods, Ch. 6; the actual Jewish Law in detail is found in the Code of Jewish Law / "Shulchan Aruch", and Jews without formal Rabbinical learning should consult with a reliable Orthodox Rabbi).
HOWEVER, if a Jew wants to eat the meat cooked (which is almost always the case), a problem arises, because while the meat is being cooked, the residual blood will begin to FLOW inside the meat, and once it starts flowing, it becomes forbidden for a Jew to eat (and NOT because there is any amount of the animal's soul left in the blood, because there is NOT). So for Jews, meat that is to be eaten cooked has to have the residual blood extracted while it is still fresh, so the blood is still able to be drawn out. That is accomplished by the Jewish procedure of salting and rinsing the meat.
Furthermore, that's why the fresh blood of kosher fish (and kosher grasshoppers, which we can no longer identify) is permitted to be eaten by Jews, because it doesn't flow in the creature in the same way that it flows in mammals and birds.
In any event, this is only a Jewish spiritual commandment, and it does not apply to Gentiles.