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Consuming Blood
#1
Hi Rabbis and Michael,

My sister when in England ate something called blood pudding. It seems to be popular over there. (She is more courageous than I am.) Assuming for the sake of this question that the animal from which the blood came was dead before she ate it, is there anything wrong with that? (Only kosher meat is guaranteed to be almost blood free.)

G-d bless,

Brian D. Schuh
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#2
It is permissible for Noahides to consume blood that came from animals. Blood is not meat. So it is not included in the Noahide commandment which prohibits eating meat which came from a living animal.
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#3
Some of the Rabbonim taught Noahides not to consume any blood or to consume any animal that wasn't properly slaughtered. Both lists of 30 laws in the back of Aaron Lichtonstein's book 'The Seven Laws of Noah' show this to be true.

Shouldn't all opinions on this be considered?

Andrew
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#4
Yes, certainly all opinions on this may be considered. Also the Torah law (halachah) should be clearly stated. If a Noahide Chassid wishes to go beyond the letter of the halachah and be more strict on himself or herself than is required, that is certainly an option.

However, a Noahide Chassid should also consider how his decision to go beyond the letter of the law might negatively impact on others. For example, Jacob desired to go beyond the letter of Noahide law, and refrain from marrying full sisters. But since this would have caused suffering to Rachel whom he had promised to marry before he married Leah, he compromised on his personal strictness, and married Rachel also.

The halacha allows Noahides to consume blood and to consume the flesh of animals that were not slaughtered by Jewish "shechita." Any stricter opinions were minority opinions, and were not accepted as Torah law.

The list of 30 suggested laws in the back of Dr. Aaron Lichtenstein's doctoral thesis book "The Seven Laws of Noah" were arrived at as an exercise in novel exegesis. It is not part of the "mesorah" that was passed down from Moses as halacha received on Mt. Sinai.
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#5
Dear Rabbis and Director,
Is it permitted for gentiles to eat giblets, e.g. fowl's livers?
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#6
Yes. Any organ is permitted to be eaten by Gentiles, as long as it was not removed before the mammal or the bird died.
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#7
(08-29-2007, 12:41 PM)Director Michael Wrote: The list of 30 suggested laws in the back of Dr. Aaron Lichtenstein's doctoral thesis book "The Seven Laws of Noah" were arrived at as an exercise in novel exegesis. It is not part of the "mesorah" that was passed down from Moses as halacha received on Mt. Sinai.

I am glad I read this, because now I know not to stress that particular book too hard.
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#8
In the Torah translation of Genesis 9:4 on the Chabad web site, it says:
"4. But, flesh with its soul, its blood, you shall not eat."
Wouldn't that mean eating blood is prohibited to noachides?
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#9
You are misreading this statement that was commanded to Noah, and admittedly it is a bit confusing in this English translation. The more correct way to read the verse is:

"4. But, flesh (with its soul, its blood), you shall not eat." It is only forbidding Gentiles to eat a certain category of flesh.

The verse means: as long as flesh is part of an animal that is living (i.e. with soul-containing life-blood pumping through it), you shall not remove and eat that flesh (i.e., not to eat that flesh straight off from the living animal, as a lion would do, nor to remove it from the living animal and eat it while the animal is still alive).
The verse teaches a Noahide Law, namely, to wait until the animal is dead, so it is no longer with its soul that was residing in its life-blood (the sign of death is that the heart has stopped pumping life-blood). Then it is no longer "flesh of a living animal", and then it is not forbidden from this verse to eat that flesh (including the blood that's left in it).
There is an additional rule within the Noahide Code, that if flesh was removed from a living animal, it should never be eaten, even after the animal dies.

This commandment applies to land mammals and birds. For complete information, see the book "The Divine Code" by Rabbi Moshe Weiner: https://asknoah.org/books/the-divine-code
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#10
thank you for your reply. what about about Rashi's commentary?

"with its soul, its blood: As long as its soul is within it."

As, judaism teaches that the blood is the soul wouldn't that mean any blood left in the flesh we are not permitted to eat? thank you
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