What’s Meaningful About Not Eating Bacon?

Meaningful Judaism

It’s one of the most famous of the Torah's laws: no eating bacon! But is there any particular reason for this restriction? Why does God permit us to eat cow but forbid pig? In this episode, Imu Shalev and Beth Lesch look for clues in the Torah’s language and zoom in on something that’s easy to miss: The Torah never actually says "Pigs aren't kosher." Actually, the word “kosher” doesn't appear at all in the Chumash (the Five Books of Moses). The Torah uses an entirely different word to describe those animals which we are permitted to eat, a mysterious word that most people wouldn't associate with the topic of kashrut at all. Could it be a clue to the deeper meaning behind why the Torah allows us to eat certain animals and not others?
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