Timeline for How big can insects be before falling into kashrut halacha?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
16 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 6, 2015 at 0:23 | vote | accept | rosenjcb | ||
| Jan 2, 2015 at 2:53 | comment | added | Fred | @DoubleAA If experts could visually recognize a particular specimen as such under optimal circumstances, that may be sufficient to be considered visible. In the article linked by Loewian, Rabbi Hoffman said R' Elyashiv considered it a chumra to forbid a bug that is visible to the naked eye but only identifiable as a bug via a lens (likely based on your reasoning). | |
| Jan 2, 2015 at 1:46 | comment | added | MTL | @DoubleAA I'll take a look, thanks for the link! | |
| Jan 2, 2015 at 1:42 | comment | added | Double AA♦ | @Shokhet More about the size of the kezayis: rationalistjudaism.com/2010/03/evolution-of-olive.html | |
| Jan 2, 2015 at 1:41 | comment | added | Double AA♦ | @Fred If it's visible but not visibly a bug, how is that prohibited? No one could have known it was a bug until the last few centuries. | |
| Jan 1, 2015 at 23:19 | comment | added | Fred | (Also, to clarify: By "excellent vision" I didn't mean someone with unusually acute vision, but rather what is considered standard among people with good, unimpaired vision). | |
| Jan 1, 2015 at 22:43 | comment | added | Fred | @rosenjcb Oh, I somehow missed that, probably because there's every reason to expect that there are intact bugs on infested vegetables, and the logical part of my brain overpowered the careful reading part of my brain. Thanks for pointing that out. | |
| Jan 1, 2015 at 21:45 | comment | added | rosenjcb | @Fred Bug part As in, a bug leg or a bug head. Not an in tact bug. | |
| Jan 1, 2015 at 20:42 | comment | added | Ypnypn | We aren't concerned about microbacteria because they're not bugs, not because they're hard to see. | |
| Jan 1, 2015 at 20:17 | answer | added | Loewian | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jan 1, 2015 at 18:41 | comment | added | Fred | "...while it isn't an aveirah to eat a bug part if it's smaller than a(n) (halachic) olive...." That is incorrect. It is biblically prohibited to eat even a bug smaller than a k'zayis, and the person is theoretically biblically liable for lashes if such a bug was eaten intact (Rambam Hil. Ma'achalos Asuros 2:21). | |
| Jan 1, 2015 at 18:34 | comment | added | Fred | @Shokhet You are correct. The standard is: large enough to see with the naked eye in optimal conditions (i.e. a person with excellent vision, examining in the sunlight against a contrasting background). See also here, here, and here. | |
| Jan 1, 2015 at 18:13 | comment | added | MTL | About the size of the kezayis: amazon.com/Halachos-Kzayis-Yisroel-Pinchos-Bodner/dp/1583304894/… | |
| Jan 1, 2015 at 18:06 | comment | added | rosenjcb | @Shokhet That's the thought I had as well, but it's a little subjective... kind of like the size of said olive. | |
| Jan 1, 2015 at 18:00 | comment | added | MTL | I'm pretty sure that the rule is "visible to the naked eye," but I don't have a source for you. | |
| Jan 1, 2015 at 17:59 | history | asked | rosenjcb | CC BY-SA 3.0 |