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Inspired by this question.

The question linked quotes Sanhedrin 59b in saying that if an animal came down from heaven (whether it had kosher signs or not) it would be kosher.

If I were, however, to make a pig farm on the moon, there is no descending from heaven. The source of this pig is very much known, in contradistinction to the case in the gemara where the 'animal of unknown origin' descends from heaven. I imagine that, since it is brought down from heaven, Hashem has 'sent' it and it is therefore okay to eat.

However, in this case the source of this food is certainly known - a non-kosher Earth pig. You may say that since it hasn't 'fallen from heaven to Earth' then this is not the case that the gemara deals with. However, doesn't the law of 'split hooves' and 'chewing the cud' apply to land animals i.e. on Earth. Could it be that even pigs born on a pig farm on the moon would be kosher because of this?

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    Shamayim is a spiritual concept, thus a pig born on the moon is from this physical universe and would not be from "shamayim". Mannah on the other hand was from shamayim.
    – sabbahillel
    Commented Oct 12, 2015 at 10:11
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    @sabbahillel good point. However, it is also used in physical context e.g. Hashem placed the great luminaries in 'rekiah haShamayim'. My second point still stands though - that a moon-born-animal is not "romess al ha'adamah" and maybe not subject to Earth bound laws. We have a similar law by insects in Sulchan Aruch - despite it being difficult/impossible to know whether an insect has NOT been on land, there is a diyuk that for an insect to be not kosher it needs to have 'crawled on the ground', if not, then its kosher (the practicalities of this le'maaseh are greatly disputed).
    – bondonk
    Commented Oct 12, 2015 at 10:25
  • You may wish to edit your second-to-last sentence to indicate where guy get this idea from. (Your comment seems to imply it's based on Scripture.)
    – msh210 ♦
    Commented Oct 12, 2015 at 13:01
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    The quail that descended when the people asked for meat. I also question whether they were caught alive and required shechita
    – CashCow
    Commented Oct 12, 2015 at 16:19
  • @CashCow If I recall the pesukim about the quail, I thought that a wind blew a flock of (normal) quail to the camp rather than being created like the man as a nes. However, I have not gone into the meforshim on that.
    – sabbahillel
    Commented Oct 12, 2015 at 22:58

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