What was the point of banning pork?

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The point is NOT so much that such animals as pigs or crustacea are unhealthy to eat, nor that G-d wished to differentiate the Jews from the peoples of other nations and cultures. Rather, the point is that certain animals were deemed in themselves unclean by G-d, and, more particularly, the Law extends to EVERY aspect of everyday life, including what we eat, how we dress, how we have sex, how we raise and discipline our children, how we pray, how and when we work, whom we associate with, how we bury and mourn for the dead, and so on. Thus all of these mundane activities are sanctified by means of the Law. The Law is not meant to be some remote or abstract collection of commandments, but a concrete and living entity which forms and shapes our behavior, while, at the same time, giving meaning and purpose to our lives.
 
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this is what I was taught to: God wanted to set His people apart, giving them rules to make them a nation of His people.
 
KMC said:
God wanted to set His people apart, giving them rules to make them a nation of His people.
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I’ve heard this explanation before too but like…was the sabbath, and the Passover, and sukkot, and the sacrifices, and carrying around a big golden chest where God lived, and the beards, and the whole cutting-off-part-of-the-penis thing really not good enough to set them apart? I mean I guess I can’t understand God but it seems like at that point “you can’t eat ham” is just excessive.
 
You know what I’ll compromise with that. That’s the best of both worlds.
 
I’d heard it was to avoid trichinosis.
Trichinosis was highly prevalent in ancient Egypt and has been found in many mummies! An infected person can experience nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, fatigue, fever, and abdominal discomfort in the first few days after infection from contaminated meat.
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and in the modern day, it’s described as—
An infected person can experience nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, fatigue, fever, and abdominal discomfort in the first few days after infection from contaminated meat. The incubation period can last between 5 and 45 days, at which time headaches, fevers, chills, cough, eye swelling, aching joints, muscle pain, itchy skin, diarrhea or constipation can set in. Splinter hemorages of the fingernails, swelling and muscle pain are caused by larvae moving through tissue.

Weakness and soreness may last months after other symptoms have subsided. Many people may never be diagnosed since mild or moderate trichinosis is frequently mistaken for the flu or another common illness. A heavily infected patient may have problems related to the central nervous system, in addition to possible heart and respiratory problems. Very rarely do severe cases cause death.
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So-- with modern medicine, “larvae moving through tissue” is gross, but it’s not something that can’t be handled. But in the ancient world, a nomadic culture living under harsh conditions— having a giant chunk of your population being sick for a month and a half at a time wasn’t really something they could easily handle. It was easier to say, “Don’t eat this food.”
 
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Pork isn’t the healthiest thing in the world for us to eat. Bacon and well-made sausage are insanely good, but not the best thing from a health standpoint.

I have heard that G-d’s “reasons” for this had to do with consuming only animals who live gently and are not predators (or possibly, scavengers). Similar to this is the prohibition of mixing meat and milk — “do not boil a kid in its mother’s milk” — seen from that standpoint, it seems cruel. And to the typical American palate, that too is delicious.

A bacon cheeseburger with sliced tomato and onion has so much umami to it as to be almost indescribably good.
 
I thoiught I had read that the blend of wool and linen was used in the Temple veil, and thus was consecrated and set aside from common usage, same for the blend of incense that was used in the wilderness temple.
 
nfinke said:
and the whole cutting-off-part-of-the-penis thing really not good enough to set them apart? I mean I guess I can’t understand God but it seems like at that point “you can’t eat ham” is just excessive.
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Sure, ham is where God got weird and excessive.

Peace and God bless!
 
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Linen shrinks between 4-7% when washed and wool up to 40%. For everyday use, it is a waste of money and material to mix the two different fibres. Replacing one person´s clothes, the high priest´s, is doable but not for the majority of the population.

I suspect that the veil in the temple wouldn’t be washed that many times but more likely replaced when needed.
 
poche said:
As a sign of fidelity to God
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This is the answer I’m going to go with.

I worked with an orthodox Jew who was very well educated in his faith. When someone at work asked him why he didn’t eat pork, his answer was “because God said so, and I have no right to question it!” He adamantly denied the explanation that pork was forbidden for health reasons. In his mind, the reason didn’t matter.

My own belief is that it was a matter of discipline that kept people focused on the Divine, similar to how Catholics abstain from meat during certain times.
 
All of the practical reasons for forbidding pork that people in this thread mention would still have been present after the resurrection, so that can’t be the sole reason. St. Thomas says there are two ways to take the ceremonial laws: “Consequently the reasons for these observances may be taken in two ways, first according to their fittingness to the worship of God; secondly, according as they foreshadow something touching the Christian mode of life.”

He treats in detail of both the practical and symbolic/foreshadowing meaning of all these different laws here:

http://www.newadvent.org/summa/2102.htm#article6

Specifically with regard to the animals at issue, St. Augustine says:
For instance, a pig and a lamb are both clean in their nature, for every creature of God is good; but symbolically, a lamb is clean, and a pig unclean. So the words wise and fool are both clean in their nature, as words composed of letters but fool may be called symbolically unclean, because it means an unclean thing. Perhaps a pig is the same among symbols as a fool is among real things. The animal, and the four letters which compose the word, may mean the same thing. No doubt the animal is pronounced unclean by the law, because it does not chew the cud; which is not a fault but its nature. But the men of whom this animal is a symbol are unclean, not by nature, but from their own fault; because, though they gladly hear the words of wisdom, they never reflect on them afterwards. For to recall, in quiet repose, some useful instruction from the stomach of memory to the mouth of reflection, is a kind of spiritual rumination. The animals above mentioned are a symbol of those people who do not do this. And the prohibition of the flesh of these animals is a warning against this fault.
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/140606.htm
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Most of the Laws in the OT were to keep the Jews a separate and distinct people. The Canaanite’s, neighbors to the Jews, used pigs in their sacrifices and God didn’t want pigs sacrificed in His temple so He declared all pigs unclean. This seems the most likely explanation to me.
 
I think so too. And also, not eating pork would have marked a person out as Jewish, accomplishing the aim of distinguishing the Jewish nation from those surrounding them.
 
I worked in a slaughterhouse when I was younger.

When ever a person cut themselves accidentally, cutting up a Pig they had to receive treatment in the office. Sharp parts of the spine.

Their spine is like a razor in some places. But it wasn’t because of the tiny cut.

Do you know what Pigs eat ?
 
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Do you believe that saying or typing God in all situations is a sin? Or are you just being safe. It’s always been an interesting interpretation to me.
 
I had the idea that Adam and Eve were not to eat from the tree, which they did. Then God gave the commandment not to eat pork as a replacement for the tree. By not eating pork God’s people showed an obedience that their parents did not. Maybe that has not truth to it at all. lol
 
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