[Avodah] Figs and Wasps

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, June 6, 2007 9:16 pm, R Zev Sero wrote to Areivim:
: ira rosen wrote:
:> I had the same question when I learned about fig pollination in grad
:> school (someone has to study plant biology). In Vayikra 11 p. 41, the
:> halacha in question is stated: "V'chol hasheretz hashoretz ahl
:> ha'aretz sheketz hu, lo ye'achel", "Every creeping creature which
:> crawls on the ground is repulsive, it may not be eaten." Rashi
:> comments that this phrasing "hashoretz ahl ha'aretz" (which crawls on
:> the ground) excludes certain insects (in English - "[This comes] to
:> exclude the gnats in peas and beans and the mites in lentils, for
:> [these] do not creep on the earth but within the food, but when they
:> emerge into the air and swarm, they become forbidden. -Sifra Shemini,
:> per. 12, 1, Chullin 67a).  This described the life of the fig wasp -
:> they don't swarm and spen nearly their entire life inside/on figs
:> (http://www.answers.com/topic/fig-wasp)

:> In following this up (with the professor and a Rav), I was told that
:> the wasps that live (and die) inside figs, are not an issue.

: Unfortunately, that doesn't apply at all to fig wasps.  The wasps are
: born inside a male fig, which is inedible.  The male wasps never leave
: the fig in which they were born, so if male figs were edible this
: heter would permit us to eat them, wasps and all.  But the female
: wasps leave their birthfig after mating, and fly to other figs to lay
: their eggs.
: Once they've emerged into the air, they become treif forever more.
: They don't become kosher again by entering a new fig, or even by
: crawling back into the womb, so to speak.

: The reason we don't need to worry about any of this is that by the
: time their new fig is ripe their remains are no longer.

Why wouldn't the fig wasp qualify in the same class as darna (Chullin
67a, a bug found in the bellies of fish) or tola'as hanimtza'eis
besoch habasar (Yad, Ma'achalos Asuros 2:17)?

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
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