[Avodah] timtum halev

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' David Riceman wrote:

> I don't think that these rishonim thought it was a metaphysical
> issue, I think they thought that non-kosher food is physically
> different and produces milk which is physically different ...

I can understand that if a cow was shechted and found to be a terefah, some could conclude that the animal was physically unhealthy, and that eating it would be physically unhealthy for the person. And it is even easier for me to understand that certain species are unhealthy altogether.

But I don't understand why would anyone think that there is a physical difference between a cow that was shechted with a smooth knife, and one that was shechted with a dented knife, or had its head hacked off in some other manner. To say that such differences are in the physical world reminds me of many things that I recall from many decades ago, where it was claimed that if the animal is killed in a non-painless way, then it tenses up at the moment of death, resulting in tougher meat. I'm not going to call such ideas nonsense, but to me, they sound more like 20th century apologetics than like something any rishon might have said.

Can you elaborate on why you think that those rishonim "thought that non-kosher food is physically different and produces milk which is physically different"?

Akiva Miller

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