[Avodah] Rabbi Dovid Feinstein and Other Leading Rabbis Forbid Anisakis Worm in Fish

[Harry Maryles]

On Thu, 6/2/11, Prof. Levine <llevine at stevens.edu> wrote:
>From http://tinyurl.com/44lrysp

> Like the Anisakis worm in fresh salmon, it is the kashrus issue that
> never died....
> Rabbi Dovid Feinstein, the leading halachic decisor in the United
> States, has come out strongly forbidding ... The letter ... has the
> signatures of Rabbi Feivel Cohen Shlita, Rav Dovid Feinstein Shlita
> and Rav Aharon Schechter Shlita.

> The Brooklyn Vaad HaRabbonim, the Baltimore Kashrus agency, and a
> handful of other Kashrus agencies were stringent. The Orthodox Union,
> in agreement with Rabbi Vay from Jerusalem, however, ruled that these
> worms while still in the flesh of the fish are kosher...

This entire controversy is reminiscent of the controversy about whether
it is permitted to kill lice in Shabbos. The Melacha of Netilas Neshama
applies only to life forms that reproduce sexually. Chazal believed
that lice were spontaneously generated and thus permitted killing them
on Shabbos.
 
Upon the invention of the microscope, it was observed that lice actually
reproduced sexually and thus killing them would in theory be doing a
Melacha on Shabbos.
 
I recall a Shiur wherein Rav Ahron Soloveichik discussed this
issue. Yitzchak Lampronti the great 16th century author of the Pachad
Yitzchak (who was also a physician) decided to overturn the Psak of
Chazal because of new information. He said that since Chazal did
not have the advantage of microscopes they did not know that lice
reproduced sexually. Had they known they would have said that killing
lice on Shabbos is Assur. I recall Rav Ahron saying something like,
"If the Pachad Yitzchakm were alive today, they would put him in Cherem.
 
Rav Ahron held that even in matters of science, if it is mentioned in
the Gemrarah it is true regardless of how we see it today. I presume he
felt that either the psak is based on what we see with the naked eye,
or that the 'lice' mentioned in the Gemarah are not the lice we see
today but some other microscopic creature.
 
(It is interesting to note that Rav Ahron, way back in the late sixties
or early seventies responded to statements about Chazal being fallible
in matters of science by saying that people who say this should be put
in Cherem. Fast forward to today and what is being said about RNS's view
that Chazal occasionally erred in science. I believe those who banned his
books were more upset by this than they were by his methods of resolving
conflicts between Torah and science.)
 
As it relates to the anisakis worm controversy, it seems that the reverse
is true. Rav Dovid Feinstein is now advocating essentially the same
position as the Pachad Yitzchak. He says that now that we can observe
that these worms can migrate rather to than be created within the flesh
of the fish -- we are now forbidden to eat it.
 
I wonder how Rav Ahron would feel about Rav Dovid's Psak (and Rabbi
Feivel Cohen and Rav Aharon Schechter)? Would he say the same thing
about them that he said about the Pachad Yitzchak?
 
HM
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