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

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Jun 02, 2011 at 09:39:56AM -0700, Harry Maryles wrote:
: 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.

R' Dovid Lifshitz said the reverse of the PY -- since the eggs are
microscopic, they don't exist. For that matter, when the maggots or lice
hatch, they are also non-existent and thus kosher.

Scientifically, a treif bug would be a zeh vezeh goreim. It requires (1)
a tiny bug that has no halachic mamashus, and (2) the food it then eats
to grow to visible size. RDL said in shiur that since only one of the
two goremim have halachic significance, the only goreim for the visible
bug that we do care about is the meat.

And thus the halakhah would remain unchanged.

...
: 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.

But as per my previous post, this isn't due to our having access to
better information. The complex life cycle of the anisakis nematode was
described before there was a Chazal.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 44th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        6 weeks and 2 days in/toward the omer.
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