[Avodah] The kashrus status of genetically engineered food

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Wed, Aug 03, 2016 at 11:30:01AM +0300, Marty Bluke wrote:
: I saw an interesting article ...
: about the kashrut of genetically engineered salmon. They are mixing in DNA
: from non-kosher fish to make the salmon grow at a much faster rate and the
: question is does the DNA from non-kosher fish make these salmon non-kosher?

: This raises fascinating questions about the future of kashrut. How will
: halacha deal with these innovations?...
:                                Will these advances make almost everything
: kosher (or treif)?

And does this relate to the medrash that says that the chazir got its
Hashem will give it back ("lehachziro") to Benei Yisrael le'asid lavo.

The rishonim struggle with how this is to be understood, given that the
Torah is unchanging. Some (RHS didn't give sheim omro, it was a sermon)
take the medrash as referring to the Notzrim, who claim to be a twin
religion, like the chazir displaying kosher hoofs, thus its link to Edom
-- Yisrael's twin. That the medrash encodes a nevu'ah about the handoff
to messianic rule.

The Ramo miPano (Asarah Maamoros, chikor hadin 4:13) says that le'asid
lavo, the pig will chew its cud. And the pig has vestigial remnants of
the necessary stomachs. But it is a change in metzi'us that allows for
the change of pesaq without actually being a change in halakhah.

Perhaps genetic engineering will provide a different resolution to the
question, one no rishon could have foreseen.

OTOH, if "these advances make almost everything kosher", maybe the
question becomes worse. We removed anything unique about pigs to warrant
them in particular getting the name "chazir".

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             When you come to a place of darkness,
micha at aishdas.org        you don't chase out the darkness with a broom.
http://www.aishdas.org   You light a candle.
Fax: (270) 514-1507        - R' Yekusiel Halberstam of Klausenberg zt"l