<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><br></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">What I find most interesting is that the Gemara believed in spontaneous generation which has been scientifically disproven as the world was proven not to be flat. What I find to be ironic and paradoxical is that only God can create something from nothing. You would think this would have occurred to the great minds of the Talmud. True, their argument could conceivably have been that God put that law into motion, but it still could have raised a red flag.</span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">The following came from a link given in a previous discussion by Reb Micha: </span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; "><a href="http://www.aishdas.org/book/bookA.pdf"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">http://www.aishdas.org/book/bookA.pdf</span></font></a></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">My Rebbe, R. Dovid Lifshitz zt"l, used a similar idea to explain a different</span></font><span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </span></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">problem. The Gemara explains that maggots found within a piece of meat are kosher.</span></font><span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </span></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">The reason given is that they were born from the meat, an idea known in the history of</span></font><span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </span></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">science as "spontaneous generation". Therefore, halachah treats the maggots identically to</span></font><span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </span></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">the meat.</span></font><span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </span></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">Spontaneous generation has since been disproven. Maggots come from</span></font><span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </span></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">microscopic eggs, not abiogenetically from the meat. Now that we know that the</span></font><span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </span></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">underlying science is wrong, need we conclude that the halachic ruling is also wrong?</span></font><span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </span></font></span></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">Rav Dovid taught that the halachic ruling is still applicable, because the</span></font><span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </span></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">microscopic eggs and maggot larvae are not visible, and therefore (like the insects in our</span></font><span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </span></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">first example), lack </span></font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">mamashus</span></font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">. The only cause for the current presence of maggots that</span></font><span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </span></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">we can see is the meat.</span></font><span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </span></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">Viewing the question in terms of human experience, the meat is the only source of</span></font><span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </span></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">the maggots. Bugs or eggs that are too small to be seen, while we might cerebrally know</span></font><span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </span></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">they are there, can’t have the existential impact as those I could, and ought to have,</span></font><span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </span></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">noticed unaided.</span></font><span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </span></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></font></div></body></html>