…no. And pretty clearly?
If it’s a land animal, it doesn’t have hooves or chew its cud, so not kosher.
If it’s a fish it lacks fins, so not kosher.
And I’m pretty sure we can rule out it being a bird.
Dinosaurs is where it gets interesting, on that last point.
For some, but not most. I mean, “bird” in this context really means “creature that flies” and includes bats.
My understanding is that the classification system is really more about where the critter lives, than any fundamental biology.
…are you suggesting that bats are kosher?
I don’t think they are, but I know more about whether fictional creatures are kosher or not than about bats. But I know that bats get classified with things that fly and whales with things that swim.
I think I’m more able to say “This thing isn’t kosher” than that something is, also.
Bats are specifically mentioned in the Torah as a “bird” (which is to say, a “flying creature”) that is not kosher. It’s on the list of prohibited ones.
It is at least theoretically possible that a flying dinosaur would resemble a kosher bird sufficiently to be declared kosher, the way the turkey was, but not terribly likely. Land-dwelling dinosaurs, having no split hooves and not being cud-chewers, would not be kosher. I don’t know if it is known whether any sea-dwelling dinosaurs had fins and scales; if they did, they would be kosher.
It does help to remember that with Torah, you are dealing with a classification system that operates from different starting principles than modern scientific classification. As janothar points out, primary habitat or mode of transportation is considered more important than details like warm-bloodedness, or giving birth to live young. Each ‘section’ of creatures, air, land and sea, has specific features it needs to meet to be kosher, ie, in the case of land animals, cloven hooves and chewing cud. This excludes pigs, but it ALSO excludes alligators, which are just another type of land animal that doesn’t meet the requirements.
I apologize to Cajun Jews for this inconvenience.
ok but are they land animals or are they sea animals is the question
yes they’re traife either way but it’s the principle of the thing, don’t you see
I suspect that if it CAN get out of the water and walk around, it counts as a land animal, but I’m not sure.
Ibn Ezra’s commentary on Exodus (in a section on whether in his opinion the second plague is a plague of crocodiles or of frogs) describes the crocodile as a fish (dag) found in Egypt that comes out of the river and snatches people, so there is precedent for thinking of alligators as fish/sea-creatures.
Ah, thank you.
what about dragons?
Rush's tumblr archive 