A reader asks:
“Why did Elijah and John the Baptist wear camel hair when camels aren’t kosher?
Is this something significant to Jews that we just don’t get, or am I missing something?”
My impression is that camel hide is rough and uncomfortable and was therefore worn as a form of penance and mortification, at least by John. Perhaps this somehow mitigated against ritual impurity (as long as the meat was not eaten). But that’s just a guess. Google may know more.
Also, there may be a distinction between how Jews regard John the Baptist’s ascetic practices and how Christians do. And there may be distinctions between modern and ancient views by both groups too. Ancient ascetic practices often amaze moderns. Living in caves, living atop pillars, vows of celibacy even in marriage, and amazing feats of fasting are just a few of the forms of penance both Jews and Christians undertook in antiquity. How that related to specifically Jewish views of kosherness after the coming of the Christ, I have no idea. Perhaps a Jewish reader has more insight.
And wonder of wonders, Jewish readers did have more insight!
One wrote:
There is no prohibition against wearing furs, leather, or cloth from non-kosher animals. The only fabric prohibition is against wearing sha’atnetz, which is specifically defined as a mixture of linen and wool. All other textiles are permitted.
And another added:
Mark, pigs are not kosher but a Jew can allow a porcine heart valve to be implanted. The camel cloth can be worn as well because in neither case was the animal eaten. Beyond that, if the choice is between eating bacon and starving to death, Jews can eat the bacon. As a Jewish content provider remarked, Jews live by the laws, not die by them.
Also, of course, the discussion reminds me of the comment a friend once made regarding contemporary revulsion to ancient ascetic practices: “The culture that created the Stairmaster believes in penance and mortification just as much as ancients do. It just deploys it for vastly inferior ends.”
Advertisement
3 Responses
The thing about being allowed to eat bacon if the alternative is starving to death is true today but was not always true. Maimonides said you should refrain from treyf foods even if you’d die without them, and from the way he puts this it seems that this was the generally accepted view in his time. (He does consider this remarkable and something that requires explanation, as even back then you were allowed to break most other ritual rules to avoid death)
It seems like the StairMaster is the punishment of Sisyphus, without the boulder.
I’m reminded of my cousin who married a Jewish gentleman. Before they set up their home he gave her the choice of keeping a kosher kitchen, or opting out. She was young and idealistic. A couple of decades later she regretfully lamented: “can you imagine an Italian girl that can’t put meat and cheese together?”
I looked up the linen and wool fabric prohibition to try to make sense of it. It didn’t really help. But Ai provided me with the three all-time-worst-sins a Jew can commit:
Idolatry (Avodah Zarah): The worship of false gods. This strikes at the core foundation of Judaism, which demands absolute belief in the oneness of God and total refusal to acknowledge other deities.Murder (Shefichut Damim): The unlawful taking of a human life. Because human beings are created in the divine image, destroying a life is considered an irreparable assault on God Himself.Forbidden Sexual Relations (Gilui Arayot): This encompasses severe sexual transgressions, including incest, adultery, and bestiality. The Torah equates the degradation of relationships to the destruction of life itself.
Thank God there are good Jewish people in the world who are protesting the first degree murder, and rape in Gaza. It’s so systematic and defended by the settlers–it can only be understood to be pure paganism.–Also ironic given that it is being perpetrated against the first followers of Christ –the true children of the covenant that God made with the Semites..
There is a truly demonic quality to the fury that has been unleashed upon them. I have never seen anything like it in my life. Satanic.