I noticed the story from a month ago that "Giraffe" is now officially considered a kosher animal, and it reminded me of this scene from an early Babylon 5 episode, where Ivanova's family rabbi comes to visit the station to discuss her father's death
anyway, before they get into the plot, Ivanova takes him to a Centauri restaurant on the station, and recommends the "Treel" which she's had before and says is good. She describes it as sort of a bony-plated Centauri fish-like animal.
So her rabbi asks "Is it kosher?" and she pauses and says she actually doesn't really know, but her rabbi then just gives a shrug and with a grin says "well, I don't recall "Treel" being mentioned in the torah..." and decides its okay to eat it, and says its wonderful
Now this is silly, it's just it made me remember that;
but according to JMS, the scene used to actually be longer and debate specific Kosher rules, but ultimately, they realized there was no easy answer and the scene dragged on for something like 10 minutes, and so they had to cut it:
But lets look at the basics: first off, it is a fish-like animal, so the "chews cud and cloven feet" rules aren't in effect
here's the seafood rules: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosher_animals#Fish_and_Seafood
apparently seafood is "kosher" if it "has both fins and scales"
obviously this was meant to exclude the shellfish (mollusks like clams and squid/octopi) because of their infamous bottom-feeding nature and propensity for being toxic
but the kicker is how this excludes several fish-like water animals...primitive fish like hagfish, lamprays, and eels are excluded.
but then we get into the problem of the *Sturgeon*
Sturgeons don't have normal "scales" nor do Sharks...they DO have a *kind* of scales, it's just that sharks use dentacle scales (you know, its smooth going front to back but like sandpaper the wrong way), and sturgeons use "scutes"
So it kind of depends on how you strictly define "Scales"
This is actually important because most caviar comes from sturgeons.
Anyways, this gets actually pretty interesting, in that some basically said that they should stop arguing the Letter of the Law, and recognize the Spirit of the Law: "Don't eat weird-looking fish, eat stereotypical fish"
more or less, Conservative Jews consider Sturgeon to be kosher, while Orthodox Jews do not.
furthermore, this is actually for birds, but apparently there's also interpretable rules about "if it is a new animal, it has to be similar to a known kosher animal" i.e. North American Turkeys are similar enough to old world ones.
But we get into the whole question of: if its an alien species, that, through *convergent evolution*, looks similar to a "standard Earth fish"...........but on a cellular/molecular level, is different. I mean what if it has "fin-like structures" which nonetheless, aren't really "fins" but like, extensions of bone? but they're indestinguishable without a microscope?
so that raises a more general question about "are animals from other planets kosher?"....I mean, a "Targ" looks like "a wild boar with bony spines", but should it be considered "kosher"? I mean for all we know, Targs "chew the cud"?
anyway, before they get into the plot, Ivanova takes him to a Centauri restaurant on the station, and recommends the "Treel" which she's had before and says is good. She describes it as sort of a bony-plated Centauri fish-like animal.
So her rabbi asks "Is it kosher?" and she pauses and says she actually doesn't really know, but her rabbi then just gives a shrug and with a grin says "well, I don't recall "Treel" being mentioned in the torah..." and decides its okay to eat it, and says its wonderful
Now this is silly, it's just it made me remember that;
but according to JMS, the scene used to actually be longer and debate specific Kosher rules, but ultimately, they realized there was no easy answer and the scene dragged on for something like 10 minutes, and so they had to cut it:
But lets look at the basics: first off, it is a fish-like animal, so the "chews cud and cloven feet" rules aren't in effect
here's the seafood rules: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosher_animals#Fish_and_Seafood
apparently seafood is "kosher" if it "has both fins and scales"
obviously this was meant to exclude the shellfish (mollusks like clams and squid/octopi) because of their infamous bottom-feeding nature and propensity for being toxic
but the kicker is how this excludes several fish-like water animals...primitive fish like hagfish, lamprays, and eels are excluded.
but then we get into the problem of the *Sturgeon*
Sturgeons don't have normal "scales" nor do Sharks...they DO have a *kind* of scales, it's just that sharks use dentacle scales (you know, its smooth going front to back but like sandpaper the wrong way), and sturgeons use "scutes"
So it kind of depends on how you strictly define "Scales"
This is actually important because most caviar comes from sturgeons.
Anyways, this gets actually pretty interesting, in that some basically said that they should stop arguing the Letter of the Law, and recognize the Spirit of the Law: "Don't eat weird-looking fish, eat stereotypical fish"
more or less, Conservative Jews consider Sturgeon to be kosher, while Orthodox Jews do not.
furthermore, this is actually for birds, but apparently there's also interpretable rules about "if it is a new animal, it has to be similar to a known kosher animal" i.e. North American Turkeys are similar enough to old world ones.
But we get into the whole question of: if its an alien species, that, through *convergent evolution*, looks similar to a "standard Earth fish"...........but on a cellular/molecular level, is different. I mean what if it has "fin-like structures" which nonetheless, aren't really "fins" but like, extensions of bone? but they're indestinguishable without a microscope?
so that raises a more general question about "are animals from other planets kosher?"....I mean, a "Targ" looks like "a wild boar with bony spines", but should it be considered "kosher"? I mean for all we know, Targs "chew the cud"?
