Why Rabbis Said No to “Impossible Pork” https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/religion-holidays/2022/03/why-rabbis-said-no-to-impossible-pork/

March 30, 2022 | Chaim Steinmetz
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Recently, Impossible Foods—a maker of plant-based meat substitutes—asked the Orthodox Union, a major kosher certifier, to put its seal of approval on its version of pork. Rabbis have long given their imprimatur to vegetarian bacon and various similar products, but in this case they deemed something called “pork” a bridge to far, even if it technically adheres to the laws of kashrut. Chaim Steinmetz explains that historical factors, going back to Hellenistic times, have made the pig a unique symbol of un-kosherness among the numerous proscribed species:

The Graeco-Roman world saw the Jewish refusal to eat pork as extremely strange; along with monotheism, circumcision, and Shabbat, it was a Jewish practice that perplexed outsiders. Pork was a staple of the Roman diet, and both Greeks and Romans used pigs for animal sacrifices. Outsiders mocked the Jewish refusal to eat pork.

Many in the ancient world saw the Jewish refusal to eat pig meat as misanthropic, part of a larger Jewish refusal to engage with the rest of the world; the desire to remain “a nation that dwells alone” irritated many in the ancient world. It is for this reason, when persecuting the Jews their tormentors forced them to eat pork. The book of Maccabees, which relates the history behind the Hanukkah story, tells of martyrs who refused to eat pork and gave up their lives instead. . . . Diodorus, a 1st-century BCE Greek historian, explains that Antiochus, the villain of the Chanukah story . . . assumed if he could break Jewish habits regarding pork, he could break Judaism.

In the Roman era, there was a change in rhetoric; the Jewish refusal to eat pig was not seen as an expression of hostility to pigs (and those who eat them), but rather an expression of affinity for pigs. . . . Popular culture in medieval Europe was far more malevolent; the Judensau, “the Jews’ pig,” which depicts Jews in close contact with a pig, became popular in the 13th century.

In rabbinic literature, one sees a mirror image of these polemics; the laws regarding the pig are read as a reference to the Roman empire.

Read more on Jewish Journal: https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/opinion/346381/jews-romans-and-pigs-an-impossible-history/