
Some rabbis just lifted an 800-year-old dietary rule - pbhowmic
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/04/22/some-rabbis-just-lifted-an-800-year-old-dietary-rule-that-may-rock-your-passover-world/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_2_na
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torgoguys
Sorry, I'm going to be dismissive about the whole thing. "Arbitrary and wacky
dietary restriction slightly less wacky" is what this comes down to. I do not
understand why people in 2016--2016!!!--adhere to these restrictions to begin
with. To think that the Creator of the Universe would be some out put-out or
offended that you ate some rice is weird.

I was raised as a catholic (but am no longer). The "no meat on Fridays" (at
first always and then only during lent...oh yeah, and "fish" isn't "meat" for
this purpose) has nothing compared to the Jewish dietary laws, but I don't
have a lot of contact with observant Jews where I live. When I ask catholics
around here why they still do the "no meat" thing, I don't really get
responses that I think would resonate with anyone not already on board. It
seems that most do it for tradition sake and I have a hard time getting on
board with something like that. (And few others will say something like "the
pope says not to, so that's good enough for me.")

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dghughes
I never got the fish isn't meat thing either I guess meat means land animals
and fish is from the sea. A man was crucified 2,000 years ago so you can't eat
a hamburger...why? Sacrifice maybe I could accept that but why just meat and
not abstain from all food.

At least the Jews made some attempt at giving a reason as to why you can eat
certain food and not just "because".

It's interesting how Jews, Christians (Catholic only?) and Muslims all have a
somewhat related dietary restriction philosophy. It's not surprising seeing
how all developed in the same region the Levant area where the local cultures
must have had similar customs before all the religions developed. Catholicism
is so close to Judaism I can understand the relation but Islam only developed
over 500 years later after Christianity maybe a remnant of their former Jewish
and Christian practice?

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toast0
> It's interesting how Jews, Christians (Catholic only?) and Muslims all have
> a somewhat related dietary restriction philosophy. It's not surprising
> seeing how all developed in the same region the Levant area where the local
> cultures must have had similar customs before all the religions developed.
> Catholicism is so close to Judaism I can understand the relation but Islam
> only developed over 500 years later after Christianity maybe a remnant of
> their former Jewish and Christian practice?

Islam has roots in Judaism, so it should not be surprising that they have
similar dietary philosophy as well.

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KKKKkkkk1
This is a non-story. As the article explains, Sephardi Jews (even Orthodox
ones) have been eating kitniyot on Passover forever. The Ashkenazi position
was that it's forbidden, but there has never been consensus about this.

Happy Passover!

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shahryc
Very true --- and "the rabbis with the Conservative movement" are really a
small minority compared to the Orthodox strands (Modern Orthodox, Haredi,
Religious-Zionist, etc.)

