Essay talk:The Problem of Sin

Kosher
If you go back three and a half millennia, the world was a very different place. It was very difficult to find ice in ancient egypt. There were a large number of infections and the like that were not terribly difficult to contract. The people in charge of the physical and spiritual health of the community was the priests. To an extent, one was not separate from the other.

The cheeseburger is also about keeping the meat and dairy separate. It is very easy to cross contaminate. Go into a modern grill in a commercial kitchen and you will see three sets of utensils - one with a red handle, one with yellow, one with green. You handle beef and pork with the red, chicken with the yellow, and vegetables with the green. The same thing applies - avoid cross contamination. You can have rare beef and not get sick, but I wouldnt want rare beef to come in contact with a utensil that had raw chicken come in contact with it.

Likewise, the priests were the ones that said when was the time to plant - keeper of the calendar. One of the problems of modern industrial farming is over-farming of the land - where the repetitive crops drain the nutrients from the field. Go to the middle east and this can be a problem even without modern industrial farming tools. And so, one in seven years, you leave the field fallow so the land can recover.

Harvesting fruit from a young tree was thought to strengthen the plant. Reading the rest of the passage Leviticus 19:23-25:
 * " 'When you enter the land and plant any kind of fruit tree, regard its fruit as forbidden. For three years you are to consider it forbidden; it must not be eaten. In the fourth year all its fruit will be holy, an offering of praise to the LORD. But in the fifth year you may eat its fruit. In this way your harvest will be increased. I am the LORD your God.

Its not about "this is a bad thing to do" but rather "to show your faith and to increase your harvest do these things"

Much of the old testament rules are about keeping kinds of things distinct. Don't plow with different types of animals. Don't mix fibers when clothing. One theory with the mixing of fibers has to do with not being pagan - keeping yourself distinct from others.

Even if these are less important in the modern world, it is the tradition of connecting a person to a cultural identity. It is not so much a 'sin' to not keep kosher, but rather a way of showing one's faith to G-d.

It is quite possible to look at many (most? if not almost all?) of the old testament statements about what to do as "how to stay alive in 1500 BC middle east." The purity of the body is the purity of the soul. They are the same to the writers of the Bible. Wether or not this has practical application today is not important - it is connection to history, an identity. It is how one shows their faith.

One key thing to keep separate in the mind is that Jewish tradition has a different concept of sin than the Christian tradition of [|sin]. Most people have been raised in a culture that is predominately Christian and so have that moral concept of sin attached to sin.

I would welcome any corrections on how sin and kosher are applied together.

--Shagie 03:44, 5 April 2008 (EDT)

Responce
While the world was a different place three and a half millennia ago, my essay isn’t about the historical reasons those laws were put into place, they are about the contemporary ways in which those laws are implanted.

I have not doubt that certain dietary restrictions were necessary back then. Heck, people often have to restrict their diets now. What I’m talking about is that these restrictions don’t come with a label that says “these rule are only hear for as long as they are necessary. In fact, just the opposite label is given by both the Bible and it’s adherents. Of course the Bible isn’t the only source of sins, but it is large one.

I’m sympathetic to innocuous and humble displays of faith. I’m sympathetic to innocuous and grandiose displays of faith. What I’m not sympathetic to is applying these laws to contemporary times and punishing people, often children, for not following a contemporary interpretation. I’m also not sympathetic to claims that other people braking a religious law they don’t believe in an offense to people who do believe in that religious law.

I agree with you that many of the laws in Old Testament are how to stay alive in the ancient Middle East. But this is not the ancient Middle East and the preachers who call everyone a sinner should understand that.

Rylon 14:24, 5 April 2008 (EDT)