Why do Jews have to be circumcised? And why aren't they allowed to eat pork?
The Bible tells that: ”In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” [Genesis 1.1]. The most important divine attribute was the ability to create. ”God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness …’” [Genesis 1.26]. Humans, however, could also create. Man was thus a competitor to God. But as long as man gave God the glory for creation, God's status was not seriously threatened.
God created by His word: ”God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.” [Genesis 1.3]. But man also creates with the word. A blessing or a curse was used by both God and man as an action that had consequences. A promise or an oath was also a creative act.
God also created with the hand. On the sixth day: ”… God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life …” [Genesis 2.7]. Just as a potter makes a figure from clay, God created man. But man can also create something with his hands from clay, wood or stone.
The Book of Genesis tells that God created the world in six days. On the seventh day he rested. The seventh day of the week was thereafter a day of rest, the Sabbath. Man also had to rest: ”You shall labor six days, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates … ” [Exodus 20.9-10].
If man creates while God rests, then it is a rebellion against God. On the Sabbath, man was allowed to read and teach the scriptures, but not to heal the sick. [Luke 13.14], bake bread [Exodus 16.23] or perform other creative actions [Exodus 20.10].
Man's independent ability to create gave in particular problems when something had to be produced for use in the service of God, for example an altar. For how could man create something for God that would be used to atone for the sin it was to create? Here, some compromises had to be accepted.
It was important that whatever was made of holy things was by God's express instruction. God was the designer: ”… You shall make an altar of earth … If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of cut stones; for if you lift up your tool on it, you have polluted it.” [Exodus 20.24-25. Also Joshua 8:30-31]
The altar was to be made of stone and earth, which God had created. But if the stones were carved by humans, then they were the creation of humans. The plan for the altar was given by God, and the material was created by God. Man's creative contribution was thus minimal.
King Solomon built a temple to Yahweh. The man whose creative ability was a rebellion against God was to build a house for the very same god. The problem was given a “half solution.” The stones were hewn to completion in the quarry, so that they only had to be stacked at the temple: ”The house (the templecfk), when it was in building, was built of stone prepared at the quarry; and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.” [1 Kinges 6.7].
But the most important thing was that man did not create an image of God. Moses had said: ”Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsman …” [Deuteronomy 27.15]. Man was not allowed to create God.
Did other cultures, like the Jews, have a problematic relationship with humans creating something for the god? An obvious example here would be the Egyptians' enormous tomb complexes for the god Pharaoh. First of all the many great pyramids. It must has required an incredible amount of work to carve, drag from afar, and lift the mighty stones into place in the pyramids.
The Egyptians must have been proud of their amazing building projects. But there is not a single description or depiction of the construction work itself. It is unknown why this is so. But this may be because the building process itself was taboo.
The pyramid connected heaven and earth. Here the dead Pharaoh was buried as the god Osiris to be resurrected as the god's son Horus. It was the most sacred - and mystical - thing that happened in all of Egypt. It was not (was not allowed to be?) the work of humans, because then Pharaoh was not divine.
The Egyptian pyramid and sarcophagus texts are about what the Pharaoh does and goes through to be reborn as the god. Not what the people, the Egyptians, do or should do. They were not part of the “project” at all.
Man was created as male and female [Genesis 1.27], man could thus continue the creation of mankind himself: ”… God said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply …’” [Genesis 1.28]. But it was still a rebellion against God when man did so. And a rebellion was to be avenged: ”I will surely require your blood of your lives …” [Genesis 9.5]. However, the life, the child that man created, was not to die itself, but to be replaced by an animal sacrifice. God's vengeance would then be transferred to the animal instead.
It is paradoxical that God had created man so that he could reproduce himself, have children, and continue humanity alone. To regain power, God established a covenant with Abraham, and the covenant was sealed with Abraham's circumcision [Genesis 17.4-14] as a guarantee, that the children that Abraham and his descendants would create, would be God's.
God had said to man: ”Every moving thing that lives will be food for you … But flesh with its life, its blood, you shall not eat.” [Genesis 9. 3-4]. The blood was life and thus God's work of creation.
The Law of Moses divides animals into clean and unclean animals. Only clean animals were allowed to be eaten or sacrificed to God. Humans could deliberately refrain from making themselves unclean, or they could purify themselves and atone for their sins. But animals are, according to the Law of Moses, "by nature" either clean or unclean.
The Law of Moses divides all animal species into five groups: fish, birds, insects, "creeping things" and other animals [Leviticus 11]. Some of the animals in these groups are clean, while others are unclean. Not a word about why this is so.
There has been much speculation about why, for example, pigs are unclean animals while cows and sheep are clean animals. Nowadays, there are suggestions that pork could be harmful to health (due to trichinosis.[1]) But that is a modern post-rationalization. The ancient attempts to explan this sounded completely different.
'Aristeas' is the name of a writing that was probably written sometime in the last two centuries before Christ. It is best known for its story of how the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, came into being. But the writing also contains an attempt to explain the law regarding clean and unclean animals.
Although the text's Greek author is clearly on shaky ground, he still has some useful clues. He starts with a bit of a moral sermon about the reason for the law: ”All these ordinances were made for the sake of righteousness to aid the quest for virtue and the perfecting of character.”[2]
But he goes on to explain more usefully why some birds are clean while others are unclean: ”For all the birds that we use are tame and distinguished by their cleanliness, feeding on various kinds of grain and pulse, such as for instance pigeons, turtle-doves, locusts, partridges, geese also, and all other birds of this class.”[3]
Although partridges are not domesticated animals, and locusts are insects, the meaning is actually clear. The clean “birds” are vegetarians, while the unclean birds are birds of prey: ”But the birds which are forbidden you will find to be wild and carnivorous, tyrannising over the others by the strength which they possess, and cruelly obtaining food by preying of the tame birds enumerated above.”[4]
A common feature of the Jewish dietary laws is that it is forbidden to eat animals that, under any circumstances, might eat meat and thus blood. This includes all predators and scavengers, including pigs. We remember the above-mentioned prohibition against eating blood and meat with blood in [Genesis 9.4], and this, of course, also applied to animals.
Of marine animals, only fish with fins and scales are pure, as they are typically prey animals (however, many fish are also carnivores), while sharks, dolphins and squid without scales or fins (in the case of squid), so obviously, are predators. Of the insects, only locusts are allowed to be eaten, as locusts are vegetarians, while many other insects are predators or scavengers.
All animals that crawl on the ground are unclean, including reptiles, mice, and moles. It is hardly obvious what is behind this. But that's probably because they often live in caves and tunnels underground – close to the realm of the dead.
Ruminants are clean animals, as they are vegetarians, however, they are required to have cloven hooves. That exception was probably introduced to exclude donkeys (and horses) [Exodus 13.13]. Because they were working animals, they "helped" man to create. We saw above that even animals were not allowed to work and thus create on a Sabbath.
Donkeys worked in the fields, or as beasts of burden, draft and riding animals. It could be objected that oxen, which could be eaten and sacrificed, were also used as working animals. But it has been difficult to ban almost everything.
There were, however, restrictions on the sacrifice of cattle. A heifer that had not borne a yoke was required for the sin offering [Numbers 19.1-10. Also Deuteronomy 21.3-4]. It was important that the cow was a “virgin,” that is, a heifer, and that it had not worn a yoke. It must in no way have contributed to "creating". As a sin offering, it could not be used for atonement if it itself was “complicit.”
Similar thoughts are also found in cultures other than the Jewish one, for example in the Roman. Here there were also situations where it was important to bring a “sinless” sacrifice. The poet Ovid wrote: ”The king … sacrificed a heifer, which had never submitted her neck to the burden of the yoke.”[5] Here too, the animal's “innocence” was important.
God had, the Bible says, created people, animals and plants as they should be. Man was not allowed to challenge the Creator by changing that order. Any change or wrong or different use of creation was a rebellion against God.
Many of the laws in the Law of Moses were to prevent this type of crime. One of those laws is that it was forbidden to mix several different types of yarn in the same woven fabric: ”You shall not wear a mixed stuff, wool and linen together.” [Deuteronomy 22.11. Also Leviticus 19.19]. Something so "innocent", and for us so everyday, must have caused quite a few disadvantages and limitations - and must still do so for Orthodox Jews.
What applies to clothing, of course, also applied to all other areas of life. Everywhere, it was forbidden for orthodox Jews to mix originally independent things together. It was thus not permitted to sow two types of crop in the same field: ”You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed …” [Leviticus 19.19. Also Deuteronomy 22.9].
Two different animals were not allowed to work together: ”You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.” [Deuteronomy 22.10]. Not because it was hard for the poor donkey, but because they were two different species of animals, moreover, a clean and an unclean animal.
God's creation, nature, should be as it was intended. Men should be men and women should be women. They were not allowed to act as if they were something else: ”A woman shall not wear men's clothing, neither shall a man put on women's clothing …” [Deuteronomy 22.5].
Homosexuality was therefore of course not permitted [Leviticus 18.22], and sexual intercourse with animals was also forbidden. Man was created as a man and an animal as an animal [Leviticus 18.23]. But two different animals were not allowed to mate either: ”…' You shall not crossbreed different kinds of animals.' …” [Leviticus 19.19]. Mules were therefore not accepted.
There were rules for even the smallest details of life. For example, it was not allowed to cut the hair short, because that was to change God's creation. Men, unlike women, were created to have beards, and therefore it was against the order of nature for men to shave. The Law of Moses says: ”You shall not cut the hair on the sides of your heads, neither shall you clip off the edge of your beard.” [Leviticus 19.27].
Observing all the rules and laws of the Law of Moses has been difficult or impossible for ordinary people in everyday life. But a special group of Jews took the observance of these laws and regulations to the extreme, namely the Nazirites.
One of the strangest laws in the books of Moses is the law regarding Nazirites, it goes like this: ”… When either man or woman shall make a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to Yahweh, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of fermented drink, neither shall he drink any juice of grapes, nor eat fresh grapes or dried. All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is made of the grapevine, from the seeds even to the skins. All the days of his vow of separation no razor shall come on his head, until the days are fulfilled …” [Numbers 6.2-5].
Everything man-made and artificially produced was truly ungodly. A Nazirite was to live as “naturally” or “originally” as possible. He was not allowed to cut his hair or beard, as that would be a change of God's creation. He was not allowed to drink alcohol, as it was fermented (man-made) malt or grape juice. Similarly with leavened bread or milk. On the other hand, he was allowed to eat locusts and wild bees' honey - it was naturally produced and thus God-created. [Matthew 3.4].
One could become a Nazirite as a result of a deeply personal, mystical experience of God's presence. One was dedicated or dedicated oneself to God for a time or forever. The judges Samson and Samuel were both conceived at or after a mystical encounter with God [Judges 13.2-18 and 1 Samuel 1.1-20]. And both of them were later given by their parents to Yahweh as His Nazirites. The much later John the Baptist was also a Nazirite, he was conceived in the same way. [Luke 1.8-17].
But the Nazirites were also just a compromise acceptable to God. For even Nazirites had to wear clothes, and those clothes, although primitive, were nevertheless made by humans. The Nazirite were a kind of ultimate example of the "back to nature" of the time, to the pure, God-created world before man himself began to create.
But precisely "primitively", as close to nature as possible, they were to live. However, this did not only apply to the Nazirites, but in principle to the entire Jewish people. However, they could not, and therefore the priests had to constantly offer sin and atonement offerings before God on behalf of the faithless people.
These Nazirites "survived" into the early Christian church. Paul had a Nazirite vow, which he was to fulfill by eventually offering sacrifices in the temple. [Acts 20.22].
Even in much later times, there were Christians who lived a life as ascetic Nazirite-like figures. Although some sought to isolate themselves physically and spiritually from the world as hermits and pillar saints, these holy men and women nevertheless became models of faith in the Christian world, and people came from far and wide to see and hear them.
In the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, monks and nuns are a kind of Nazirite of Christendom. They own nothing, live spartanly, wear only simple clothing, and spend all their time and their entire lives in prayer and service to God.