The endurance artist David Blaine is covered in this video showing the technique where one could learn to swallow certain live animals. And, at will, regurgitate the live animal (for example, a frog).
The main question here is if a Jewish person could do such a thing with a living creature of some kind, that would be ordinarily absolutely forbidden.
Points of clarification would be, what exactly defines a normal case of eating something not kosher, how does eating something alive play into this.
The point of contention here is that one is not eating it at all, or is he?
Answer
At the end of perek Gid Hanashe (103 IIRC) in Chullin, the gemara cites a question concerning what is considered eating. Do we say its the benefit of the throat or the digestion of the stomach? The gemara ends off seemingly holding that its the throat which determines eating. In fact the Rambam codifies this as halacha regarding eating food that was vomited out and eaten again. It would seem just the fact of swallowing would be enough to make one liable, even though its regurgitated.
Text of Rambam Maachalos Asuros 14:3 : כזית שאמרנו חוץ משל בין השינים אבל מה של בין החניכים מצטרף למה שבלע שהרי נהנה גרונו מכזית אפילו אכל כחצי זית והקיאו וחזר ואכל אותו חצי זית עצמו שהקיא חייב שאין החיוב אלא על הנאת הגרון בכזית מדבר האסור:
Translation (Chabad) : The measure of "the size of an olive" that we mentioned does not include what is between one's teeth. What is between one's gums, however, is included in what one swallows, for his palate benefited from an olive-sized portion of food.
Even if one ate half of an olive-sized portion, vomited it, and then ate the same portion that was half the size of an olive that he vomited, he is liable. For the liability is for the benefit one's palate receives from a forbidden substance.
No comments:
Post a Comment