The  Basur  IS  Asur

The Prohibition of Eating Blood

  by Esther Rosner and Idena Finkelstein                                           

The prohibition of eating blood is found in: (7:25) it says, “You shall eat no manner of blood”.

The Mitzvoth Commandment And Their Rationale, written by Abraham Chill says:  Before ever eating meat, the blood must always be removed. The meat method is that the meat must be soaked for one and a half hours to remove all surface blood and to soften the meat. Then after it is salted thoroughly it has to remain so for an hour to permit the salt to penetrate through the meat and absorb the blood not visible on the outside. After the hour, the meat should be rinsed to remove the salted blood drawn out by the salt.

            Unsoaked meat for three days can’t be made Kosher, because the blood had been so absorbed that the salting or soaking would not be effective. The liver has so much blood, thus one can’t soak or salt because it would not be effective, although it can be broiled over an open flame to draw out the blood. The Rabbanim are the ones who say that we can’t eat blood that had separated itself from the human body. A drop of blood however that came from the gums of teeth is not included in this prohibition.

The Rambam commentates on this subject by saying that people who are pagan ,  attach a special significance to the blood of the animals. The Chaldeans considered blood as an agent of defilement. Greek’s used blood for fortune telling and spiritual things. Therefore, to show the separation between Jews and idol worshippers, the Rabbanim forbade the use of blood except Karbonos, Tehoros, or rituals.

            The Gemarah says that if there was a blood cholen spot on an egg the blood must be thrown away and the rest of the egg may be eaten. This rule is applicable only if the spot of blood was found in the white. However if the blood spot was found on the yolk, then the entire egg is assur, as a result of the blood spreading throughout the entire egg.

            The Ramban tells us three other explanations for the prohibition of eating blood. The first explanation is that: Man recognizes his creator, and is allowed to eat the flesh of another creature; but it is considered savage to eat blood of a creature. Blood keeps a person alive, why would one want to eat it?

The second explanation is if a human being would start eating the blood of animals he would begin to act like an animal.

The final explanation is that blood was the very life of the animal. It was used in bringing up Karbanos to substitute a humans life, which would represent him. How, then, could one eat the very substance that was used as a substitute for ones own blood???

            The Sefer Hachinuch says one is prohibited to eat blood of a domesticated or wild animal, a fowl. The prohibition of blood is repeated in several places throughout the Torah.  Blood= evil in nature, through eating it, there would be some slight acquisition of quality of cruelty. This is because a man would swallow from living creatures that are physically like him. The element in them on which life actually depends, to which they’re souls are attached. It is known that animals have a soul; their soul has the capacity to guard against falling into a particular snare, and quite a few other such matters.

The Ramban says that if man eats blood, there will be coarseness in mans soul, just as the soul of an animal is coarse and unrefined. It’s not right for a soul to eat another soul!

There is no punishment on the account of blood; therefore it is mutar to eat fish and locusts blood. Fish blood should be recognizable to all that its fish blood. This is why we leave some scales of the fish in the vessel. The blood of an asssur fish is assur, like tref milk from any kind of animal, which is assur. For example: egg of an ostrich, due to the fact that it derives from an unclean creature.

For human blood, chachamim made it assur for appearance sake. Therefore, they proclaimed if there is blood between the teeth , it may be sucked and swallowed. On the other hand, if the blood is on the bread it must be scraped off, and then the bread would be mutar.

Likewise, blood of egg is permissible: for its not considered blood of fowl, nor it’s a kind of basur, even if it began to develop embryonically. (The Tosfot)

The chachamim forbade an egg, which had begun embryonic development. Therefore, banned blood of eggs, because of this possibility. But whatever is obvious and is under embryonic development is assur due to the appearance.

If blood is found in the white of an egg, one may throw out the blood and eat the remainder of the egg. Torah law forbids blood, and the punishment is kares.

Kares, is incurred for blood that issues during karbanot, piercing or decapitation, as long as there is redness in it, and so to blood gathered in the heart. This too is lifeblood when it pours forth, therefore penalty over it occurs.

This means specifically when it pours out, excluding what drips or flows lightly at the beginning of the bloodletting and at the end, which is not lifeblood: no punishment of kares applies here.

Blood of limbs and organs such as blood of the spleen and of the kidneys: no penalty applies over it, but only whiplashes. This only applies if the amount of an olive is eaten.

The chachamim allow raw meat to be eaten without salting (to extract the blood) so long as it was washed well so that there not a remainder of blood on its surface. If one wants to eat meat cooked in a pot, chachamim obligate him to take out the blood that would separate out and go into the soup in the cooking. Salt is the only device that can achieve this goal. It naturally dries the blood and dries it, and it penetrates the meat. Even if it is extremely thick, one still must power to get all the existing blood out. One may put any meat into a pot as long as the meat was salted properly whether the water is boiling, warm, or cold. After salting, we consider it as mutar as all “bad” blood was extracted.

If one happens to see a little blood issuing from it, it is considered as a red secretion.

The Talmud says it’s the wine of meat and it paskined as mutar. Brains and liver, have so much blood contained in them, that the only way it can be extracted is by the force of fire, before cooking in a pot.

SALTING             

Meat must be washed well to remove the blood on it. Salt of medium size is put on meat (not too thick so that it should stick to it, somewhat and no too thin- so that it should not go off before doing the process).

It should be left for enough time like twenty minutes or so, but standard practice requires one hour. It should be put on a slanted surface in order for the blood to run down well. Then it should be washed well with water in a vessel two or three times, until the salt is removed and the water it soaked in remains clear. It takes twelve hours for all the juices to leave the meat. If the meat remained longer with its proper salt, it’s forbidden to eat it until a thin layer is removed from the entire surface of the meat. If one does not want to remove it, one is allowed to roast it, as a result of the fire drawing the blood out.

It is chayuv for every place and every time, for both man and woman. If one intentionally

violates it and eats an olives worth of lifeblood, one gets kares. If it was done b’shogegg, one should bring a chatus as a karbon. If ones eats an olives worth of blood of the organs and it was done intentionally, he should be given whiplashes. If one does this inadvertetently, there is no penalty involved.

                                            The Yorah Dayah (section 65).

            There are certain veins that are prohibited because of blood contained in them. For example: the vein in hands, shoulder, lower cheek on both sides of the tongue, the tongue, neck, heart, rump, membrane of the brain in the skull, and finally the membrane on the testicles.

            For the above examples, if you ONLY salt them, it will not remove the blood. One must 1^st cut them up, and then salt them. When would one have to do this?

If you want to cook them in a pot, one must cut them and salt them prior to the cooking process. If one would want to roast them, it is not necessary to cut them and salt them prior to the cooking. This is unnecessary, as a result of the fire removing the blood.

            There are those that say that if the face of the vein is directly over the fire, one does not have to cut them, because the vein is over the fire, and the fire will remove the blood. One the other hand, if the vein is absorbed in the meat (inside) the fire will not remove the blood, and one must cut them first prior to the roasting process.

            According to the Ramah, if one cooked meat without cutting the veins prior to the cooking, then it is required to have 60 times more meat then the vein (batel bshishim).