Yuval Cherlow, a notable Orthodox rabbi from Israel has reportedly announced that meat obtained from genetically cloned pigs is not regular pork and therefore should not be subjected to Jewish dietary laws.
The rabbi argued that cloning effectively deprives pork of its "identity" and therefore this meat can be freely consumed by Jews, even alongside dairy products (eating meat and milk together is also prohibited by kosher law).
Some social media users were amused by rabbi’s statements, cracking jokes about religious taboos.
I think the rabbi just looking for a reason to try Wendy’s new baconator burger.
— MB (@YOLOGRIND) 28 марта 2018 г.
So, can they use the phone on the sabbath while eating their greasy, sort of porky snacks yet?
— Charlie Brenner (@halfmoonchas) 26 марта 2018 г.
Surely it's only kosher if it can be genetically altered to have proper hooves.
— (((Wombat18))) (@The_Real_Dougal) 25 марта 2018 г.
Others remarked that the religious ban on pork can be considered an anachronism today.
Religious dietary laws are an anachronism. They started in days when certain foods, improperly prepared, made people ill. Since no one understood why, the only way to avoid the problem was to claim that their god forbid it. We now know how to cook pork and shellfish, so enjoy!
— Squirrel (@Squirrel3218) 26 марта 2018 г.
The ban was based on pre-scientific understanding that trichinosis might infect the meat. Since they probably aren’t cloning the parasite too, probably ok.
— Pete Hammer (@hangdogpete) 26 марта 2018 г.
And yet others insisted that the rabbi wasn’t talking about cloning but was rather referring to engineered lab-grown flesh.
That's NOT what he said. He was talking about the possibility to produce edible materials out of lab-processed cell cultures. If the original cells of artificial meat originated in pork, would the end product still be considered pork?To THIS question, his answer is "no"
— Yigal Palmor (@YigalPalmor) 25 марта 2018 г.
Error correction: This is not a clone, but rather a engineered flesh. The error in terminology is essential to the precise clarification of the issue. https://t.co/tONHudGhcn
— Sparky (@Sparky50732252) 25 марта 2018 г.
