Re'eh: The Jewish Truth About Pigs

בס"ד

Unusually, I will begin this Drasha with a warning, the kind you hear when you’re about to watch a controversial news story.  I would like to let you know that some people here today might find the following topic disturbing and quite un-Rabbinic in nature.  In fact, this could possibly be the most inappropriate sermon I have delivered, granted that the subject-matter seemingly focuses on the most un-Jewish of topics.

I am of course, talking about...pigs.

When I say ‘pigs’, I am not referring to those cute little four-legged creatures in a derogatory fashion.  No, perish the thought.  In fact, I am quite in awe of them.  After all, did they not inspire some of the most famous stories that we grew up with?

Think about Piglet from ‘Winnie the Poo’.  Let’s not forget the ‘Three Little Pigs’.  How about Wilbur from ‘Charlotte’s Web’?  And who can ignore Old Major, Napoleon and Snowball from ‘Animal Farm’?  More recently, we have ‘Babe: The Gallant Pig’ (or better known as ‘The Talking Pig’ from the charming 1990s film).

How many animals can boast (albeit unwillingly) to have their meat served in no less than four popular configurations– namely pork, bacon, gammon and ham?  And that’s not counting the myriad ways their meat can be prepared.

Go to any farm and you’ll always see a boar or sow walking around, snout at the ready to sniff anything in its path.  According to the ‘Human League’ an American website dedicated to the preservation of the species (https://thehumaneleague.org/article/pig-intelligence), pigs are one of the most intelligent creatures around and a blog called ‘a-z animals’ (https://a-z-animals.com/blog/the-10-smartest-animals-in-the-world/) claims that they have the seventh highest IQ in the animal kingdom after brainboxes such as chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants.  How you measure the IQ of an animal is beyond my comprehension but this seems to be borne out by a relatively recent article in the Independent (6^th June 2022) (https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/pigs-intelligent-sentient-animal-drugs-testing-b2093536.html) which states that:

Pigs are widely recognised to be highly intelligent, demonstrating behaviours long thought to be the preserve of humans and other great apes, including self-awareness and creativity.  So much so that the UK government formally recognises that pigs are sentient beings.

The recently enacted Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act acknowledges that all vertebrate animals experience feelings including joy and pain.  But cutting-edge behavioural science goes further, demonstrating that pigs possess the capacity even to perceive time, have perspective, and engage in social discrimination abilities.

All of which brings me to the point of this Drasha (and I’m sure that you will be relieved to hear that my focus switches away from praising these very unkosher animals) which asks why we hold them in such contempt (they also don’t rate too highly amongst our Muslim cousins either).

This week’s Parasha is a good place to start.  In repeating the list of animals, birds, fish and insects that are permitted and prohibited (in Parashat Shemini, we read a more comprehensive inventory), we are told (14.7-8]:

You may eat any animal that has divided hoofs, fully split in two and chews the cud….these you shall not eat: the camel, the hare and the hyrax because they chew the cud but do not have a divided hoof – they are impure for you; and the pig because it has a divided hoof but does not chew the cud – it is impure for you.

The Torah goes at pains to single out the pig from all the other animals in the list.  Camels, hares and the hyraxes (otherwise known as the shrewmouse) don’t have fully cloven feet but they are ruminants, so it is clear to see that they don’t qualify for their own packaging at Kosher Deli.  Pigs however, are different; they do have cloven feet. So, on the outside they look as though they could be kosher but unless our people have been gifted with x-ray vision (aside from that special Jew known as Superman…what, you didn’t realise he was one of the tribe?), we wouldn’t be aware of this aspect of the pig’s anatomical makeup.  The Torah is therefore providing us with those special glasses.

However, like everything we read in our Holy Book, we need to scratch below the surface to find a deeper meaning (it is tempting to make a pun regarding ‘pork scratchings’ in this context, but I will resist the urge).

In order to understand why the ‘chazir’ is viewed negatively requires us to look at what initially seems like a strange comment in the book of Bereshit.

The Torah tells us (26.34) that:

When Esav was forty years old, he married Yehudit, daughter of Be’eri the Hittite and Basmat the Hittite.

Rashi, commenting on this verse tells us that he is compared to a boar, quoting Psalm 80.14

Esav is compared to a boar, as it is said in (Psalms 80:14) “The boar from the wood does ravage it”.  The boar when it lies down stretches forth its cloven hoof as much as to say, “See, I am a clean animal” (whilst cloven hoofs are a feature of clean (i.e kosher animals only in conjunction with chewing the cud).

Quoting the Midrash Rabbah (Chapter 65), he continues:

In the same way these royal descendants of Esav rob and extort and pretend to be honourable because, for the whole forty years (until he married Yehudit and Basmat), from a young age Esav enticed women from their husbands and ill-treated them; when he reached the age of forty he said, “My father took a wife when he was forty and I shall do the same.”

Chazal, our Sages, attributed the exile we are currently in to that of Edom, or Rome, who were the descendants of Esav.  In the same way that externally, they pretended to like and admire us, their intentions were anything but altruistic.  Over the millennia, as we are painfully aware, we have been persecuted time and again by those whom we thought we could trust.  Religious and secular leaders who might have appeared ‘pure’ in their practices, were anything but.

The language the Torah uses to describe kosher and non-kosher animals is Tahor (spiritually clean) and tamei (spiritually unclean). When it comes to the pig, the Hebrew tells us:

Ve’et Hachazir, ki mafris parsah hu velo gera – Tamei hu lachem

and the pig because it has a divided hoof but does not chew the cud – it is impure for you.

Both the House of Esav and the pig display the same characteristics.  They appear to be pure, but this is not at all the case.

Additionally, the pig had always received ‘a bad press’ in Jewish circles and represented the very essence of evil (not forgetting the story of Antiochus IV, from the Chanukah story, who, though not a Roman, desecrated the Second Temple by sacrificing a pig on the golden incense altar, a few feet from the Holy of Holies).

Modern archaeologists can readily identify a Philistine encampment by the presence of ancient pig bones, as opposed to a Hebrew one which doesn’t contain them.

It is therefore clear to see that both from a metaphorical and physical angle, we have a long history of treating the pig or ‘sus domesticus’ as being ‘non grata’ both in our menus and overall culture.

This is not to say that we don’t respect the pig as one of G-d’s creatures.  Yes, it is intelligent and is to be justifiably admired for all its features.  It is also very cute, as I have explained.

However, beyond its external form, there also lies a deeply troubling connection to our history.

Chazal tell us that when Moshiach arrives, one of the miracles that will take place will centre on the pig being transformed, so that it will start to chew the cud and join the family of animals that we may partake of.

Until then, I’ll abstain from bacon butties, pork chops and ham sandwiches, so as far as pigs are concerned, they have very good friends in both Jewish and Muslim adherents who are happy to maintain their current carnivorous diets!

Shavuah Tov.