Penance for Breaking Kosher?
Google Terms: Kosher, Breaking Kosher, Kashrut, Breaking Kashrut, Penance for breaking kosher
Setting: Medieval England. Around the 1190's, though I've yet to pin down an exact year. This is a Robin Hood re-telling so I can play around with some of the other details.
Question: So, here's the situation. I have a character who is Jewish, and he's just helped my injured protagonist by bringing him pork fat to put on a burn (I know that's not supposed to happen but HE doesn't and neither does the character, and they're in a really limited situation, with my protagonist in a jail cell and Character A trying to tend to him after he's been branded), which he's gathered himself, and then he proceeds to slather it on the kid's hand when it looks too difficult for him to do it.
I'm lead to believe that touching any part of the dead pig results in kosher being broken. Would this have been considered true? What might Character A do if he has, in fact, broken kosher? Are there any prayers he might say, or acts of penance he might perform?
I'd intended for this to lead to a scene where this information is revealed to my protagonist, either because he witnesses Character A performing said penance, or by having him simply mention this fact. Would this be workable, given the circumstances?
This community has helped me so much with this novel in the past, and reminded me of several details I'd forgotten were relevant to my situation, so I'm hoping that can happen here again!
Thanks in Advance!
Setting: Medieval England. Around the 1190's, though I've yet to pin down an exact year. This is a Robin Hood re-telling so I can play around with some of the other details.
Question: So, here's the situation. I have a character who is Jewish, and he's just helped my injured protagonist by bringing him pork fat to put on a burn (I know that's not supposed to happen but HE doesn't and neither does the character, and they're in a really limited situation, with my protagonist in a jail cell and Character A trying to tend to him after he's been branded), which he's gathered himself, and then he proceeds to slather it on the kid's hand when it looks too difficult for him to do it.
I'm lead to believe that touching any part of the dead pig results in kosher being broken. Would this have been considered true? What might Character A do if he has, in fact, broken kosher? Are there any prayers he might say, or acts of penance he might perform?
I'd intended for this to lead to a scene where this information is revealed to my protagonist, either because he witnesses Character A performing said penance, or by having him simply mention this fact. Would this be workable, given the circumstances?
This community has helped me so much with this novel in the past, and reminded me of several details I'd forgotten were relevant to my situation, so I'm hoping that can happen here again!
Thanks in Advance!