Don't Read This Post While Eating Fish

[onionsoupmix]

Comments

[sethg_prime]

I prefer Rabbi Slifkin’s position that the Gemara is right about halakha even when it’s wrong about science.

[llennhoff]

I'm not sure why Rabbi Slifkin's preferred position doesn't place chazal on a higher level than the torah. Then again, while I can find a source for 'lo bashamayim hi' sources for 'lo b'chazal hi' are somewhat rarer(*).

(*)I would claim both the sacrifices for a mistaken ruling by the Sanhedrin and 'Yiftach in his generation like Shmuel in his generation' might count. Perhaps the problem is we know longer believe in the spontaneous generation of chazal? :>)

[onionsoupmix]

lol, I believe in spontaneous generation of chazal, they just keep popping up out of nowhere.

[hamaskil]

I wonder when Rabbi Slifkin will finally become an apikores, boruch hashem :) I see the process going on slowly :) He's too smart for a rabbi.

[imush]

What is the problem with leeches?

[aunt_becca]

besides being an outdated way to fight illness?

[sethg_prime]

Outdated, you say?

[aunt_becca]

OMG I havethe willies just reading that!

comfort vs intellectual honesty

[anonymous]

I suspect Slifkin takes the position you summed up accurately (i.e. we are allowed to eat fish because we should believe the worm generates spontaneously) out of comfort (i.e. he does not have to stop eating those kinds of fishes) rather than out of intellectual honesty.

However, I think you can argue in all intellectual honesty that anisakis is not present in the fish's flesh if the fish was gutted right after slaughtering. Therefore, there is no reason for us to assume that there should be anisakis in fish. Therefore, if we cannot see any worm, we may eat the fish...

Thanks a lot....

[anonymous]

I finally figure out how to make perfect salmon fillet that everyone in my family eats with no complaints, plan to make more this week for Shavuot, and you have to give me this lovely mental image of worms in fish flesh!

Forget the halachic position. What about general gross-out?

JRKmommy