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Re: Dietary Customs of Jains
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To: alt-hindu@cis.ohio-state.edu
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Subject: Re: Dietary Customs of Jains
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From: vivek@cs.rice.edu (Vivek Sadananda Pai)
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Date: 21 Mar 1995 23:44:12 GMT
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Distribution: world
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From news@larry.rice.edu Tue Mar 21 18: 30:46 1995
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Newsgroups: alt.hindu
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Organization: Rice University, Houston, Texas
tailor@crl.com (Victor Schneider) writes:
>Actually, the original injunctions about Jewish kashrut in Genesis are
>vegetarian and follow the Jainist philosphy. Contemporary Jewish kashrut
>derives from the belief that the later injunctions in Exodus and elsewhere
>supercede those in Genesis, which are much stricter.
I found this out the hard way, so to speak. I'm always interested
in the logic behind the eating patterns followed by various groups.
I don't know if it's widely known outside of Hinduism, but strict
vegetarian Hindus also don't eat onions and garlic, just as strict
Jains avoid it. The reasoning is different in the two cases. For the
Hindus, these foods are in the "mode of passion" whereas for the
Jains, it's because of the "food for the bugs" argument.
>
>>Dairy is OK, I think, but be sure about what's in it. I've met Jains
>>that are very particular about ingredients. Many cheeses are made with
>>rennet, an enzyme often obtained from the stomach linings of veal calves,
>
>Rennet is an issue in Jewish kashrut also.
So here's where I found out "the hard way". As you mentioned earlier,
Jewish thought on this topic changes over time. It seems that now, many
Rabbis accept "sufficiently processed" food as being Kosher. So, it's
OK to mix meat-derived products and milk, so long as the meat-derived
product has little resemblance to meat. I believe that products
containing gelatin are now marked Kosher by some companies, using this
logic.
By the way, could you define kashrut. I looked it up in a small
dictionary, but didn't find it.
>>than any knowledge I have about Jainism. I've been to (Hindu) houses where
>>there was a "meat" set and a "clean" set of dishes, and only the latter
>>was used for religious events, etc.
>
>Sounds vaguely familiar.
Yes - I met a Jewish grad student who mentioned that they're vegetarian
at home. He said it was very practical for a number of reasons:
a) they cook infrequently, so meat would spoil
b) it's cheaper and healthier
c) they didn't want to buy a second set of everything to have a
"meat set" and a "clean set"
I'd be interested in hearing more about what you've found on this issue.
I hope my fellow readers on this newsgroup would be tolerant about
hearing about it as well, since I believe that interfaith dialogue can
prove to be valuable.
-Vivek
