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["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

Well, I am back to trying to relearn what little Russian I learned back in 
the dark ages.  We had a neighbor who was, as he described himself, a black 
Russian Jew immigrant.  He and his wife were neat people.  She was from 
Israel.  So, I was thus introduced to both Russian and Jewish studies.

He had been a scholar in Russia and had managed to smuggle at least a 
bazillion books out with him, or so it seemed to my young eyes at the time. 
I was given free reign over the books and my mother used to tell him he was 
encouraging my bad habits <g>

At anyrate, he told us many stories and one of them was that the rules on 
foods were put into place partially as punishment for not following orders 
and partially because the orders that weren't followed were for health 
reasons.  He said that the ancient rules were much less intensive and less 
restrictive than the modern kosher rules.

Some of the other stuff he talked about were the messed up translations that 
went into the various religious documents.  The one that always stuck in my 
mind was the change from "sea of reeds" to "red sea."

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roy Morgan" <k1lky AT earthlink.net>
> Quite possibly so. But
> <Imagination machine ON>
> Is it possible that one, just one, revered rabbi had a great uncle who
> succumbed to a fateful case of trichinosis or something?  And said
> rabbi proclaimed the evils of pork and so it went?