Kosher Porter House Steak - Anyone?
Many people have asked me: “Why can’t I get a kosher filet or porterhouse steak. They come from kosher animals – a cow - so why can’t they be made kosher?”
Well, the answer is to be found in this week’s Torah reading:
On his way back into Israel, our grandfather Jacob is accosted by a mysterious man/angel who wrestles with him all night long. Jacob ultimately wins the match, but not without injury. His thigh bone is dislocated thus causing damage to his sciatic nerve.
At the conclusion of this account-the Torah tells us “…therefore, the Jewish People are not to eat the sinew on the hip-socket to this day because he dislocated Jacob’s hip-socket…”
I have never actually seen how the sinew/nerve runs through the meat and down the hind legs of the animal, but I understand that removing it (and the fat attached to it) is an extremely difficult and complicated procedure that requires special skill. Kosher meat producers therefore avoid this complex, laborious, and tedious process. They simply separate the entire hindquarter and sell it non-kosher meat. (And that is why you won’t find a kosher sirloin, t-bone, etc. steak.)
I understand that in Israel, where the non-kosher market is not as large, there are people who do “traiber” – the Yiddish word for removing the forbidden nerves and fats in the hindquarters of meat. (I’ve only read about this and never actually seen it.)
That’s the technical side of the story. Let me conclude by sharing a deeper dimension:
The struggle between Jacob and the man/angel is meant to symbolize the eternal struggle between good and evil; it is the story of the Jewish struggle for survival amidst the tides of assimilation and persecution.
And this, perhaps, is why the Torah gives us a very tangible eternal reminder of the struggle – the prohibition to eat the sciatic nerve. G‑d wants us to be ever conscious of this perpetual struggle. In each generation the struggle takes on a different form. At times it was the crusades, pogroms and nazis, and at other times it was the lure of idolatry, Greek Hellenism or today’s wave of assimilation and intermarriage.
But from this week’s Torah reading we take the strength to stand up to the challenge, to fight, and to overcome. Each mitzvah, every word of Torah we study, any charitable act – these are the means to our success.
Even if at times we withstand casualties and "dislocate a thigh" (Jewish history is filled with all to many of such tragedies - both physical and spiritual) we can be certain at the end - like our grandfather Jacob - we will be victorious and we will succeed in persevering as a Godly people; a nation that acts as a beacon of light to the world – a proud carrier of the torch of Torah and mitzvahs.
Let’s do a mitzvah today!
PS Thus far I’ve managed quite well without a hindquarter steak but next time I’m in Israel I’ll ask around!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Raleigh Resnick
