Sorry for today's bizarre post, but its information correlates so well with what's happening throughout Edom today, I couldn't resist.
(Don't you love it when people say that? It's like, if you're really sooooo sorry, then why post it in the first place?)
Oh, and you probably shouldn't read it while eating.
(Don't you love it when people say that? It's like, if you're really sooooo sorry, then why post it in the first place?)
Oh, and you probably shouldn't read it while eating.
Esav's Mugshot This blog has often mentioned Chazal’s analogy of the pig representing Esav/Edom.
With its split hoof, the pig looks kosher on the outside, but its true treifut hides inside by virtue of its non-cud-chewing digestive system.
But I recently discovered an even more horrifying fact about pigs: They eat humans (including, without getting too graphic, live & kicking humans).
As we know, kosher animals are non-predatory: cows, goats, sheep, etc.
But pigs not only eat humans, they can actively prey on humans.
(I did not find reports of kosher farm animals eating humans under any circumstances. Yes, kosher farm mammals can attack humans, but not for food.)
Some experts theorize that British pigs are the most aggressive.
For example, an experienced 51-year-old horsewoman was riding through New Forest in England when an enormous pig, who’d been circling a car with people inside, suddenly turned its attention on her.
The pig charged, spooking her horse and causing her to fall to the ground, where the pig began attacking her. Fortunately, her teenage daughter and other passers-by managed to scare off the monster pig.
And just to be clear: I’m not talking about the tusked boars.
I mean the humble pink or beige or spotted pigs. (Pig farmers release their pigs to wander freely through New Forest in a practice called "pannage," which creates better-quality pork by enabling pigs to feed on chestnuts, acorns, and other fresh forest nuts.)
In fact, gangs of pigs in New Forest have taken to assaulting people in organized attacks.
The head verderer of New Forest described pigs as normally "curious" and "docile" while promising to investigate the attacks.
Other pig farmers have been eaten by their own pigs in places like Oregon, Romania, and most recently in Russia.
Granted, the people had gone out to feed the pigs, meaning that the pigs were hungry, but still. While it’s hard to know exactly how these events happened, investigators point to an epileptic episode that felled one owner while a heart attack is assumed to have felled the Oregonian farmer. But in another incident, it looks like the pigs knocked over their owner, then ate her.
Yet this is all so weird.
I mean, we always had a pet dog and cat when I was growing up. They never tried to attack us or knock us down for food. In fact, had any of us passed out while pouring food into their bowls, I can’t imagine them eating us as a response. I've never heard of a hungry pet dog or cat doing that. (And by hungry, I mean since last feeding time, not a starved pet.)
And dogs and cats are predatory carnivorous animals! Yet not as aggressive (or disloyal) as pigs, apparently.
Yeah, knowing animal behavior, I’m very surprised that pigs were this aggressive and carnivorous toward their own benefactors.
Also, we know that some wild animals, like bears, are less likely to eat a person who looks like he’s dead (i.e. an unconscious person) — but that apparently doesn’t stop a pig!
How odd that a seemingly friendly, harmless, mostly vegetarian barn animal can actually be more carnivorous & aggressive than dogs, cats, and bears.
Another expert pig farmer said that pigs are like sharks in that once they get a taste of blood, they can go into a feeding frenzy.
So this seemingly kosher, docile, "hum-dee-dum-dee-dum," inquisitive, friendly, domestic, mostly vegetarian omnivore can actually be a treif, predatory, vicious, blood-thirsty, treacherous carnivore who will turn on its own benefactor?
What an incredibly deceptive appearance from beginning to end.
In using the pig as the symbol for Esav/Edom, our Sages were even more perceptive than I realized.
And there's actually a lot to learn from this analogy...as Jewish history unfortunately shows.
With its split hoof, the pig looks kosher on the outside, but its true treifut hides inside by virtue of its non-cud-chewing digestive system.
But I recently discovered an even more horrifying fact about pigs: They eat humans (including, without getting too graphic, live & kicking humans).
As we know, kosher animals are non-predatory: cows, goats, sheep, etc.
But pigs not only eat humans, they can actively prey on humans.
(I did not find reports of kosher farm animals eating humans under any circumstances. Yes, kosher farm mammals can attack humans, but not for food.)
Some experts theorize that British pigs are the most aggressive.
For example, an experienced 51-year-old horsewoman was riding through New Forest in England when an enormous pig, who’d been circling a car with people inside, suddenly turned its attention on her.
The pig charged, spooking her horse and causing her to fall to the ground, where the pig began attacking her. Fortunately, her teenage daughter and other passers-by managed to scare off the monster pig.
And just to be clear: I’m not talking about the tusked boars.
I mean the humble pink or beige or spotted pigs. (Pig farmers release their pigs to wander freely through New Forest in a practice called "pannage," which creates better-quality pork by enabling pigs to feed on chestnuts, acorns, and other fresh forest nuts.)
In fact, gangs of pigs in New Forest have taken to assaulting people in organized attacks.
The head verderer of New Forest described pigs as normally "curious" and "docile" while promising to investigate the attacks.
Other pig farmers have been eaten by their own pigs in places like Oregon, Romania, and most recently in Russia.
Granted, the people had gone out to feed the pigs, meaning that the pigs were hungry, but still. While it’s hard to know exactly how these events happened, investigators point to an epileptic episode that felled one owner while a heart attack is assumed to have felled the Oregonian farmer. But in another incident, it looks like the pigs knocked over their owner, then ate her.
Yet this is all so weird.
I mean, we always had a pet dog and cat when I was growing up. They never tried to attack us or knock us down for food. In fact, had any of us passed out while pouring food into their bowls, I can’t imagine them eating us as a response. I've never heard of a hungry pet dog or cat doing that. (And by hungry, I mean since last feeding time, not a starved pet.)
And dogs and cats are predatory carnivorous animals! Yet not as aggressive (or disloyal) as pigs, apparently.
Yeah, knowing animal behavior, I’m very surprised that pigs were this aggressive and carnivorous toward their own benefactors.
Also, we know that some wild animals, like bears, are less likely to eat a person who looks like he’s dead (i.e. an unconscious person) — but that apparently doesn’t stop a pig!
How odd that a seemingly friendly, harmless, mostly vegetarian barn animal can actually be more carnivorous & aggressive than dogs, cats, and bears.
Another expert pig farmer said that pigs are like sharks in that once they get a taste of blood, they can go into a feeding frenzy.
So this seemingly kosher, docile, "hum-dee-dum-dee-dum," inquisitive, friendly, domestic, mostly vegetarian omnivore can actually be a treif, predatory, vicious, blood-thirsty, treacherous carnivore who will turn on its own benefactor?
What an incredibly deceptive appearance from beginning to end.
In using the pig as the symbol for Esav/Edom, our Sages were even more perceptive than I realized.
And there's actually a lot to learn from this analogy...as Jewish history unfortunately shows.
UPDATE: And with the studies that point toward humans being affected by the nature of the animals they eat, could eating pork contribute to the extreme Jekyll/Hyde nature found in some people and which has revealed itself in intermittent bursts throughout Edomite history?
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