Q&A: Is Cannibalism Permitted by the Torah?
Is Cannibalism Permitted by the Torah?
Question
Is it permitted to eat human beings? There is no explicit prohibition on this according to Nachmanides.
For example, if a person has the status of a pursuer, and I happen to know by tradition how to slaughter a human being, would I be allowed to eat him?
Also, are human beings considered meat or pareve?
Answer
https://www.yeshiva.org.il/wiki/index.php/%D7%91%D7%A9%D7%A8_%D7%90%D7%93%D7%9D
It’s not meat. “Let the humble eat and be satisfied.” Bon appétit.
Discussion on Answer
Since there is a prohibition on deriving benefit from a corpse, people have to be eaten alive, as it is written: “Each man swallowed his fellow alive” 🙂
Best regards, Chaim Blau
Anyone asking this question seriously ought, for the good of the Jewish people, to be hospitalized in a locked ward.
It says, “You shall not murder.” If it were permitted to be a cannibal, the Torah would permit murder.
Does a human chew the cud? Have split hooves?
It says, “Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” From here we learn that a human being has flesh…
“If it were permitted to be a cannibal, the Torah would permit murder”?
I didn’t understand.
A corpse is forbidden for benefit.