Q&A: Eating Tradition
Eating Tradition
Question
Hello Rabbi, good afternoon. I heard a claim in yeshiva in one of the classes that our chicken and what the Sages called by the name “chicken” might not be the same animal.
Does that undermine the tradition of our ancestors that we have? The Rabbi told me no, because we do not have a tradition about the name “chicken,” but about the animal itself — that is, we know that this animal with the red comb and white feathers is kosher and that our ancestors ate it (regardless of what it was called in any given period).
I wanted to ask whether you agree. Is an eating tradition indeed about the animal and not about its name?
Answer
I don’t know. Indeed, the tradition is that one may eat what is nowadays called a chicken. There are also kosher signs that can be checked.
Discussion on Answer
I don’t see a problem, as long as it’s clear that it has the signs. This invention of requiring a tradition is just that — an invention. It is justified only where the issue of the signs is not unequivocal.
Regarding the first part, no problem, I understand.
As for the second part, why are the kosher signs relevant here? After all, what actually determines, as a practical matter of Jewish law, whether to eat an animal or not is the question of whether we have a tradition regarding it, no? (If a new species were discovered with kosher signs, would it be permitted to eat nowadays?)