As technology advances....

[rhu]

• Displaying the Tetragrammaton on a computer screen was not a problem because the image has to be repainted dozens of times a second, so we don't have to worry about erasing. With e-Ink (and I don't know if the Kindle uses this as well), once an image is drawn to the screen it stays there until changed. Are there now halachic problems with displaying text containing the Tetragrammaton?

• If cells are extracted from a living animal and cultured into foodstuffs, does that violate ever min he-chai, the law that says we may not eat a limb torn from a living animal?

Comments

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Is a cell a limb? It is the most reductio example of a limb, that's for sure.

[cnoocy]

I suspect that milk contains cells from living animals, though they aren't cultured, which may be key.

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I knew someone would bring up milk.

So let me be more specific: It is forbidden to eat flesh that was removed from an animal while it's alive, even once the animal has died. It seems likely that within our lifetimes we'll see "vat meat". If the meat is grown from muscle tissue that was removed from a living animal, does it count as ever min hachai?

[cnoocy]

So, are the trace amounts of flesh cells present in non-flesh animal-derived foods considered kosher because they are a trace percentage of the food consumed, or because they represent a trace amount of flesh removed from the living animal?

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Because they're invisible to the unaided eye, I think.

[cnoocy]

So if the original sample was microscopic in size, then the resulting macroscopic steak is kosher?

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

That's what I'm wondering.

[sethg]

If you squeeze a live cow's udder, the stuff that comes out of it has the legal status of "milk" even if some of its cells are indistinguishable from "meat" cells. (There are rules for dealing with trace percentages of otherwise-not-kosher substances but I don't think we need to apply them here.)

If you slaughter a nursing cow, the milk in its udder has the legal status of "meat" according to Torah law, but the rabbis, not wanting people to drive a kosher cheeseburger through this loophole, say you can't drink it.

If you slaughter a pregnant cow, IIRC, the fetus in its womb has the legal status of "meat" even if it outlives its mother. I don't know if the rabbis bothered to close this loophole or if they just figured that nobody would be twisted enough to take advantage of it.

[cnoocy]

The fetus is a bit parallel, isn't it? Is it legal to eat the meat of a cow that, as a calf, was delivered by c-section? That's flesh from cells that were removed from a living being.

[sethg]

I'm pretty sure that if you deliver a calf by c-section then the mother is rendered non-kosher by the surgery. But I don't know about the calf.

[sethg]

IIRC if it doesn't have flesh and bone then it isn't a limb for the purposes of this law.