Just to mention currently I am in Oaxaca, Mexico. Grasshoppers are a common snack, and they are considered part of Oaxaca's cultural cuisine. There are people selling varieties of grasshoppers all over the markets. Flying ants (in season) are also part of Oaxaca's culinary culture, as they are made into a sauce which I am told has 'an earthy flavor'. People often ask me if they are kosher, and I do believe the answer is yes (although I'm not certain, Natan if you have any information please add.) But I personally can't bring myself to try these things, it just doesn't feel right to me to eat.
I understand from the Rashi on Devarim 14:20 that a person who eats a non-kosher animal transgresses a negative and a positive commandment. The positive commandment is that he should have eaten kosher food!
Rashi: You may eat every clean fowl. But not the unclean ones. Here [Scripture] comes to attach a positive commandment to the negative commandment. Similarly, in the case of [clean] animals, it says: “that you may eat” (verse 6), [but] not the unclean ones. A prohibition inferred from a positive commandment [is regarded as] a positive commandment, so that one [who eats such food] transgresses a positive and a negative commandment.
I think that the point is that the reason for the positive commandment is to add on to the negative so that when you are eating non-kosher food you are violating two commandments. He is explaining that the purpose is not a commandment to eat kosher animals.
I once saw a children's movie, where a child is told, "When a person does an aveirah, he really does two aveirahs--because in the time that he did the aveirah, he could have done a mitzvah." That line stuck with me.
Maybe Rambam simply doesn't have the concept of "getting a mitzvah". If you look at his Sefer Hamitzvos he has a number of Mitzvos that are more like defintions than anything else. E.g.:
היא שצונו להיות הזב טמא, ומצוה זו כוללת משפט הדברים שיהיה בהן זב ותאר היותו מטמא לזיבתו. (מצורע, טהרה הלכות טומאת מטמאי מושב פ"ו):
Beautiful!
I grew up around dairy farms. All the cows ever did was to eat plants (mostly grass) and chew their cuds. This was back when dairy cows were pastured.
I work in a dairy in Israel where the cows don't go out to pasture, I can assure you that they still chew cud because that's how cows process food.
And produce gas you forgot about the gas…which by the way contributes to global warming.
Just to mention currently I am in Oaxaca, Mexico. Grasshoppers are a common snack, and they are considered part of Oaxaca's cultural cuisine. There are people selling varieties of grasshoppers all over the markets. Flying ants (in season) are also part of Oaxaca's culinary culture, as they are made into a sauce which I am told has 'an earthy flavor'. People often ask me if they are kosher, and I do believe the answer is yes (although I'm not certain, Natan if you have any information please add.) But I personally can't bring myself to try these things, it just doesn't feel right to me to eat.
Mitzvah or not, it helps us who do it.
Locust intolerant . . . I see what you did there : )
If there are enough locusts that eating them is a serious possibility I put it to you that they have eaten everything else
I understand from the Rashi on Devarim 14:20 that a person who eats a non-kosher animal transgresses a negative and a positive commandment. The positive commandment is that he should have eaten kosher food!
Rashi: You may eat every clean fowl. But not the unclean ones. Here [Scripture] comes to attach a positive commandment to the negative commandment. Similarly, in the case of [clean] animals, it says: “that you may eat” (verse 6), [but] not the unclean ones. A prohibition inferred from a positive commandment [is regarded as] a positive commandment, so that one [who eats such food] transgresses a positive and a negative commandment.
I think that the point is that the reason for the positive commandment is to add on to the negative so that when you are eating non-kosher food you are violating two commandments. He is explaining that the purpose is not a commandment to eat kosher animals.
I once saw a children's movie, where a child is told, "When a person does an aveirah, he really does two aveirahs--because in the time that he did the aveirah, he could have done a mitzvah." That line stuck with me.
OK, I guess, if negative reinforcement is your tool of choice for children... :)
And does that mean vegetarians transgress by not eating any meat at all….?
I understood the Rashi to be saying that you transgress a positive and negative commandment at the same time by eating something non-kosher.
Maybe it's similar to ignoring returning a lost object. You simultaneously transgress a negative and a positive commandment (if I got it right).
Maybe Rambam simply doesn't have the concept of "getting a mitzvah". If you look at his Sefer Hamitzvos he has a number of Mitzvos that are more like defintions than anything else. E.g.:
היא שצונו להיות הזב טמא, ומצוה זו כוללת משפט הדברים שיהיה בהן זב ותאר היותו מטמא לזיבתו. (מצורע, טהרה הלכות טומאת מטמאי מושב פ"ו):
Theroretically you could sustain yourself as a vegan or intravenously.
I once heard that Rav Chaim of Brisk said that people are lazy by nature. If they didn't develop a feeling of hunger, they would die of starvation!