Pheasant under glass and roasted grasshopper. Not what one
expects to eat at a kosher restaurant. But the pheasant
(which wasn't under glass) and grasshopper were both served
at a special kosher dinner that my friend Dr. Ari Greenspan
and I staged on 3 Tammuz 5762 (June 13th, 2002) in Jerusalem.
The concept is simple and straightforward; the implementation
was anything but.
The story of the dinner begins over twenty years ago, when
Greenspan and I came to Israel after high school to study in
yeshiva. We decided also to learn the practical laws of
shechita, and eventually received kabboloh as
shochtim from the chief shochet of
Yerushalayim. After we completed the nearly year-long course
of study, a friend asked if we could shecht pheasant
for her family. Not yet very experienced, we started with the
basic question: is pheasant indeed a kosher bird? We began to
investigate.
How do we know which animals and birds are kosher? Regarding
animals, the Torah provides two physical signs. Any animal
that has split hooves and chews its cud is kosher. All others
are not. Thus, for example, sheep, goat, cow, deer, buffalo,
gazelle, and giraffe are kosher, while pig, camel, and llama,
for example, are not.
Regarding birds, the situation is more complex. The Torah
simply lists 24 species that are non-kosher. All others are
acceptable. However, we are no longer certain of the identity
of the non-kosher birds listed, so for close to 1000 years
the overriding principle has been: "Tradition!" The only
birds that are treated as kosher are those for which a
reliable tradition, from teacher to student, exists that in
the previous generation it was treated as kosher.
Regarding pheasant, we found an article that traced the
history of the "pasyon" (the Hebrew word for pheasant)
for nearly 1500 years and demonstrated that it was always
treated as a kosher bird. The gemora says that one of
the types of slav eaten by the Jews in the desert was
pasyon. In another place the gemora uses the
pasyon as an example of a delicacy a person might feed
a father to honor him.
In the 18th century the Divrei Dovid records that the Ramchal
permitted pasyani and in the 19th century the Zivchei
Kohen records that it was treated as kosher. But there is no
way of knowing for certain that the bird called pasyon
1500 years ago -- or even 100 years ago -- is the same
bird called pasyon today. And the trail seemed to have
gone cold. HaRav Moshe Feinstein discussed the issue and
concluded that he was unable to find a living person with a
tradition on it and so it must be treated as non-kosher.
We had all but given up hope of providing our friend with
kosher pheasant, when a friend in the yeshiva mentioned to us
that a leading Yemenite posek, Rabbi Yosef Kafich, had just
that week spoken of a tradition attesting to the pheasant as
a kosher bird. We asked Rabbi Kafich to confirm the
kashrus of the pheasant, but he insisted that we bring
him two live pheasants, so that he could verify that the bird
we were calling pheasant was indeed the pheasant he knew. No
easy task, but we managed to find two birds, we brought them
to Rabbi Kafich, shechted the birds and received a
letter from Rabbi Kafich attesting to the fact that we had
the tradition and could pass it on.
This seemingly trivial event was actually not a mundane
matter. The only way to know a bird is kosher is to have a
rock-solid tradition. Although today the turkey is treated as
kosher by the vast majority of Jews, it was not a simple
matter. The turkey is a New World bird and thus the origin of
the mesorah for turkey is shrouded in mystery. Several
of the gedolim of the last generation, including Rav
Yaakov Kamenetsky, had personal chumros not to eat
turkey.
We continued our hunt, not for animals, but traditions.
Sadly, we realized that traditions can easily be lost. Up
until fifty years ago there were Jewish communities all over
the world that each had a local shochet. The
shochtim and rabbonim in each locale had traditions
regarding which birds in their area were kosher. Today food
production is centralized and most of those communities have
been destroyed. If action is not taken soon, traditions will
be lost.
A stark example of this can be seen in a book written less
than 200 years ago by an Italian shochet, the
Zivchei Cohen. He presents diagrams of 30(!) birds
that he recognized as kosher. Today we have trouble finding
13 kosher birds altogether.
In order to stem the loss of traditions, Greenspan and I
decided to organize a dinner in which we would serve all
birds for which we could find a good mesorah, and as
many types of animals as possible. Our first task was to
determine which birds were kosher.
The magnitude of the undertaking did not occur to us. For
example, we suspected that the guinea fowl was kosher. So we
purchased two guinea fowl, put them in a cage on top of the
car, and headed out to look for old shochtim and
rabbis who may have slaughtered it in the old country. In
order to make sure we were getting only solid mesorahs
we looked for references for any rav or shochet we
approached with our birds. Because the guinea fowl is native
to north Africa, we tried north Africans and Yemenites.
Unfortunately, none of the rabbis we consulted recognized it.
After repeated attempts around Jerusalem, we were ready to
give up.
Finally, our perseverance paid off. While returning from up
north from slaughtering a deer, we had one guinea with us and
we went to see an old Algerian shochet. We struck gold. He
unquestionably recognized the bird and attested to the fact
that he had slaughtered it in Algeria close to 50 years ago.
Since then we have also found a Yemenite shochet, a
French shochet, and a South African individual who
have also provided testimony to guinea fowl being treated as
kosher.
Our next subject was the partridge, another bird we suspected
was kosher. Here we were having even greater difficulty. Then
I recalled that once, while researching the small Aramaic
speaking community, their rabbi, originally from northern
Iran, had told me that he had slaughtered a bird named
"keklik" in Turkish. Some quick research revealed he
was talking about the partridge. It looked like we might have
found the mesorah. But again, a name is not enough. We
brought him a bird, he identified it, and we were on our way
with another tradition.
In order to bring this dinner to fruition we also needed
birds to serve. Finding quail today in Israel is relatively
easy, but finding guinea fowl is another matter. A technician
in the Israeli veterinary school eventually led us to his
friend Rafi, but failed to inform us that Rafi calls himself
"Jungle Boy." The two deer, emu, and other assorted creatures
in his back yard were immaterial; what mattered to us was
that he had guineas he was willing to sell to us.
Pheasant were less difficult. It should be obvious that the
place to buy pheasant is a large ostrich farm in the south of
the country. We bought eight to start with, and packed two in
a box. We brought them to one of the leading shochtim,
Rav Machpud, to slaughter. He took one out of a box. I
grabbed the other and before I realized it, the lucky bird
was high up in the sky. If anyone finds a pheasant flying
around Kiryat Malachi, that is our other missing bird!
Even such simple things as duck and goose proved challenging.
In Israel the vast majority of goose is raised for pate, but
because of the distress it causes the animal it does not
receive mehadrin certification. Some even considered
such geese to be treif. Finally we managed to obtain
non-fattened goose. Muscovy duck, another New World bird,
also presented a challenge because it is only raised in small
quantities to provide the breeding stock necessary to produce
the cross-breed mullard.
The purpose of this dinner was to preserve and transmit the
surviving traditions. At the end, nearly 100 people jammed
the restaurant to hear over 2 hours of shiurim and
partake of 13 courses.
Left to my own devices, I would have cooked all 13 types of
birds in one big stew. But we found a master chef, Moshe
Basson, who prepared each one differently. Rather than
starting with chicken soup, we started with what he called
shiluach haken soup. It was pigeon and dove soup, with
pasta shaped like a nest into which he placed a fleishig egg.
To be complete we served chicken, but it was prepared with
tamrini sauce and stuffed into a large fig.
Legal issues arose as well. It never would have occurred to
us that the sparrow is a protected species. Thankfully,
Minister Without Portfolio Rabbi Yitzhak Levi procured for us
a one-time dispensation to slaughter several. He was not able
to do the same for ibex or antelope.
After hunting for traditions, searching for birds, and
clearing the legal hurdles, the dinner included: chicken,
turkey, duck, goose, muscovy duck, mullard, pigeon, dove,
pheasant, partridge, quail, guinea fowl, sparrow, cow udder,
lamb, bison, water buffalo, and deer. And of course there was
a need for a special dessert.
The Torah states that certain grasshoppers are kosher. But
just like birds there is a need for a tradition regarding the
identity of the kosher species. We arranged this part of the
dinner in conjunction with Dr. Zohar Amar, possibly the world
expert on this obscure subject. Jews from Morocco and Yemen
still eat them to this day, and Amar has interviewed hundreds
of Jews from those countries. We procured several hundred of
the kosher species and the day before the big dinner visited
several Yemenite Jews in Kiryat Ekron who moved to Israel
only seven years ago. Dressed in traditional garb and using a
traditional oven they roasted and boiled the grasshoppers for
us the way they did in Yemen. And they then actually ate
them! The chef prepared several more and at the meal there
were more than enough for everyone to partake. I was shocked
that 10-15 percent of the participants actually tried
them.
The mesorah on chagovim is today only found
among Yemenite and Moroccan Jews. This raised the question
whether other Jews may eat them. Of course the same question
can be asked regarding birds: Can Jews of one "group" rely on
the mesorah of another group. This question was
addressed by many of the rishonim and acharonim,
and most of the later authorities, including the Shach
and Oruch Hashulchan, ruled that indeed all Jews may rely on
each other.
Regarding chagovim the question would appear to be the
same. However, there the mesorah is more
controversial. Even the great Moroccan/Israeli authority the
Or HaChaim questioned it, so it is less clear cut. There are
contemporary authorities who permit others to eat chagovim
and others who prohibit them to all but Yemenites and
Moroccans.
At the dinner each person followed his own posek. I
consulted with one of the leading Ashkenazic halachic
authorities in Yerushalayim and he told me that regarding
both birds and chagovim, if the bearer of the
tradition is a reliable talmid chochom one and all may
rely on him.
Originally Chef Basson was hesitant about serving
grasshoppers for fear it would jeopardize his kosher
certification. But after we received a letter from a
prominent rav that stated that, even for those Jews who do
not treat them as kosher because they lack the requisite
tradition, grasshoppers will not make kosher dishes non-
kosher, Chef Basson was so excited that he wants to add
grasshoppers to his regular menu.
The main purpose of this dinner was education and
transmission of the traditions. That cannot be done via
something on a dinner plate. For that purpose we needed to
find real animals again. Present at the dinner were live
grasshoppers, a pair of quails, a guinea fowl, muscovy duck
and several sparrows. A stuffed pheasant and partridge were
also present. Each of these was displayed, described, and
discussed.
It also cannot be done without education. Towards that goal,
we put together a 150-page booklet of biblical, Talmudic,
legal, and scientific source material and the meal was
accompanied by no fewer than six halachic shiurim.
In conclusion, I request that anyone who knows an old rabbi
or shochet who can testify to traditions regarding any
other species of bird, please contact us so that the
tradition is not lost to the Jewish people.
Yated is publishing this article to support the concept of
preserving all genuine Torah traditions. We cannot endorse
the kashrus of the dinner mentioned herein, and wish
to stress that caution must be exercised, especially when
using foods and techniques that are not in mainstream use
under the supervision of the major hashgochos like
Shearis Yisroel that have expertise in recognizing problems
and solving them.
