(ז) כִּ֣י יְסִֽיתְךָ֡ אָחִ֣יךָ בֶן־אִ֠מֶּ֠ךָ אֽוֹ־בִנְךָ֨ אֽוֹ־בִתְּךָ֜ א֣וֹ ׀ אֵ֣שֶׁת חֵיקֶ֗ךָ א֧וֹ רֵֽעֲךָ֛ אֲשֶׁ֥ר כְּנַפְשְׁךָ֖ בַּסֵּ֣תֶר לֵאמֹ֑ר נֵֽלְכָ֗ה וְנַֽעַבְדָה֙ אֱלֹהִ֣ים אֲחֵרִ֔ים אֲשֶׁר֙ לֹ֣א יָדַ֔עְתָּ אַתָּ֖ה וַאֲבֹתֶֽיךָ׃ (ח) מֵאֱלֹהֵ֣י הָֽעַמִּ֗ים אֲשֶׁר֙ סְבִיבֹ֣תֵיכֶ֔ם הַקְּרֹבִ֣ים אֵלֶ֔יךָ א֖וֹ הָרְחֹקִ֣ים מִמֶּ֑ךָּ מִקְצֵ֥ה הָאָ֖רֶץ וְעַד־קְצֵ֥ה הָאָֽרֶץ׃ (ט) לֹא־תֹאבֶ֣ה ל֔וֹ וְלֹ֥א תִשְׁמַ֖ע אֵלָ֑יו וְלֹא־תָח֤וֹס עֵֽינְךָ֙ עָלָ֔יו וְלֹֽא־תַחְמֹ֥ל וְלֹֽא־תְכַסֶּ֖ה עָלָֽיו׃ (י) כִּ֤י הָרֹג֙ תַּֽהַרְגֶ֔נּוּ יָ֥דְךָ֛ תִּֽהְיֶה־בּ֥וֹ בָרִֽאשׁוֹנָ֖ה לַהֲמִית֑וֹ וְיַ֥ד כׇּל־הָעָ֖ם בָּאַחֲרֹנָֽה׃
(7) If your brother, your own mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your closest friend entices you in secret, saying, “Come let us worship other gods”—whom neither you nor your ancestors have experienced — (8) from among the gods of the peoples around you, either near to you or distant, anywhere from one end of the earth to the other: (9) do not assent or give heed to any of them. Show no pity or compassion, and do not cover up the matter; (10) but take that person’s life. Let your hand be the first to put that person to death, followed by the hand of the rest of the people.
אשר כנפשך. זֶה אָבִיךָ, פֵּרֵשׁ לְךָ הַכָּתוּב אֶת הַחֲבִיבִין לְךָ, קַ"וָ לַאֲחֵרִים:
אשר כנפשך [OR THY FELLOWMAN] WHO IS AS THINE OWN SOUL — Thus refers to thy father (Sifrei Devarim 87:11). Scripture specially mentions all those who are dear to you — that you must not consent unto them nor spare them (v. 9), how much the less should you consent unto others or spare them.
כי הרג תהרגנו. דברי התורה כלה רחמים מבעל הרחמים יתעלה, וכאשר תצוה עלינו להרוג המחויב לא כוונה שנעשה כן דרך נקמה שננקום ממנו כיון שנתחייב בה, כי זה היה סבה להרגיל טבענו במדת האכזריות, אך הכוונה בנקמתו דרך רחמנות לרחם על השאר, ומזה הזכיר לפניו ולא תחוס עינך עליו, ואחריו וכל ישראל ישמעו וייראון ולא יוסיפו לעשות כן עוד, ובערת הרע מקרבך וכל ישראל ישמעו וייראו.
כי הרג תהרגנו, “you are to surely kill him.” Seeing that the words of Torah all express mercy of one kind or another, it is not possible to understand the words הרג תהרגנו as an instruction to take revenge on the individual who is to be executed. If that were the purpose of the execution the Torah would actually train us in developing a cruel streak in our character; this is clearly at odds with all the Torah wishes to teach us. The consideration underlying the Torah’s insistence is the mercy and loving concern the Torah extends to all those who know the guilty party. If he were allowed to get away with it many more people would follow in his footsteps with terrible results for them. To make this whole point clear, the Torah first wrote: “you shall not be compassionate with him;” afterwards the Torah explains its concern for the people by writing that the execution of such a seducer will cause the survivors to relate to G’d with the proper degree of reverence so as to preclude the need for any executions in the future.
והוא מה שרמז באומרו כי יסיתך אחיך הוא חלק הרע שהוא מתאחה עם האדם מתחלתו קודם בואו בעולם, ואומרו בן אמך נתכוין להודיע מנין בא אח לצרה ואמר בן אמך שהיא אם כל חי שהיא חוה שגרמה תערובת הרע במקור הקדושה בחטא הראשון. וכנגד גדר ב' שהוא מסית הנולד מחטא האדם כנזכר אמר או בנך או בתך הם תולדות מעשים רעים שגם הם נקראים בנים זרים, ואמר או בתך כי יש עבירות שיולידו קטיגור במדריגת זכר ויש במדריגת נקבה כפי כח החטא כשיהיה גדול יוליד כח הזכר ולפי חלישותו יתייחס אליו כינוי הבת:
When Moses speaks of בי יסיתך אחיך, "when your brother entices you," he describes the evil urge as someone who considers himself as "your brother" from birth. He adds the words בן אמך, "son of your mother," to explain whence the enticer originates, i.e. he is a "son" of our common mother Eve who was responsible for the fact that good and evil are inextricably mixed within us at birth. Concerning the second aspect of evil within us, i.e. the one created by our own sins -as opposed to Eve's- Moses says או בנך או בתך, "or your own son or your own daughter." These are references to the spiritually negative creations which are the result of our own sins. They too are called alien children. The reason that the Torah lists both בנך, "your son," as well as בתך, "your daughter" to describe such creations, is that some sins produce accusers of a masculine type whereas other sins produce accusers of a feminine variety. It all depends on the type of sin one has committed. The greater the sin the more likely that the accuser it creates is of the masculine type. If the sin is relatively minor, the accuser it creates may be described as בתך, "your daughter."
(א) בָּנִ֣ים אַתֶּ֔ם לַיהוה אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֑ם לֹ֣א תִתְגֹּֽדְד֗וּ וְלֹֽא־תָשִׂ֧ימוּ קׇרְחָ֛ה בֵּ֥ין עֵינֵיכֶ֖ם לָמֵֽת׃ (ב) כִּ֣י עַ֤ם קָדוֹשׁ֙ אַתָּ֔ה לַיהוה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ וּבְךָ֞ בָּחַ֣ר יהוה לִֽהְי֥וֹת לוֹ֙ לְעַ֣ם סְגֻלָּ֔ה מִכֹּל֙ הָֽעַמִּ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֖ר עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הָאֲדָמָֽה׃ {ס} (ג) לֹ֥א תֹאכַ֖ל כׇּל־תּוֹעֵבָֽה׃ (ד) זֹ֥את הַבְּהֵמָ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר תֹּאכֵ֑לוּ שׁ֕וֹר שֵׂ֥ה כְשָׂבִ֖ים וְשֵׂ֥ה עִזִּֽים׃ (ה) אַיָּ֥ל וּצְבִ֖י וְיַחְמ֑וּר וְאַקּ֥וֹ וְדִישֹׁ֖ן וּתְא֥וֹ וָזָֽמֶר׃ (ו) וְכׇל־בְּהֵמָ֞ה מַפְרֶ֣סֶת פַּרְסָ֗ה וְשֹׁסַ֤עַת שֶׁ֙סַע֙ שְׁתֵּ֣י פְרָס֔וֹת מַעֲלַ֥ת גֵּרָ֖ה בַּבְּהֵמָ֑ה אֹתָ֖הּ תֹּאכֵֽלוּ׃
(1) You are children of your God יהוה. You shall not gash yourselves or shave the front of your heads because of the dead. (2) For you are a people consecrated to your God יהוה: your God יהוה chose you from among all other peoples on earth to be a treasured people. (3) You shall not eat anything abhorrent. (4) These are the animals that you may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat; (5) the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, the mountain sheep, (6) and any other animal that has true hoofs which are cleft in two and brings up the cud—such you may eat.
What is Lab Grown Meat?BBC's Science Focus, By Amy Fleming
Rather than being part of a living, breathing, eating and drinking animal, cultivated meat is grown in anything from a test tube to a stainless steel bioreactor... Cells are acquired from an animal by harmless biopsy, then placed in a warm, sterile vessel with a solution called a growth medium, containing nutrients including salts, proteins and carbohydrates. Every 24 hours or so, the cells will have doubled.
Cellular farming doesn’t grow cuts of meat, with bone and skin, or fat marbled through it like a succulent ribeye steak. Muscle cells require different conditions and nutrients to fat cells, so they must be made separately. When the pure meat or fat is harvested, it is a formless paste of cells. This is why the first cultivated meat products served up have been chicken nuggets or burgers. The flavours, however, are of real meat. As they are produced in a sterile environment, there is less risk of contamination from disease and chemicals.
Rather than being part of a living, breathing, eating and drinking animal, cultivated meat is grown in anything from a test tube to a stainless steel bioreactor... Cells are acquired from an animal by harmless biopsy, then placed in a warm, sterile vessel with a solution called a growth medium, containing nutrients including salts, proteins and carbohydrates. Every 24 hours or so, the cells will have doubled.
Cellular farming doesn’t grow cuts of meat, with bone and skin, or fat marbled through it like a succulent ribeye steak. Muscle cells require different conditions and nutrients to fat cells, so they must be made separately. When the pure meat or fat is harvested, it is a formless paste of cells. This is why the first cultivated meat products served up have been chicken nuggets or burgers. The flavours, however, are of real meat. As they are produced in a sterile environment, there is less risk of contamination from disease and chemicals.
Below Sources and Commentary collected and summarized by Rabbi Claude Vecht-Wolf
Link to his Sefaria Sheet: "Clean Meat" - Kosher or Parev
Link to his Sefaria Sheet: "Clean Meat" - Kosher or Parev
העושה מעשה בסקילה האוחז את העינים פטור אבל אסור מותר לכתחלה כדרב חנינא ורב אושעיא כל מעלי שבתא הוו עסקי בהלכות יצירה ומיברי להו עיגלא תילתא ואכלי ליה
Abaye elaborates: One who performs a real act of sorcery is liable to be executed by stoning. One who deceives the eyes is exempt from punishment, but it is prohibited for him to do so. What is permitted ab initio is to act like Rav Ḥanina and Rav Oshaya: Every Shabbat eve they would engage in the study of the halakhot of creation, and a third-born calf would be created for them, and they would eat it in honor of Shabbat.
The Shelah:
Shelah suggests that the animal that Yosef's brothers ate from was one that wascreated through the Sefer HaYetzirah (The Sefer Yetzirah is perhaps the oldest and most mysterious of all kabbalistic texts.) and an animal created through Sefer HaYetzirah does not have the halachic status of an animal and it would have been permitted to eat limbs of that animal even while it is still alive. Yosef however, was unaware that his brothers created an animal, and therefore accused them of eating ever min hachai.
Shelah apparently subscribes to the argument that an object borne through a miracle does not attain the status of what it seeks to replicate. Since an animal created through a miracle lacks the process that a normal animal undergoes in becoming an animal, the animal is considered a synthetic replica and not an actual animal.
Shelah suggests that the animal that Yosef's brothers ate from was one that wascreated through the Sefer HaYetzirah (The Sefer Yetzirah is perhaps the oldest and most mysterious of all kabbalistic texts.) and an animal created through Sefer HaYetzirah does not have the halachic status of an animal and it would have been permitted to eat limbs of that animal even while it is still alive. Yosef however, was unaware that his brothers created an animal, and therefore accused them of eating ever min hachai.
Shelah apparently subscribes to the argument that an object borne through a miracle does not attain the status of what it seeks to replicate. Since an animal created through a miracle lacks the process that a normal animal undergoes in becoming an animal, the animal is considered a synthetic replica and not an actual animal.
מיתיבי היה ר' יהודה בן תימא אומר אדם הראשון מיסב בגן עדן היה והיו מלאכי השרת צולין לו בשר ומסננין לו יין הציץ בו נחש וראה בכבודו ונתקנא בו התם בבשר היורד מן השמים
The Gemara raises an objection from a baraita to the assertion that eating meat was prohibited to Adam: Rabbi Yehuda ben Teima would say: Adam, the first man, would dine in the Garden of Eden, and the ministering angels would roast meat for him and strain wine for him. The snake glanced at him and saw his glory, and was jealous of him, and for that reason the snake incited him to sin and caused his banishment from the Garden. According to this, evidently Adam would eat meat. The Gemara answers: There the reference is to meat that descended from heaven, which was created by a miracle and was not the meat of animals at all.
The status of non kosher meat at a microscopic level
If the Stem Cell comes from non-kosher material:
The stem cell that is used to produce the meat is microscopic. Ordinarily, non-kosher items are insignificant. For example, as R. Yechiel M. Epstein (1829-1908) and many others note, insects that are not visible to the naked eye are of no concern. Does that mean that we don’t have to be concerned about the source of the meat?
R. Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (1910-1995), in discussing genetic engineering, writes that if the item is handled on a microscopic level (מטפלים בו), then the fact that it is microscopic is not a reason to ignore it and we go along with this.
What is the status of an item that is a derivative of a non-kosher animal?
The Mishna states if a non-kosher animal gave birth to a kosher animal or vice versa, the child has the same status as the parent ( Bechorot 5)
There are numerous discussions about using the concept of ze veze gorem
Food produced by materials that are forbidden are themselves forbidden since it is like one is benefitting from the original prohibition. When there are two contributing factors to the product, one that is forbidden and one that is permitted, it is called zeh v'zeh gorem
So if non-kosher cells were grown in a kosher environment where kosher additives were added, you might have one cancel the other one out -
Rabbi David Bleich (shlita) suggests that even if the original stem cells are not kosher, if they are grown in a kosher medium that also provides nutrients to the resultant lab-grown-meat, we might be able to employ זה וזה גורם.
If stem cells from kosher animal grown in non-kosher environment
Let’s presume that the stem cells are derived from a slaughtered animal but are then grown in a non-kosher medium to produce the meat. The Mishna states that if the stomach lining of a kosher animal was used to make cheese, the cheese is kosher provided that it doesn’t impart taste into the cheese. However, if the stomach lining of non-kosher animals was used to make the cheese, it is prohibited. - Davar Hama'amid - it forms the very structure of the cheese even if it can't be tasted (when it comes to the stomach lining of a non kosher animal)
Do stem cells constitute a davar hama'mid?
R. Tendler explains why having non-kosher nutrients would not present an issue of davar hama’amid. They claim that the difference between the non-kosher enzymes used to make cheese and this case is that in the case of the cheese, the enzymes actually turn the milk into cheese. In our case, the stem cells consume the nutrients and are not changed by them. Is the meat fleishig or Parev?
Many opinions!
Rabbeinu Asher (c. 1250-1327) quotes a machloket regarding the kashrut status of musk, which is taken from the gland pocket of a musk-deer. He presents the opinion of R. Zerachia HaLevi that it is prohibited because it is derived from blood. He then quotes Rabbeinu Yonah who permits it because by the time it gets to the gland, it has undergone a significant chemical change.Mishna Berurahquotes the machloket and rules that one may be lenient to add it to a mixture if it makes up less than 1/60 of the mixture. Rabbi Schachter notes that in order for something to be qualify for Rabbeinu Yonah’s leniency, it must undergo a change in chemical makeup and must also have a significant change in taste. For example, if something changes from sweet to sour, it would qualify.
If the Stem Cell comes from non-kosher material:
The stem cell that is used to produce the meat is microscopic. Ordinarily, non-kosher items are insignificant. For example, as R. Yechiel M. Epstein (1829-1908) and many others note, insects that are not visible to the naked eye are of no concern. Does that mean that we don’t have to be concerned about the source of the meat?
R. Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (1910-1995), in discussing genetic engineering, writes that if the item is handled on a microscopic level (מטפלים בו), then the fact that it is microscopic is not a reason to ignore it and we go along with this.
What is the status of an item that is a derivative of a non-kosher animal?
The Mishna states if a non-kosher animal gave birth to a kosher animal or vice versa, the child has the same status as the parent ( Bechorot 5)
There are numerous discussions about using the concept of ze veze gorem
Food produced by materials that are forbidden are themselves forbidden since it is like one is benefitting from the original prohibition. When there are two contributing factors to the product, one that is forbidden and one that is permitted, it is called zeh v'zeh gorem
So if non-kosher cells were grown in a kosher environment where kosher additives were added, you might have one cancel the other one out -
Rabbi David Bleich (shlita) suggests that even if the original stem cells are not kosher, if they are grown in a kosher medium that also provides nutrients to the resultant lab-grown-meat, we might be able to employ זה וזה גורם.
If stem cells from kosher animal grown in non-kosher environment
Let’s presume that the stem cells are derived from a slaughtered animal but are then grown in a non-kosher medium to produce the meat. The Mishna states that if the stomach lining of a kosher animal was used to make cheese, the cheese is kosher provided that it doesn’t impart taste into the cheese. However, if the stomach lining of non-kosher animals was used to make the cheese, it is prohibited. - Davar Hama'amid - it forms the very structure of the cheese even if it can't be tasted (when it comes to the stomach lining of a non kosher animal)
Do stem cells constitute a davar hama'mid?
R. Tendler explains why having non-kosher nutrients would not present an issue of davar hama’amid. They claim that the difference between the non-kosher enzymes used to make cheese and this case is that in the case of the cheese, the enzymes actually turn the milk into cheese. In our case, the stem cells consume the nutrients and are not changed by them. Is the meat fleishig or Parev?
Many opinions!
Rabbeinu Asher (c. 1250-1327) quotes a machloket regarding the kashrut status of musk, which is taken from the gland pocket of a musk-deer. He presents the opinion of R. Zerachia HaLevi that it is prohibited because it is derived from blood. He then quotes Rabbeinu Yonah who permits it because by the time it gets to the gland, it has undergone a significant chemical change.Mishna Berurahquotes the machloket and rules that one may be lenient to add it to a mixture if it makes up less than 1/60 of the mixture. Rabbi Schachter notes that in order for something to be qualify for Rabbeinu Yonah’s leniency, it must undergo a change in chemical makeup and must also have a significant change in taste. For example, if something changes from sweet to sour, it would qualify.
In an interview with R. Chanoch Kahn, R. Schachter suggests that law-grown meat would be considered pareve because it didn’t come from an actual animal.Rabbi Bleich writes that if the stem cells and the nutrients come from kosher sources, the stem cells would be batel and therefore, the meat would be considered pareve.Rabbi Tendler et al., concludes that if the stem cells are taken from skin, the resulting meat would be pareve because animal skin isn’t considered meat on the same level as actual flesh.