h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Don't these diatry laws make weaning babies a little difficult?

Never mind babies; the laws make eating a cheeseburger or a pepperoni pizza difficult. All that because of one rule about boiling goat-veal, apparently.

I suspect the rules *were* intended to keep Israelites healthy. Reportedly they bear some relationship to ancient Egyptian dietary rules. Moses, who was raised Egyptian, had some motivation to impose his rules on his fellow tribesmen, who held to Asiatic dietary customs throughout their Egyptian tenure.

But, as many rules do, these rules got out of control. Hence, their primary purpose today seems to be cultural.

Yup, I suppose it does make life difficult. But not if you're on a food combining diet.
Still, anyone out there have experience of weaning babies on this type of diet. I'm just curious.

This is just based on limited experience cooking for a kosher kitchen.

Babies were often weaned on a strictly vegetarian diet, which included cereals, vegetable purees, and pretty much excluded meat altogether. One of the first meats that I remember little ones eating was minced chicken (white meat only!), and a lot of them seem to eat kippered or creamed herring. Note that there doesn't seem to be a fish/dairy separation, whereas I was raised in a non-kosher home where you never drank milk with fish. Go figure.

re: rules originaly being for health reasions - a friend of mine who is a butcher told me that Pork go's off quicker than other meats which in his opinion was why many of the religions that oiginated in warmer parts of the globe had rules prohibiting it.

note to self: proof reed before posting; appoligies for poor spelling

(don't worry about the spelling!)
I'm sure your butcher friend has a very good point. Eating habits aren't the only religious requirements that stem from entirely sensible reasoning, I'm sure.

the question one has to ask is are they still sensible in the modern world ..?

Could you feed the baby some nice grasshopper?

Why not? Full of protein and far more appropriate than giving it baby cow food!!

Interesting comment on the subject. There are some insects that are kosher, although the Torah prohibits eating of rodents and bugs (descirbed as "crawly things"). I actually believe that grasshoppers are in fact some of the Kosher ones, although not being a Rabbi (although hopefully in the future), I cannot tell you definately. I could probably find a source that would tell me this, although I wonder if there are any Rabbis on h2g2.

If you're using breast milk, there's no problem at all. It's pareve (neutral).

If you're using breast milk, there's no problem at all. It's pareve (neutral).

Are there any other mammals besides humans for which this is true?

I am imagining gleeful cannibals ignoring a whole section of the kashrut.

The rules were not made by Moses, they were made by G-d and passed on to the people through Moses. The laws of Kashrut are classified as "Chokim"- laws with no apparent reason behind them that the Jewish people observe because we love G-d. Also, only certain species of grasshoppers are Kosher.

Yemenite jews seem to favour pan fried locust and grasshoppers.
I was raised secular jewish and just never had dairy and meat together.It's not difficult when it's your way of life. Because meat takes much longer to pass through your digestive system, it's even easier to eat this way on those of us with a less that stainless steel stomach.
As for weaning - I started of with rice in milk, then veg and fruit puree and only at around 12 months did I introduce meat. Is this unusual?