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Cochin (India)
Jews (all colors are mine.)
Most of the 1500 Jews of Cochin, on the
Malabar coast of South India, have emigrated to Israel, leaving a
population of only two hundred. The old community was established in
1523. It became divided into strict castes, after a historical process
of symbiosis with the Hindu world: "White" Jews, descended from Syrian
and Turkish immigrants, occupied the peak of the pyramid of status; the
other castes ranged in color from light brown to mahogany to very dark
brown, almost black. Some native slaves were converted to Judaism. The
darkest-hued Jews seemed the most numerous and had seven separate
synagogues.
The Cochin Jews live devoutly, use the
Sephardic liturgy, and follow the Orthodox code, the Shulchan
Aruch, with its more than six hundred detailed prescription. All
Cochin Jewish children learn to read Hebrew (girls included). Their
native language is Malayalam.
The men wear a yarmulkah---plus
upended payess, and nothing much else except the standard male
garment of the area: a loincloth. This strikes European and American
Jews as an odd way for a Jew to dress.
The kosher laws are
observed in India---to the extent that meat-rice-and-curry is not mixed
with dairy forms of curry.
Dr. David Mandalbaum, on whose report of
customs and rituals I have relied above, observes that an Orthodox Jew
from the Bronx would find the Cochin synagogues exotic---at first, but
"the devotion of the Cochin Jews to Jewish law and learning would soon
make him feel at home."
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"Kosher (ko'sher) adj. a Slaughtered or
prepared for eating according to raddinic law:...*
Rabbinical
Laws? Moses Laws? Or
God's Laws for Man's
Sin?
Which?
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*Leo Rosten, Leo. "The Joys of Yiddish"
(New York, NY: PACKET BOOKS, 1968) pg. 472.
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The
Torah prohibits
consumption of blood. Lev. 7:26-27; Lev. 17:10-14. This is the only
dietary law that has a reason specified in Torah: we do not eat blood
because the life of the animal is contained in the blood. This applies
only to the blood of birds and mammals, not to fish blood. Thus, it is
necessary to remove all blood from the flesh of kosher animals.
The sciatic nerve and
its adjoining blood vessels may not be eaten. The process of removing
this nerve is time consuming and not cost-effective, so most American
slaughterers simply sell the hind quarters to non-kosher butchers.
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Blood can be completely drained?
from marrow? from it's source? it's creator?
I'm only asking.
Al l that hath breath (blood and fat) praise the
Lord (Aga-pe!)
Amen!.
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