BackThe Uniqueness of the Pig and its Message
By: Rabbi Barak Bar-Chaim
The Torah explains how to identify a kosher animal – an animal that has a true split hoof and is a ruminant (chews the cud). A pig has a true split hoof but does not chew its cud and is, therefore, not a kosher animal. Why, then, did the Torah find it necessary to specifically mention that the pig is not kosher? The Talmud states that the pig was singled out, because it is the only animal that exists with split hooves that does not chew its cud. Every other animal with split hooves also chews the cud. Since Moses and our sages were not zoologists, it is remarkable that no other exceptions have been found.
Our sages point out that the pig represents a particularly repulsive idea—the idea of appearing kosher (righteous) on the outside and being unkosher (corrupt) on the inside. Our children learn far more from what we do than from what we say. Children are experts in discovering the contradictions between our words and our actions. Since none of us are perfect, our actions may occasionally be inconsistent with our values. When our children point this out to us, this presents an amazing educational opportunity. Rather than make excuses, we should be honest, admit the inconsistency, and commit to improvement. Our job as parents is to perfect ourselves by ironing out our own inconsistencies and, thereby, truly model the values we want to pass on to our children.
In addition to the pig’s morally repugnant false kosher façade, many see the pig as a dirty animal (perhaps because it rolls in the mud to keep cool). Our sages warn that you should not say that you cannot eat pig because it is disgusting. Rather, you should say that you would love to eat pig (I hear bacon is delicious) but will refrain from doing so because of God’s commandment.
Let us work on our external and internal worlds being consistent, our words and actions aligning, and keeping God’s commandments simply because we were commanded to do so!