Smelling Non-Kosher Meat

Question:

1. Is it true that a person should say I wish that I could eat treif, but Hashem says that it is Asur? Could there be a suspicion that if one says that, that one may come to eat it?
2. Can one smell non-kosher food and get pleasure from it?
   Thanks!

Answer:

1. You are correct, that a person shouldn’t work himself up to want to eat trief, and cause himself problems and unnecessary temptations. What chazal were saying was that a person should not say, chazir (pork) is disgusting and therefore I don’t eat it, rather that technically I might like it, but H-shem has decreed that we should not eat it, and therefore I am abstaining from it. The truth is that the reason why H-shem decreed that e shouldn’t eat treif things is because it isn’t good for us, (but not in a physical sense, but for other reasons).
2. It depends on the level of the trief food. If the food is only treif to eat, such as non-kosher meat, pork non-kosher fish, there is no prohibition with smelling the food. However if the food is also prohibited from having any benefit from it, then the prohibition would include smelling it. Examples of this would be beef and milk that were cooked or fried together, (such as McDonalds french fries that are fried with meat and dairy ingredients), the wine of a gentile, etc. the fragrance of avoza zara. However if one is walking past such a restaurant and he can’t help but smell the food, if he does not want to benefit from the smell, but can’t help it, then it is permitted

Sources:

1. Sifra Kidoshim 10-5.
2. Rambam Hilchos Ma’achalos Asuros 14-12, Y:D 142-15 Shach ibid 37.