Question:
bs’d if a pig would be “modified” by genetic engineering to an animal with kosher simanim, would it’s meat become the kosher status?
Answer:
There was such a question asked to R’ Eliyashiv zt”l regarding fish. There were genetic engineers that were able to put scales on to a non kosher fish, and R’ Eliyashiv answered that it is not kosher because “Kol hayotzei min hatameh tameh”, what comes from something not kosher is not kosher, therefore they are all not kosher.
Sources:
Heard from Horav Moshe Vaye Shlit”a
From the Ohr Hachaim’s commentary (Vayikra 11:7) it would seem that yes, it is permitted.
The question raised on the Ohr Hachaim’s position, is as you noted in the name of R’ Eliyashiv z”l, that the halacha that anything born from an “impure” species is considered “impure”. If so, then granted the fact the “chazir” has been genetically modified to chew its cud, nevertheless it should still be prohibited due the fact that it had been born from a “treif” “chazir”.
See Pardes Yosef (ibid.)
I saw the Ohr Hachaim, but I don’t think that it contradicts what R’ Eliyashiv said.
When Moshiach will come, then H-shem will turn the treif item into a kosher one, then it will be kosher, however unless we can create a new pig, any pig that came from a nonkosher one is ba min hatamay, (and therefore it’s child also etc.).
my grandmother was the daughter of a rabbi. she said that a pig’s front half could be made Kosher by removing certain veins, but that it was too mush trouble. is this true?
Very much not! In fact there is a common saying that there is no way to make a pig kosher. A pig is non kosher because the torah tells us that it isn’t kosher, therefore there is no way to kosherize it. In al porbability there was a mixup between the hind quarter of a cow, with the for quareter of a pig. Regardless, the statement is a mistake.
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