Comments on: It Came From the Deep!

It Came From the Deep!

falconred — Wed, 02 Jun 2004 23:55:38 -0800

New York's Water Ain't Kosher! - You may be aware that shellfish are not kosher. It turns out that little, itty-bitty, microscopic shellfish called copepods are in New York's water. Brita to the rescue?

By: eddydamascene

eddydamascene — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 01:51:37 -0800

Research by Rita Colwell (UMD, former director of the NSF) suggests that copepods play an important role in spontaneous cholera outbreaks in Bangladesh [Discover]. You can remove them by filtering your water through a sari folded four times. Also on the non-kosher tip, levels of haloacetic acid 5 (a by-product of chlorination) in the Croton system, which supplies 10% of nyc water, exceeded maximum contaminant levels by as much as 40% last year (New York City Water Quality Testing Results 2003, pfd).

By: eddydamascene

eddydamascene — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 02:10:00 -0800

(chlorine being the reason nyc has no cholera, btw)

By: Pericles

Pericles — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 04:42:50 -0800

So what? Did the NYC waterboard ever claim it *was* kosher? From what i'm told by friends with ultra-observant jewish parents, if you can't turn on the TV on a saturday, you need different plates for meat and fish and can't shake hands with a woman in case she's menstruating, buying bottled water seems hardly onerous.

By: Postroad

Postroad — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 04:52:43 -0800

Still beats Ganges bottled water by a long shot...drink Kosher wine and avoid water. ps: that non-kosher water used for making matzos etc

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 04:55:25 -0800

I knew it tasted funny!

By: nofundy

nofundy — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 05:09:54 -0800

Just like homosexuality, according to the Levitical laws, this is an abomination and anyone drinking this water is guilty of a terrible sin. ;-) I recommend all good winger fundies immediately leave New York or be eternally damned. I hear the water is great in South Carolina and thye're fixing to secede to form the United Fundie State anyways so you'd be happier there. Just remember, no wafers and wine for you old school Catholics if we catch you drinking this water!

By: Pretty_Generic

Pretty_Generic — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 05:22:53 -0800

This is very, very funny.

By: ElvisJesus

ElvisJesus — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 05:30:11 -0800

I knew it tasted funny! No, if it tasted funny it would have Krusty-ations in the water

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 06:02:30 -0800

"Copepods?" No, dear, that's grit. The Hudson river has shellfish.

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 06:14:53 -0800

Even as a kid, I was always fascinated how it was possible that tap water, imported from 100 miles away, could just pour out of the faucet, pristine. Now we know better.

By: mkultra

mkultra — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 06:40:22 -0800

The big deal is probably not in the drinking, but in the cooking/cleaning, which could conceivably turn into a financial fiasco for a kosher restaurant. Yet another example of how utterly irrational and incompatible with modern living strict kashrut is...

By: mdn

mdn — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 07:09:37 -0800

and I always thought I was a vegetarian. oh well... one thing I don't really get is how rules which were formed at a time when information like this was completely unavailable and even inconceivable, can apply. I mean, when shellfish were outlawed, they obviously weren't talking about microscopic creatures that modern science knows are related to regular old shellfish. It takes advanced technology and biology to be able to determine this.

By: Gnatcho

Gnatcho — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 07:16:10 -0800

Well, halakha is more about intentions than results (consider the phone and elevators that can be operated by the hasidim on Shabbat due to special construction, and the story about the woman who worried about some possible dairy in a meat stew and then she was told by her rabbi that if less than 1/60 of the stew was dairy and couldn't be tasted and wasn't intentional, it didn't matter), so it will probably be prevented from now on, being known. Kashrut laws (and the rest of halakha) may be irrational, but I certainly wouldn't say they're "incompatible". Many traditional rituals and practices are irrational, but there is no need to make the world run like an efficient machine (and I don't believe letting the devout Jews of a certain stripe continue the use of rabbinical law will throw a wrench in the workings of the modern world). Still, it is very funny, considering that NYC is probably considered the quintessential "Jewish city" of the United States. I would hope Orthodox Jews in other communities would take a close look at their water supplies, because I'm sure this organism (or its like) isn't unique to New York.

By: callmejay

callmejay — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 07:45:06 -0800

one thing I don't really get is how rules which were formed at a time when information like this was completely unavailable and even inconceivable, can apply The rules are constantly interpreted (or if you're cynical, "interpreted") as the times and technologies change.

By: bingo

bingo — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 08:31:53 -0800

There's no end to it, really. Electrical circuits are not supposed to be open or closed on shabbat because you're not supposed to "create" or "destroy" anything, as per god's refraining from either on the seventh day after creating the world, etc. Since the creation of light is both the most obvious example of electricity in use, and the first thing that god does, it follows in hassidic-logic that the use of electricity is inherently an act of "creation," and that turning electricity off is an act of "destruction." Now, if the orthodox powers that be are going to start getting all technical about the microorganisms in the tap water, then maybe they should start considering the fact that, when seen at a small enough level, it is not actually possible to create or destroy matter at all. That should open up a lot of doors.

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 08:57:35 -0800

Kashrut laws are affirmative: you can only eat what has fins and scales, etc., so what was "unavailable and even inconceivable," doesn't change. Alien animals that have a hoof and chew their cud? Who knows?!

By: thomcatspike

thomcatspike — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 16:22:49 -0800

The problem: tiny creatures called copepods, which are crustaceans. Forget Jewish law, a bigger concern would be for people whom would have an allergic reaction from this, killing them. For some the smell of cooked crustaceans will cause minor breathing problems.

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Sat, 05 Jun 2004 03:41:02 -0800

Biggest secular question: was this story induced by Brita or Pur?