O pinion
So it was unusual when
the OU — the largest certi-
fier of kosher products in the
world — denied certification to
Impossible Pork, a next-gen meat
substitute, despite the fact that
every ingredient in the product
is kosher. The OU explained that
it could not certify a product
that described itself as pork.

Despite protestations to the
contrary from hungry Jews
and my own deep culinary
curiosity, I believe that the OU
made the right call. Though
it seems that the decision was
narrowly decided, the move
to withhold kosher certifica-
tion may, in fact, turn out to
be one of the most important
Jewish legal decisions of the
21st century. This may seem
like a hyperbolic way of talking
about soy protein slurry, but
I really think it isn’t. The
OU’s move is a first, tenta-
tive step towards a stance on
technological innovation that
desperately needs to become
more common.

To understand why, we
need to understand the effect
of new technologies on legal
regimes. Law needs to be
specific to be effective, and so
well-constructed law is often
carefully tailored to the nitty-
gritty details of specific objects,
systems and ways of behaving.

When a new technology comes
along and replaces the old —
even if the new tech does exactly
the same thing as the old — it
can make the old law irrelevant
unless lawmakers intervene
with an update. Interventions
are especially important when
the old technology has been
around for a long time and law
has grown intertwined with it.

Regulating cryptocurrency, for
example, is crucial precisely
because so many financial
regulations assume that trans-
actions take place exclusively
through state-issued currency
that is mostly stored in banks.

But if the job of lawmakers is
to create continuities between old
and new tech, many modern tech
firms, with their “move fast and
break things” culture, often seem
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM hellbent on tearing them apart.

The makers of new technology
like to call things “unprece-
dented” because it generates
hype, but disconnecting new
technologies from old ones is
also a good way of shielding
themselves from ethical and
legal responsibility for how those
technologies behave.

This new tech dynamic
plays out in Jewish law, too.

How should the rule forbid-
ding leather shoes on Yom
Kippur — because they were
considered an indulgence —
the argument carried because it
was understood by leadership
and laity alike that electricity
was coming to replace fire, to
do everything fire could do and
more. Today, the restrictions
on electricity are a cornerstone
of the Shabbat experience, so
fundamental that it is hard for
many observant Jews to imagine
Shabbat without it.

Is Impossible Pork the
21st-century version
of electricity? There’s a good case
to be made that it is. The rise
of plant-based meat substitutes
and veggie pork — but if the
distinction is there, the ban on
the pork must be, too.

The OU’s ruling does not yet
amount to a full-fledged policy
that all fake meat should be
treated like real meat; a kosher
restaurant can still serve plant-
based “cheeseburgers” without
fear that its license will be
revoked. But even if it was not
intended to be profound, the
OU’s decision is an example
of how all regulators, both
religious and governmental,
can fight back against the
cultural unmooring that
the present onslaught of new
technology continues to cause.

In this unprecedented age,
creating continuity between the
past and the present serves to
ground society in the wisdom
and norms of its own past. l
David Zvi Kalman is the scholar-
in-residence and director of new
media at the Shalom Hartman
Institute of North America and the
owner of Print-o-Craft Press. He
holds a Ph.D. from the University of
Pennsylvania. Despite protestations to the contrary from
KVETCH ’N’ KVELL
hungry Jews and my own deep culinary curiosity,
Tone of Article Suspect
I believe that the OU made the right call.

apply in an era of comfortable
synthetic shoes? Must one
wear tzitzit (ritual fringes) at
all when modern shirts don’t
have the four corners that
triggered the Biblical require-
ment of tzitzit? On a larger
scale, the Shabbat elevator,
the Kosher Lamp, as well as a
host of technologies developed
by Israel’s Tzomet Institute,
all employ new technologies
to circumvent existing rules
while keeping within the letter,
if not the spirit, of the law.

Sometimes Jews have
allowed these rules to be eroded
because the stakes didn’t feel
high enough, but when a new
technology threatens to under-
mine Jewish tradition, the
rabbis have tended to respond
appropriately. The best example of this is the
ban on turning electricity on or
off on Shabbat. For millennia,
the experience of Shabbat was
shaped by the Biblical prohibition
on lighting fires; with the advent
of electricity at the turn of the
last century, that ban threatened
to become irrelevant. Orthodox
rabbis responded by coalescing
around the argument that
electricity is fire, or was covered
by some other well-established
prohibition. That electricity is
not actually fire didn’t matter;
has been spurred by ethical
and environmental concerns
around meat production. Their
success depends on their being
so delicious that they escape from
the boutique realm of eco-con-
scious consumers and take on the
same cultural role as meat. That
Burger King offers an Impossible
Whopper signals that this is
already happening, as does the
fact that major meat producers
have invested heavily in the
growth of plant-based alterna-
tives to their own products.

These developments should
be celebrated — but rather
than diminishing meat’s
special cultural meaning, its
substitutes have only served to
burnish it.

Meat has a special signif-
icance in Judaism, too. God
is a big fan of animal sacri-
fices, and many holidays still
involve the ritual or cultural
use of meat — and inasmuch
as meat matters, it matters that
the meat isn’t pork. It’s irrele-
vant that the Ancient Israelite
origins of the ban are obscure;
it’s enough that modern obser-
vant Jews (and Muslims) still
treat the ban on pig products
as a cultural touchstone. We
should be glad that technology
has created a meaningful
difference between veggie beef
JEWISH EXPONENT
I WAS DISMAYED BY the tone of “Aish Chaim Handles Yom
Kippur Service Intruder” (Oct. 7). A woman with obvious mental
problems created a scene at the entrance to an outdoor service.

I expected the article to praise the security guard’s and police
officers’ professionalism in handling the incident without the
congregation even noticing, and the rabbi to show concern for
the woman’s condition. Instead, the article dwells on antisemitic
violence, terrorism and homicides in Philadelphia.

Just one year ago and four miles from Aish Chaim, a mentally
ill young man was shot dead by Philadelphia police. A mindset
that regards inner-city residents with suspicion and people with
mental issues as criminals is dangerous.

Jon Arnon | Merion Station
Antisemitism is the Same as Anti-semitism
Spell it antisemitism or anti-Semitism (“Why Should Jews Be
Concerned About Hyphens?”, Sept. 30), but either way it’s like
pornography. I know Jew hatred when I see it.

Paul L. Newman | Merion Station
Reorganization Plans Are Pleasing
I was pleased to read the comments made by Michael Balaban
about his plans for a reorganization of the Philadelphia Jewish
Federation (“Coming Home: An Interview With New Jewish
Federation President and CEO Michael Balaban,” Aug. 12).

It was not until I moved to Florida that I realized how
important and meaningful a well-run and well-organized Jewish
Federation can be to the Jewish community. l
Lois Robins Portnoff | Sarasota, Florida
STATEMENT FROM THE PUBLISHER
We are a diverse community. The views expressed in the signed opinion columns and let-
ters to the editor published in the Jewish Exponent are those of the authors. They do
not necessarily reflect the views of the officers and boards of the Jewish Publishing
Group, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia or the Jewish Exponent. Send
letters to letters@jewishexponent.com or fax to 215-569-3389. Letters should be a
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published. OCTOBER 14, 2021
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