| KOSHER QUALITY
A certificate to ensure the
cleanliness and purity of the product leaving the temple
production line was necessary.
Inspection and ensuring bacteria could not multiply or
cause rancid action was a
contribution to the health of the community. Osmosis
and dehydration became the
much preferred process over other sealing systems which
inherently left liquids in the
tissues to possible decomposition.
|
Second Temple Era Seal
Discovered
Sacrifice - Embalming - Rites & Rituals - Kosher -
Slaughter - TAX [tithe]
Sodium salt solution has a desiccating
effect of attracting water from the animal tissues since the salt solution water pressure
is considerably lower than the tissue liquids. In effect osmosis. The result was to
dehydrate the meat to a point where no bacteria could grow and cause decomposition of the
meat. The required salt solution for cheese and butter, is 2%, 6% for meat, and 20% for
fish. For this additional use of salt, for the preservation of meat, the daily individual
consumption of salt could be as high as 100 g per day. Jewish "KASHRUT" [health]
laws, involve the dehydration of meat for its preservation, or the draining of all liquids
including blood from the carcass. The requirement in ancient times, and to
this day, was to prevent the meat from deteriorating so that it could be kept long enough,
to allow its gradual consumption over a period of time after the slaughter of the animal.
Kosher salt crystals have large surface
areas and large crystal form
What
is Koshering ?
Deuteronomy 15:3 Excluded are those species
"that only chew the cud, or them that only have the hoof cloven: the camel and the
hare...because they chew the cud, but part not the hoof...and the swine, because he
parteth the hoof, but cheweth not the cud."
Deuteronomy 15:21 " Thou shalt nor seethe a kid in its
mother's milk."
Deuteronomy 14:21 " Ye shall not eat of anything that dieth
of itself.
Deuteronomy 15:23 "Thou shalt not eat the blood thereof;
thou shalt pour it on the ground as water."
Following
the animal slaughter Draining the carcass, of the blood, was a relatively easy process By
slinging the animal up in a hanging position the blood could flow by gravity . But the
last of the blood and the remaining body fluids could only be drawn off by osmosis
in a second stage:
- # stage 1:
Gravity
drainage .
These fluids ares known as
"hanafesh" in Jewish law : by hanging the carcass in such a way as to enhance
drainage of the blood.:
|
The remaining body liquids in
the carcass tissues could only be drawn off by osmosis:
#
stage 2:
Osmotic effect,.
By increasing the liquid pressure, with
salt, either with solid salt crystals, or by soaking in a concentrated brine, and
attracting the remaining liquids with a pressure difference [these liquids are known as
"hamatitz"], very similar to the process our own bodies employ to retain the
required
ratio between salt and water.
|
CERTIFICATE OF
HYGIENE ?
- There are a number of ways of achieving meat and
fish preservation. The dehydration process includes soaking the carcass in a
"natrum" brine [ salt solution] or washing the carcass with salt brine, or
placing the carcass in a bed of salt crystals. Other methods involved, for example the
'anointing' of oils, and "broiling" with vinegar and water, to 'seal' the
carcass, if complete drainage was not possible.
BATHS in most Abattoirs [Temples] were were used to
to soak the carcasses and precise quantities of salt were required to ensure
the Osmosis process dehydrated the tissues to a point where bacteria would
no longer be a polluting factor. Jars were used to measure
the salt content.
See LMLK jars and the methods of controlling this hygiene process
-
- The process of dehydration was well known
to most ancient civilisations, and although the 'salt' process was not exclusive to all
communities, it was recognised as the easiest and the most efficient, provided that salt
was in good supply. The Chinese prepared a "spice" which typically was a
recipe of mainly salt, but with small amounts of pepper called "fu-la" to ensure
the meat would not become too salty, but neither would it go rancid . The mixed
powder with only 75% salt and small amounts of pepper are familiar to all who frequent
Chinese restaurants called "chiou yen" an aromatic salt mixture for keeping
general
-
- The preparation and the concentration of the
salinity of the brines, was not so easy and it required a sophisticated water supply and a
drainage system. A typical example of such
a system designed for this purpose was Hezekiah's centralising of an hygienic hydraulic
system in the Temple in Jerusalem, from a fresh water source, the Gihon spring, amongst
others, into a reservoir called the Pool of Siloam [Shiloach] The water was cleverly
directed through the Temple by gravity, and exiting the Temple as waste at the southern
side. 2000 ritual baths were reputed to have been available in the Temple, with a
hydraulic circuit for feeding and draining the baths and reslurrying the salt.
- The requirement in ancient times, and to this day,
was to prevent the meat from deteriorating, so that it could be kept long enough, to allow
its gradual consumption over a period of time after the slaughter (or sacrifice) of the
animal. This basic law , to ensure the hygienic distribution and consumption of the meat,
was also a central ritual for many other religions. The ritual of sacrifice, and salting,
which was the basis for a healthy, life sustaining meat and protein diet, at the same time
fulfilled critical physiological needs.
- It became part of a "covenant",
particularly for the Jewish religion, and around which, most other religions, and many
religious traditions developed:- -and
their
"abattoir", became their temple
This community "service" was not without cost and the "tithe" system of
payment later became the community
tax
-
 |
Salting and storing poultry in amphorae |
- .
RULES
Laws of Religion
Judaism and Islam
- The dictates of "Kashrut" law have always confined
Jews to living, within an accessible proximity of salt supplies and
have had a sense of its importance for every day living essential to
Jewish philosophy. This is not a coincidence and down the ages Jewish communities have always been close to salt trading routes, nor is it coincidence that Jews have always been
directly connected with those allied industries to KASHRUT involving uses of salt, such as tanning
and leather and many other bye-products, Not least of these, was the use of salt
sometimes, as "money" and as a means to pay tax or as a prime taxable item.
-
- Since the
Jewish literacy rate has always been high, close involvement in the collection of
taxes for and on behalf of the local administrations probably contributed greatly to
anti-Semitism.
Paying tax to Jewish bureaucracy clearly could not have been popular
-
It might
also be possible to correlate the
resulting consistently high physiological salt intake by Jewish populations to high
standards of hygiene and health, in spite of periodical famine. and also possibly to
the high cultural and "thinking" reputation of these Jewish communities.
|
 Herodotus reveals the
secret of the Egyptian 'mummies' - Not less than 70 days soaking in a Natrum' bath.
Was this a Jewish technology -- The same process
used for dehydrating meat to Kosher standards ?
MITHRAISM, MARII, ZOROASTRIANISM
- under construction
"Mithraism - the slaughter of the bull" In each
mithraic temple there was a central scene showing Mithras sacrificing a bull (often called
a tauroctony)
Mithraism was very much a cult for Roman
soldiers, who possibly spent their "salarium" in return for salted meat after
the rituals. ROMAN GODDESS "Salus" - of -
"Health" Health, represented by the serpent.- Salus in Roman religion, the
goddess of safety and welfare, later identified with the Greek Hygieia . Her temple on the
Quirinal at Rome, dedicated in 302 BC, was the scene of an annual sacrifice on August 5.
Always used for the seasoning of food and for the
preservation of things from corruption, had from very early days a sacred and religious
character. The Prophet Eliseus employed it to make palatable the waters of a well (IV
Kings, ii, 19 sqq.). The Orientals used it to cleanse and harden the skin of a newborn
child (Ezech., xvi, 4); by strewing salt on a piece of land they dedicated it to the gods;
in the Jewish Law it was prescribed for the sacrifices and the loaves of proposition
(Lev., ii, 13). In Matthew 5:13, salt symbolizes wisdom, though perhaps originally it had
an exorcistic signification.
Its use in the Church belongs exclusively to the Roman
Rite. The Ritual knows two kinds of salt for liturgical purposes, the baptismal salt and
the blessed salt. The former, cleansed and sanctified by special exorcisms and prayers, is
given to the catechumen before entering church for baptism. According to the fifth canon
of the Third Council of Carthage it would seem that salt was administered to the
catechumens several times a year. This use of salt is attested by St. Augustine (Conf., I.
1, c. xi) and by John the Deacon. St. Isidore of Seville speaks of it (De off., II, xxi),
but in the Spanish Church it was not universal. The other salt is exorcized and blessed in
the preparation of holy water for the Asperges before high Mass on Sunday and for the use
of the faithful in their homes. The present formula of blessing is taken from the
Gregorian Sacramentary (P.L., LXXVIII, 231). Both baptismal salt and blessed salt may be
used again without a new benediction. The appendix of the Roman Ritual has a blessing of
salt for the use of animals and another in honour of St. Hubert. The Roman Pontifical
orders salt to be blessed and mixed in the water (mixed in turn with ashes and wine) for
the consecration of a church. This is also from the Gregorian Sacramentary. Again salt
(not specially blessed) may be used for purifying the fingers after sacred unctions.
FRANCIS MERSHMAN Transcribed by Charlie Martin from the Catholic Encyclopedia
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|
or
in Aramaic
means pure and below it
in the word
(seal). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that such
an object or anything similar to it was discovered in an archaeological
excavation and it constitutes direct archaeological evidence of the
activity on the Temple Mount and the workings of the Temple during the
Second Temple period".
