Q. I am trying to keep kosher but can I take medications that have a source in unclean animals?

A. Many people have come to the conclusion that their diet consisting of pork, catfish, shrimp, lobster and the like is not biblical and want to follow the food laws found in Leviticus 11. They were on one extreme and are now trying to walk in a biblical lifestyle as described in the Torah. The problem is some go from one extreme to another. In their excitement they become over scrupulous and they actually “add to” the Torah which is just as bad as “detracting from” it (Deut 4.2). This can be a trap if we are not careful. Yeshua rebuked the Pharisees for adding things to their observance and teaching others to do the same. I will give you an opinion on this that I hope will help. In Matthew 23.24 Yeshua says that the Pharisees strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel. He was commenting on the fact that they used to strain their wine for gnats so that they would not accidently swallow one and using that practice to illustrate a spiritual principle. This implies that if something was smaller than a gnat they were allowed to drink it. This is the prevailing rule in Orthodox Judaism today , and they are really serious about not eating unclean things. They realize that kosher food may contain a small insect or rodent hair because it is impossible to prevent it from happening. Even the U.S. Government health standards for processed food allows for some of it. It just can’t be stopped. Anybody who thinks their food does not contain these things is wrong. In Israel there have been times when certain crops had tiny bugs in them and the rabbis told the people not to worry about it. You have to be pragmatic about things. What about enzymes and other ingredients derived from unclean sources? Some will say they are not allowed, but are they? We should avoid certain additives if it is a health issue or something, but does the Scriptures actually forbid it? I wouldn’t throw a piece of pork into something for flavoring but if a substance has changed through processing so that you could not tell what it is through a microscope, that is another issue. An example of this is gelatin. It can come from pork or beef but the rabbis consider Jell-O kosher because gelatin is not meat. When a substance goes through processing it actually changes and is called “davar chadash” or a new thing. The same thing happens in a garden. Unclean animals, bugs, worms die in the soil and decomposes and becomes part of the soil. We used to take dead carp and put it into gardens to decompose. Everyone has heard of a compost pile. The squash seed you plant transforms the soil as it is absorbed into a squash. When you eat the squash you aren’t eating decomposed animals, insects and worms. It has changed substances, or “davar chadash.” You have heard of the commandment to not eat blood. Does that mean you can’t have one molecule of blood? No matter what you do you will always have blood in a piece of meat. Kosher slaughtering does not remove it either. You can drain, salt, split, soak a piece of liver all you want and it still will have blood in it. If you kept the letter of the Law then you could not eat any meat or vegetables grown in soil. The spirit of the Law requires that we do not drink blood or use it in soups and so on like some do today. We should be diligent in following what the Lord has commanded concerning food but not over scrupulous about it, thus adding to the Torah. We get so concerned about tracing down the source of everything that has been molecularly changed anyway we miss the whole point of the dietary laws. We get concerned about things that aren’t even an issue with the Lord and we lose our peace. So, the basic rule I follow is that if something is smaller than a gnat I’m not going to worry about it. With that as a back-round, it is my opinion and the prevailing opinion of those who should know that it is allowable to take medications that may have been derived from an unclean animal, especially if it is a matter of health.