Kosher Pig?

This originally appeared in this week's מכותלי בית מדרש of ישיבת אור החיים.

ואת החזיר כי מפריס פרסה הוא ושסע שסע פרסה והוא גרה לא יגר, טמא הוא לכם (ויקרא יא, ז) 

It is often stated that although the pig is a non-kosher animal, in Messianic times it will become kosher. This idea can be found in the writings of Rishonim (see Rabbeinu Bachya here, Shu”t Radbaz 2:826 and Ritva Kiddushin 49b) and is attributed to Chazal, though it is not found in our text of Vayikra Rabba. (I saw a claim that the entire idea is based upon a misreading of Vayikra Rabba; from Rabbeinu Bachya it seems that there may have been a variant text of Vayikra Rabba.)

The obvious difficulty with this concept is that it directly contradicts one of the fundamental principles of Judaism, that the Torah will never be exchanged. We are charged with the command of בל תוסיף ובל תגרע, and this certainly classifies as an explicit violation of בל תגרע. In dealing with this, all of the Rishonim cited above interpret this alleged ma’amar Chazal in a non-literal fashion.

On the other hand, the Ohr Hachaim understands the Midrash literally, but introduces an interesting twist. Though it is certain that the Mitzvos will never change, and therefore pigs as we know them will remain forbidden, he suggests that in the Messianic age nature will change and pigs will begin to chew their cud, thus rendering them kosher. 

This understanding of the Ohr Hachaim stands in stark contrast to the opinion of the Rambam that nature will remain constant throughout the days of Moshiach. In his own words: 

"אל יעלה על הלב שבימות המשיח יבטל דבר ממנהגו של עולם או יהיה שם חידוש במעשה בראשית אלא עולם כמנהגו הולך... אמרו חכמים אין בין העולם הזה לימות המשיח אלא שעבוד מלכיות בלבד." (רמב"ם פי"ב מהל' מלכים ה"א-ב) 

It is then abundantly clear that the Rambam would certainly not accept the interpretation of the Ohr Hachaim. (See Torah Temima Vayikra 11:7 who  independently makes the same point, without reference to the Rambam.) It is possible that the Rambam did not have this text of the Midrash. Even if he had it, he may have dismissed it as a minority opinion, or interpreted it in a non-literal fashion, as do Rabbeinu Bachya, the Ritva and Radbaz. Regardless, there is insufficient information to know how the Rambam would have understood this Midrash. 

However, a novel interpretation is offered by R’ Moshe Aryeh Leib Litch-Rosenbaum in his ספר מתא דירושלים. He quotes a גמרא in מסכת חולין דף ק"ט which states that for everything forbidden by the Torah there exists a parallel that is permitted. Among the examples is a fish called שיבוטא which supposedly tastes exactly like pig, although nobody alive today would be able to confirm that because of what is stated in ירושלמי תענית פ"ד ה"ה. It is related that when the Jews were sent into the Babylonian exile, 700 species of fish went into exile with them. All of these fish returned when the Jews returned to Israel, with the exception of the שיבוטא. (A parallel passage in תלמוד בבלי מסכת שבת דף קמ"ה asserts that the exception was not the שיבוטא, but קולייס האספנין.)

If that is the case, then according the ירושלמי the שיבוטא fish is still “in exile” and there remains one forbidden pleasure in the world that we do not have access to its permitted parallel. This will change in the days of Moshiach. The ירושלמי in מסכת שקלים פ"ו ה"ב explains that fish will reproduce abundantly during the heralding of the Messianic age. (It is unclear if this occurrence is to be interpreted as a natural or miraculous one. If the latter, then the Rambam would not accept this explanation either.) Thus, we may conclude that the pig will indeed remain non-kosher for eternity; yet we will be able to have the pleasure in a permitted fashion, with the discovery of the שיבוטא.

Addendum:

After writing the above for the מכותלי בית מדרש I found an article in the Environmental Biology of Fishes Journal from March 2006. (No, I don't read it in my spare time - I found it in the Touro College Library database, so I don't think I can share a link to it.) Apparently Rabbi Ari Zivotofsky has discovered the identity of the שיבוטא. It is the arabibarbus grypus, which according to Wikipedia is a species of Cyprinid fish. In case you are like me and are thinking, "cyprinid???", it is some type of large freshwater carp commonly found in the Tigris-Euphrates Basin and can grow up to 2 metres long and weigh up to 50 kg. We finally have proof that Jews were eating gefilte fish in Babylon! According to Rabbi Zivotofsky, the fish is still commonly referred to as "shabbout" in Iraq and "shirbot" or "shilbot" or "shaboot" in Iran.

As you might imagine, it is somewhat difficult to import שיבוטא from Iraq or Iran to Israel, but check out this excerpt from another article by Rabbi Zivotofsky in the Jerusalem Post (September 12, 2007):

Our desire for a frozen sample to eat on Rosh Hashana was not quelled. Travel to Iraq, Iran and Syria may be difficult for us, but there are many US military and civilian personal in Iraq and US army chaplain Lt.-Col. Jeremy Steinberg is among them. He had already served a tour of duty in Afghanistan and was serving his second tour in Iraq. Having known him for many years and knowing that he is good at detective work (he has a forthcoming book on Hebrew etymology), I e-mailed him about my search and finally convinced him that I was really serious about wanting him to find a shabut.

He agreed to look, though doubted that he would be successful. But succeed he did. He approached an Iraqi who was employed on the US Army base and asked him to find out about the possibility of getting a shabut for him. The base, being near the Euphrates and the shabut being popular, the Iraqi returned the next morning not with information but with a box containing two big and two small specimens. Chaplain Steinberg promptly purchased the fish, recorded the event with many pictures that quickly clogged my inbox, but alas the fish are still in Iraq because we have not found a legal means to ship them from there to Israel.

OUR SEARCH was not over and took a positive turn when we "discovered" that the Tigris and Euphrates have their sources in a friendly country, Turkey. Quite fortuitously, I found not just a fish expert but a Barbus grypus expert, Dr. Zafer Dogu, from the Department of Fisheries, Bozova Vocational School, Harran University. He was more than glad to cooperate and find a few fish for us. But things improved even more when we contacted the Turkish embassy, which graciously assisted us with arrangements for our trip to study the shibuta in the Euphrates, just a stone's throw from Harran, the city of our forefather Abraham.

We flew to Istanbul and from there to Sanliurfa, landing on the longest runway in Turkey in a deserted, brand new airport that was opened only the previous week. One's initial impression upon arriving in this area near the Euphrates is that of the lush green patches irrigated by the majestic river among the otherwise moon- like landscape of the harsh arid region of south-central Turkey. We stepped out of the airport into 44 1/4 heat and proceeded to the office of Governor Mehmet ...zel, who warmly welcomed us and assisted us with all of our needs.

After an initial meeting with the governor, the fish expert and his boss, we were taken to a lake that was formed when the AtatYrk Dam on the Euphrates was completed in 1993. The dam, one of the largest in the world, is part of the massive $32 billion public project known as the Great Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) that has greatly improved the standard of living in the region. The lake covers 815 sq. km., and when it was filled for the first time it submerged 25 villages, displacing 55,000 inhabitants, and several important unexplored archeological sites.

Waiting for us on the lake were two boats that took us to the middle of this placid body of water, where we observed local fishermen pulling in nets full of fish. Unfortunately, none of the fish caught while we were there were shibuta. So as not to disappoint us, Dogu, took out and prepared (very cooperatively according to our instructions so that it remained kosher) one of the shibuta he had caught for us in advance, and a lovely lakeside "state dinner" with the governor was held. From there, we were taken to see the fish research facility where work is being done on raising, among other fish, the shibuta by, among others, Dogu who is a leading researcher on Barbus grypus sperm.

So does it taste like pig? Apparently not - here is another excerpt from the article:

Had our Turkish been better, we might have found dry ice in Istanbul, but given its current state our precious cargo was wrapped in regular ice, hand carried and stored in the overhead bins, and off we went. The dripping water we explained to fellow passengers must be faulty air- conditioning units on the planes, and we headed to LA hoping for the best. It arrived still frozen, was masterfully prepared by the chef at the Prime Grill with applesauce, instead of an apple in its mouth, and was willingly consumed at the Baron Herzog winery in Oxnard by a group of OU rabbis.

The question we are often asked is "does it taste like pig?" Having never tasted pork, we cannot personally answer that question. But the final verdict of the chef at the Prime Grill, after finding commonality between their textures and consistency, was a definite "no."
What is interesting is that three different texts exist regarding the exact description of the shibuta's taste. One source says the fish tastes like pig. Another says its brain does, and a third states the tongue is the tasty morsel. Could the rabbis have been talking tongue in cheek? As any angler will tell you, the tongue or brain of a small freshwater fish is so tiny as to be almost nonexistent.
Might the lesson be more along the lines of being satisfied with what we have and transmitting to us that we should not feel as if we are missing anything in this world? Basically, the lesson might be that if you feel like you are lacking, search far and hard enough and you might even find what you thought you never could.