Why was rabbit meat considered a prohibited meat in Russia?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Rabbit meat is a tasty and healthy meat recommended by nutritionists and doctors. It contains many substances necessary for the human body: nicotinic acid, vitamins C and B, cobalt, phosphorus, lecithin, manganese, iron, fluorine. For a number of qualities, this meat is much better than beef or pork.

It is very low in cholesterol, which makes it a dietary product. If you replace the intake of other proteins of animal origin with rabbit meat, you can prevent the development of atherosclerosis. But this animal product was not always used in our country, and there were reasons for this.

1. Ban on rabbit meat in Russia

Regardless of all the positive qualities, in our land, rabbit meat has been a prohibited product for a long time. It was all about religion, since they believed that it was unclean. In the fifties of the seventeenth century, the situation changed radically. Then a split occurred in the Orthodox Church and a reform was carried out, the author of which was Nikon, the Moscow Patriarch. According to her, the ancient laws of the church in Russia were abolished, and serving God was simplified and based on Greek laws, which has survived to our time.

In connection with the reform, the veto on eating rabbit meat was removed. The Old Believers, who stubbornly followed the old canons, were anathematized in the sixties of the same century. Today there are also Old Believers who live not only on the territory of our country, but also in Lithuania, Poland and other states. They, like their ancestors, strictly follow ancient traditions and do not eat rabbit meat.

2. Why did the ban arise?

According to the canons of that time, not only rabbit meat, but also hare meat were placed on the same level with the meat of dogs and cats. Although this was not the main thing. It was the prohibition on the part of religion that was present in the Old Testament that was decisive. This is discussed in detail in the eleventh chapter of the book of Leviticus. The point was that a hare should not be eaten, since it does not have cloven hooves, and chews gum, which means it is unclean.

Then pigs and even camels were also considered such. According to the Old Testament prescription, only the meat of ruminants with cloven hooves was considered clean. Naturally, the representatives of the animal world indicated above do not fit such a description, therefore they were generally equated with such "degenerates". Accordingly, their meat pollutes the human body and, even worse, the soul.

There is no detailed explanation in the Bible as to why you should not eat the meat of animals that chew gum, but do not have cloven hooves. According to the Old Believers, there is God's law, which means it must be fulfilled unconditionally. To ask such questions is not to trust God's Word, and this is great pride and an even greater sin.

In ancient times, and for some people today, such prohibitions concerning the use of certain types of meat in food, and not only, were in a sense a test of faith. If a person is really a believer, he is obliged to blindly believe in God and his wisdom, entrusting him with his own health and even life. For the same reason, the Jews do not eat rabbits. They both have pork and rabbit meat as dirty meat.