Why is drinking , Kosher for pregnant women?

by moshe 12 Replies latest jw friends

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  moshe

  I know of all the strict dietary laws that G-d imposed on the Jews. The Witnesses always preach about G-d's wisdom. Like, not eating pork protected His people from parasites. Well ,if G-d is so wise , why didn't he give us a law protecting the unborn? G-d would have to know that even one drink of alcohol a week can damage a fetus. It seems to me that ,if G-d truly values the life of the unborn he would have prohibited consumption of alcohol by pregnant women. Or maybe , there is another reason for the lack of such a law. What does everyone think about this?

  shalom,

  Moshe
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  stillajwexelder

  I know pregnat women who for years have been drinking and I have not seen any damage - I think it is an old wives tale
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  Enigma One

  Here again alarmist propaganda. If a pregnant woman has a glass of wine once a week, the chances of any issues is ludicriously small, and in fact may benefit both anyway.
  
  American's seem to love Puritanical rituals imposed on themselves. For diets they want some magical don't eat / do eat list. For birth they want absolutes. They insure themselves to the hilt to guard against any threat regardless of how small. It's ingrained in our American culture.
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  avishai

  I know pregnat women who for years have been drinking and I have not seen any damage - I think it is an old wives tale

  Here again alarmist propaganda. If a pregnant woman has a glass of wine once a week, the chances of any issues is ludicriously small, and in fact may benefit both anyway.
  
  
  
  

  Ever have to deal with a child with fetal alcohol syndrome or fetal alcohol affect? I have. Alarmist my ass. These children are screwed for life. FOR LIFE!!!!! You can tell a normal child something 2 or three times before they learn it. W/ an FAS kid, it takes hundreds or thousands of times. And that does'nt even begin to explain the behavioral issues. I think minimal to zero alcohol is fine, it;s never worth the risk of screwing up another humans mind f-o-r-e-v-e-r!!!!! You want a country with liberal attitudes on this issue? How about Sweden, look up the stats there on FAS.
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  avishai

  Oh, and as per your question moshe, the mosaic and levitical laws are little more than primitive city health codes. Pretty good ones for the time, but.....

  Shalom, Avishai.
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  Mary

  It seems to me that ,if G-d truly values the life of the unborn he would have prohibited consumption of alcohol by pregnant women.

  
  I think when we think of the ancients drinking wine, we tend to think it was the same alcoholic content as what we have today, which is around 10% - 12%, but the wine in ancient times was diluted with water which gave it around a 2% alcohol content: "...Wine almost always was mixed with water for drinking; undiluted wine (merum) was considered the habit of provincials and barbarians. The Romans usually mixed one part wine to two parts water (sometimes hot or even salted with sea water). The Greeks tended to dilute their wine with three or four parts water, which they always mixed by adding the wine. The intention of the symposium was to enjoy the aesthetic pleasure of the wine, to be intoxicated just enough to have the mind released from inhibition and conversation stimulated."---Encyclopaedia Romania; University of Chicago. Proverbs 9:5: "Come, eat of my food and drink of the wine I have mixed." I'm no doctor, but I'll assume that a drink that has only one tenth of the strength as a regular glass of wine, especially if drank in moderation, would not harm the unborn the way a much stronger alcoholic drink would.
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  avishai

  bttt
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  Narkissos

  The initial question assumes that one modern, apologetic rationale for dietary laws, i.e. health concern, is the actual motive behind those laws... Which I believe is completely wrong.

  Only very few of the dozens of halakhic precepts in the Torah can be credited with health advantages, and this is rather a coincidence than the motive of the rule. The pig is not forbidden for being potentially harmful: but "for even though it has divided hoofs and is cleft-footed, it does not chew the cud." (Leviticus 11:7). It just falls the wrong side of an ancient zoological taxonomy, along with several others animals for which apologists have not (yet!) found any "medical" explanation.
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  Enigma One

  Avi....read what I posted.
  
  "A glass of wine once a week". So spare me your FAS speech. This is the alarmist crap I'm talking about.
  
  How many of the FAS babies did you see that the mother was a raging alcoholic? The FAS babies you saw were from mothers that had 5 glasses of wine during their entire pregnancy right? Yeah, I thought not.
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  aniron

  It seems to me that ,if G-d truly values the life of the unborn he would have prohibited consumption of alcohol by pregnant women.

  In ancient times it was safer to drink beer or wine than water. So GOD was showing concern for the unborn child who would be seriously affected by contaminated water.

  Whats with the G-D ?