Competing values and the beauty of the irrational choice

This Friday morning, I had a  real-life competing values choice to make.  I was making challah when I noticed a blood spot in one of the two eggs I was checking.   Automatically, I made a move to throw the eggs away.  And at the last split second, I stopped.  What a waste that would be!  We are not supposed to throw food away willy nilly!  How likely was it that the blood spot actually arose from an egg that somehow had gotten fertilized, given that these were not free-range eggs (which is a separate problem, but not the subject of this post)?

I decided that the rational – the right – decision would be to put the eggs in the challah.

But I couldn’t do it.  Either because I felt the pull of tradition or because I do not see myself as learned enough or authorized enough to make that choice.  That and the fact that I am not feeling angry enough or rebellious enough nowadays to grab the authority for myself and do it anyway.

So, after standing there, staring at the eggs for about a minute, I threw them away.  And then, unexpectedly, I felt great.  Maybe not exalted, but almost.  I had just committed an act of submission (to God?  A greater purpose?) that went against the rational.  Wow!  I consciously did something ridiculous – and let’s face it, the idea that maybe this egg was laid by a chicken who, though raised in a tiny wire cage its whole life, had somehow gotten access to a marauding rooster such that the egg was fertilized, was, in fact, ridiculous.  To throw this good food away on the basis of this extremely dubious premise was ridiculous.  Not to mention the ridiculousness of the whole “I-won’t-eat-eggs-with-certain-bloodspots-in-them-because-God-said-so” thing in the first place.

So why the almost-exaltation?  Precisely because of the ridiculous aspect of the situation.  How quotidian to always be rational!  How dull!  It is not the rational that spices life.  It is not reason that has kept the Jewish people alive over thousands of tortured years; it is our willingness to look at reason in the eye and make a different choice.  To separate because of a drop of blood.  To get out of the car and walk because the sun has set.  To drive on roads under threat of stoning and shooting.  To die rather than bow down.

Reasonable choices would have led to our disappearance a long time ago.  My throwing those eggs away was a small act in the tremendous list of beautiful, crazy choices that Jews have made over the last 40 or so centuries – acts that have kept us and our message to the world alive.

What is the Halachah regarding blood-spots found in eggs? by Rabbi Brun-Kestler

 In the past, most eggs came from fertile hens, whose increased hormone levels stimulated more egg production. Of course, fertilized eggs will also, in the right conditions, grow into chickens.

In modern commercial egg operations, this hormone enhancement is achieved (and controlled), by artificial means through the feed, and the eggs themselves are not fertile; they will never develop into chickens. While in the past, every bloodspot might have signified the beginning of a new embryo (“safek sheretz ha’of”), today’s commercial methods virtually ensure that this is not the case. It is in light of this modern reality that Harav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l,1  clarifies that blood spots found in commercially produced eggs do not present any fundamental Kosher problem. With respect to fertile eggs in the past, where a significant doubt existed that the blood might represent a new embryo, it was necessary to throw out the entire egg if it had a bloodspot.2 Today, however, the only concerns are mari’it ayin (the appearance of misconduct) or dam beitzim (a small amount of blood from a broken blood vessel in the hen, which is not forbidden). While in the past, every bloodspot might have signified the beginning of a new embryo, today’s commercial methods virtually insure that this is not the case As a result, the entire egg is never prohibited and technically  the removal of the blood spot would suffice. Moreover, since the prohibition is not intrinsic to the egg, there is no problem with cooking a single egg in a pot. Rav Moshe, however, writes that it is a proper practice to dispose of the entire egg even today, as eggs are not expensive and a person does not incur any significant loss. Therefore, the requirement to check each egg remains in effect, as does the requirement to dispose of eggs containing actual blood spots. Nevertheless, in cases of doubt, difficulty or error, eggs are kosher, even if checking was not properly done; moreover, if blood spots are discovered during or after cooking, there is no problem with the utensils with which they were prepared. Note: Fertilized eggs are available in the marketplace and are sold at a premium. When purchasing organic or natural eggs, a consumer should be careful to check the carton and/or contact the egg producer. Consumers wishing to consume fertile eggs should consult a competent Halachic authority for guidelines. Some Kashrut agencies will not certify eggs that are intentionally produced as they were in the past, because of the halachic complexities pertaining to those eggs. Copied with permission from OUKosher.org. Footnotes 1. Igrot Moshe, Yoreh Deah 1:36. 2. This is also the reason why a minimum of three eggs were boiled at one time – if one of them had a spot, it would be “batel b’rov” (the non-kosher substance becomes “nullified” in the kosher majority) to the other two.

 

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