Forbidden Quotes

“…the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who possesses it” [Ecclesiastes 7:12].”
― Jordan D. Rosenblum, Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig

“The theme of eating pig on Yom Kippur as a statement of Jewish transgression is one that we have encountered before and transcends this (OTD memoir) genre. It is a practice that simultaneously expresses rejection of Judaism while concomitantly reinforcing a Jewish identity. After all, eating pig on any other day just does not have the same heretical zing; yet, marking Yom Kippur as the holiest day of porcine transgression brings one closer to, rather than farther from, a Jewish identity.”
― Jordan D. Rosenblum, Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig

“Pigs are popular animals in children’s literature, and not just those who are little and travel in teams of three.”
― Jordan D. Rosenblum, Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig

“For a cultic practice centered around a single cultic location (Jerusalem), contained within a particular territory (Israel) that foundational doctrines declared is an inalienable divine inheritance, this event was catastrophic. You can still hear the heartbreak and sorrow in a lament written shortly after the Jerusalem Temple fell: “How shall we sing the Lord’s song on foreign soil?”
― Jordan D. Rosenblum, Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig