(no subject)

[ursamajor]

When belladonna shares a tweet that got screencapped and put up on Insta:

@ madisontayt_: imagining a vegan who won't drink nyc's tap water because of the microscopic shrimp
@ TheWappleHouse: The what now

and I was like "Yeah! There was this whole thing about NYC's tap water possibly being not kosher because of copepods in the water supply a few years back. Which might've meant that NYC bagels, whose lauded taste and texture were credited to the tap water used to boil them, were potentially treyf. But then other rabbis weighed in and said as long as the proportion of these microscopic crustaceans was less than 1/60th of the total volume, it was okay by the principle of בטל בשישים (bitul b'shishim/beteil beshishim), thank you Shabot6000."



... and then I realized "a few years back" was 21 years ago.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

By that extension, pretty much all water isn't kosher. 'shrimp' are part of the arthropod family, and there are examples of that in all water.

[ursamajor]

Exactly! Heh.

[jadelennox]

yeah it's a good thing they decided on bitul b'shishim before they understood modern science and realized how many tiny things are in everything, or kashrut would be even more complicated than it is. Some people get worried about tiny insects in strawberries, too.