I sympathize with the scrupulous impulse of some NYC Jews (who appear to be ultraorthodox rather than orthodox), who worry that the copepods in local tap water render the water non-kosher unless the little critters are filtered out (copepods being crustaceans and crustaceans being non-kosher).
Still, I’m glad that the question wouldn’t arise in Catholicism–not just because our food laws don’t work that way but also because in Catholic legal hermeneutics the law is to be observed in modo humano (i.e., “in a human manner”). If you have to examine your food with a microscope or high-power magnifying glass or other piece of technology to determine what something in your food is then we have been taken out of the realm of observing the law in a human manner and so we don’t need to worry about it.
It’s also probably good that the question doesn’t arise in Catholicism because if it did then people would accuse us of creating the law in order to economically advantage the makers of water purifiers–just as they accuse meatless Fridays of having been created by the pope to benefit Italian fishermen.
On the other hand, given the unflattering Jewish stereotypes floating around, NYC’s Jewish community may be subject to similar accusations.
Jimmy,
How about the regulations on unleavened bread and unadulturated wine for use in the liturgy? The regulations make perfect sense, of course — but I’ve seen some discussions carried on about the chemical makeup of communion wine that doesn’t sound too different than this.
I’m aware of regulations that deal with things like how much the sugar and alcohol content of the wine is (e.g., to keep it from spoiling or to keep it from being classified as a port rather than as a wine), but these deal with winemakers’ techniques that respond to ensuring the human experience of using wine rather than something else (spoiled wine or port) in the celebration of the liturgy.
I am not aware of any regulations dealing with the presence of microscopic or near-microscopic organisms (beyond those needed to ferment the wine, which again pertains to ensuring the human experience of using wine for the consecration rather than something else).
Since it does not affect the human experience, a priest in NYC could use tap water to mix with the wine at Mass, and the Church does not require the sterilization of such water before it is used. (If he were using patently *muddy* water then there would be a problem, but then that would affect the human experience of using it, in contrast to microorganisms which don’t.)
This is not to say that individual Catholics may not carry discussions into such arenas, but the Church itself does not make this a requirement or encourage such a scrupulous construction of the law.
+J.M.J+
My friend sells high-tech water purifiers, and is an expert on the subject. I told her about this, and she checked with her supplier whether her filters would remove these microorganisms.
She was advised that there is no filter on earth that could remove them, and that they shouldn’t be removed because they belong in the water. They are part of the ecosystem and, according to her supplier, are beneficial for human beings.
I wonder whether they’re present in distilled water?
In Jesu et Maria,
Rosemarie
Copepods are 1-2 mm in size, so the filters should remove them. The smaller organisms are the ones that can’t be filtered.
If Christ was walking the earth today he would say, “”You blind guides, which stain out a copepod and swallow a camel.