Avodah Zarah, Daf Lammed Zayin, Part 6
Introduction
The mishnah prohibited Jews from eating food cooked by non-Jews. As I have said before, this seems to have been part of a program to prevent assimilation. Cooked food is civilized and therefore sharing it is sharing civilization. Uncooked food is different and therefore there is no problem for a Jew to eat uncooked food given to her by a non-Jew.
As we shall see, the rabbis were relatively lenient with this rule, seeming to observe it in a very technical sense. My assumption is that they were lenient because they did not really worry that eating cooked food together would be sufficient to lead to assimilation.
והשלקות: מנהני מילי א"ר חייא בר אבא אמר רבי יוחנן אמר קרא (דברים ב, כח) אוכל בכסף תשבירני ואכלתי ומים בכסף תתן לי ושתיתי כמים מה מים שלא נשתנו אף אוכל שלא נשתנה
Cooked food. From where is this derived?
R. Hiyya b. Abba said in the name of R. Yohanan: Scripture says, You shall sell me food for money that I may eat, and give me water for money that I may drink (Deuteronomy 2:28). [The food] must be like water, just as the water has undergone no change so too the food must have undergone no change.
During their wandering in the wilderness Moses approaches Sihon, King of Heshbon, and asks him for food and water. The rabbis compare the food and the water just as the water the Israelites will drink has not been modified at all, so too the food that they buy from them must not be modified at all.
אלא מעתה חטין ועשאן קליות ה"נ דאסורין וכי תימא ה"נ והתניא חיטין ועשאן קליות מותרין
According to this reasoning wheat that was roasted, it too should be permitted; and should you maintain that that is so, behold it has been taught: Wheat that was roasted are permitted!
If any food that non-Jews change from its original form is prohibited, then if they roast ears of wheat they should be prohibited. But they are not.
אלא כמים מה מים שלא נשתנו מברייתן אף אוכל שלא נשתנה מברייתו
Rather like water: Just as water has not been changed from its natural form [is permitted to Jews] so too the food must not have been changed from its natural form.
The Talmud now refines the comparison with water. Water retains its natural form and so does wheat that has just been roasted. It still looks like wheat. The cooked food would become prohibited only if it has really been modified.
אלא מעתה חיטין וטחנן ה"נ דאסורין וכי תימא ה"נ והתניא חיטין ועשאן קליות הקמחים והסלתות שלהן מותרין
According to this reasoning wheat that milled should be prohibited; and should you maintain that that is so, behold it has been taught: Wheat that was roasted and then ground into flour or fine flour is permitted.
The problem is that even flour ground by non-Jews is permitted.
אלא כמים מה מים שלא נשתנו מברייתן ע"י האור אף אוכל שלא נשתנה מברייתו ע"י האור
Rather like water: just as water has not been changed from its natural form by fire [is permitted to Jews] so too food must not have been changed from its natural form by fire.
The final conclusion is that the food must have been changed by fire for it to be prohibited. The role of fire in creating civilization is something that both evolutionary biologists and anthropologists have noted. It is likely that one of the major shifts in primate evolution occurred when human beings (homo something or other) learned to cook their meat. This allowed them to digest far more calories, which allowed their brains to grow and for them to evolve in very different directions from other primates. No other animal has the ability to manipulate fire and most animals fear fire (think of Shere Khan from Jungle Book). Thus manipulation of fire is quintessentially human. Once food has been cooked by fire it is out of the animal realm and in the civilized realm.
מידי אור כתיב אלא מדרבנן וקרא אסמכתא בעלמא
But there is nothing in the verse about fire!
Rather, this is a rabbinical ruling and the verse is merely a support.
We have now gone too far afield from the verse. The verse does not even hint that the food cannot be cooked. Thus the Talmud admits that the prohibition of cooked food is only rabbinic in origin.