daf bit: Shabbat 155

[cellio]

In a discussion of preparing food for animals on Shabbat the g'mara takes a tangent: R. Yonah lectured at the entrance to the Nasi's academy: What is meant by the verse "the righteous know the cause of the poor" (Prov 29:7)? The Holy One, blessed be He, knows that a dog's food is scanty (few people bother to feed them; this is not like pets today), so He makes the dog retain food in his stomach for three full days. R. Hammuna said: the care that the Almighty takes for a dog's food proves that it is a proper thing to throw raw meat to a dog. And how much? R. Mari said: measure its ear and the stick straight after, meaning give it a little and then drive it off. But that is only in the fields and not in town, because it will come to follow him. R. Papa said: none is poorer than a dog nor richer than a swine (because the swine eats anything and anyway people feed it much food). (155b)

Comments

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

R. Papa said: none is poorer than a dog nor richer than a swine (because the swine eats anything and anyway people feed it much food). (155b)

This struck me as interesting, especially given that pesach is soon, because the question of whether or not a dog would eat X is used to determine whether X is food for the purpose of needing to be kosher for pesach (e.g. if wheat flour and water are two ingredients in your wall paint, and a dog wouldn't try to eat/lick your wall, then the paint isn't food so you don't have to worry about whether or not the paint is chametz). So it seems that dogs were considered willing to eat anything too (or at least any food).

[cellio]

Alternatively, perhaps the swine would happily chow down on your wall and that's why they use a dog as the guide?

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

I don't think pigs eat non-food items any more than dogs do (unlike goats - I once had a goat try to eat my shirt while I was wearing it).

I wonder if keeping pigs just wasn't common, given the way pigs are treated as the exemplar of non-kosher-ness. I do know that dogs were fairly common because the standard answer re what to do with food that was treif was feed it to the dogs.