Angry Birds and the Oral Law

According to rabbi Gil Student, another alleged proof from the Kuzari suggests that the uncertainty of the taxonomy of forbidden birds requires an Oral Law, and hence the rabbinic invention called the Talmud must ipso facto be Divine.

6. Also, when the Torah forbids certain birds [Lev. 11:13-19], does that mean that all other birds are permitted?  Or are there sign for birds like there are for animals [Lev. 11:2-8]?  [Kuzari, ibid; Rashbatz, ibid.]  How can anyone know whether biblical law permits or forbids eating ducks, geese, and turkeys [Kuzari, ibid]?

This is not at all a logical proposition, Rabbi Student. The Torah writes:

Lev 11:

13 And these ye shall have in detestation among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are a detestable thing: the great vulture, and the bearded vulture, and the ospray;

14 and the kite, and the falcon after its kinds; 15 every raven after its kinds;........... etc.

The first part of Student's “proof” is asking what v.13 says. It says that the subsequent list of birds should not be eaten. This means, that birds not included or categorised in this list can be eaten. So for example, every Raven after its kinds (v.15), includes crows, jackdaws and rooks, all of the Genus Corvus.

So there is not a great deal of logic in the Kuzari's question.

His second point is how does anyone know whether birds we eat today are permitted?

This does not imply that G0d gave an Oral law or the oral law that Kuzari is marketing. It simply is a reflection of the loss of Hebrew as a living language. All the data is in the Torah, and would have been known as long as Hebrew was an unchanged and spoken language. Today birdwatchers in the UK will know what a Magpie is. They will also know a sparrow, a pigeon, a raven etc. The knowledge of these species is common knowledge, which is not the same as oral law. To conflate common knowledge with oral law is a dishonest and fallacious act, but something done by the rabbis at every opportunity.

There are certain methods and arguments to identify permitted birds as well as forbidden. I am not a biologist, and hence I cannot deduce from these what other birds are permitted, but Karaites as well as some rabbis have identified birds that are permitted by the Torah. A further discussion of the matter is available here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20040823204713/http://www.amhaaretz.com/2004/01/disproofs_6_forbidden_birds.html