Welcome to Times Will Tell, the weekly podcast from The Times of Israel. This week a crazy interesting study is published in the Tel Aviv archaeological journal called “The Pentateuchal Dietary Proscription against Finless and Scaleless Aquatic Species in Light of Ancient Fish Remains.” It was co-authored by Ariel University’s Dr. Yonatan Adler and Haifa University’s Prof. Omri Lernau; we're speaking with Adler.

Finless and scaleless fish are prohibited in the Bible, in both Leviticus and Deuteronomy. It appears in both books just after pig is forbidden from consumption. But it seems it was much less observed throughout the land and ages.

In the newly released study, the pair of scholars examine all known evidence of fish remains from ancient Judah over the period of some 2000 years to see if the common everyday Judean was actually following this particular Torah law, and if so, from when.

This study is part of Adler’s Origins of Judaism project, which examines all sorts of Torah laws, including purity, figurative art, and dietary prohibitions, and looks for concrete evidence for them.

IMAGE: Catfish swim in Ein Afek Nature Reserve, east of Kiryat Bialik, Israel, on April 24, 2015. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

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