Do Not Eat Blood
The Life Is in the Blood — Why the Prohibition Is Absolute
Lev 7:26: “you shall eat no blood whatever, whether of fowl or of animal, in any of your dwelling places.” Lev 17:11: “For the life (nefesh) of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” The reasoning is theological, not merely hygienic or ritual: blood carries life (nefesh), and life belongs to God. Eating blood is eating life — consuming what belongs to God alone.
The same claim appears in Lev 17:14: “because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites: You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood.” The repetition emphasizes the principle: it is not just that God designated blood as his portion (as with chelev on the altar), but that blood IS life, and life is not a human possession to consume. The blood prohibition expresses a fundamental theological claim about the nature of creaturely life: it is on loan from God, and the blood that carries it returns to God.
From Noah to Sinai — The Universal Prohibition
Gen 9:4: “But you shall not eat flesh with its life (b'nafsho), that is, its blood.” The post-Flood covenant between God and Noah included the blood prohibition as one of its conditions. This makes the blood prohibition pre-Sinaitic and universal — it is a Noahide law applying to all humanity, not a specifically Israelite covenant obligation. The Sinaitic legislation confirms and specifies it within the Israelite context, but the foundation was laid at Noah.
The universality of the blood prohibition reflects its theological foundation. If the reason for the prohibition is that blood carries life and life belongs to God, then this reason applies to all humanity. All creaturely life is on loan from God; all blood carries that life; therefore no human being should eat blood. The Sinaitic specification adds detail (the karet penalty, the specific animals) but does not change the foundational principle that Noah already received.
Salting, Soaking, and the Kosher Practice — A Living Prohibition
The blood prohibition is not a textual curiosity — it generated one of the most distinctive ongoing practices in Jewish life: the kashering of meat. After slaughter, the blood must be drawn out of the meat before it can be eaten. The process involves soaking the meat in water, then salting it generously to draw out the blood, then rinsing it thoroughly. This procedure is required for all meat other than liver (which requires broiling over an open flame because its blood cannot be fully extracted by salting).
The covering of the blood of fowl and wild animals (Lev 17:13: “whoever hunts down a bird or animal that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth”) extends the blood obligation to the point of slaughter itself. The blood does not merely need to stay out of the human digestive system — it must be returned to the earth from which it came. The blood covering is the visible acknowledgment that the life in the blood belongs to God and is being returned to God’s creation rather than being consumed by the hunter.
- The Theological Claim: Lev 17:11: “the life of a creature is in the blood.” The prohibition is not arbitrary; it is grounded in the theological claim that creaturely life belongs to God. Blood carries life; life is not a human possession; therefore blood may not be consumed.
- The Noahide Law: Gen 9:4: the blood prohibition was given to Noah — making it universal and pre-Sinaitic. All humanity received this prohibition because all humanity’s life comes from and belongs to God.
- Kosher Practice: the practical food preparation system — soaking, salting, rinsing — derives directly from the blood prohibition. Every kosher meal is a lived acknowledgment that the blood (the life) in the animal belongs to God and must not be consumed.
Read the source passage in the Torah reader.
Read in the Torah Reader — Leviticus 7:26