Avoiding Non-Kosher Animal Toys etc.

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Motek ↓

Tue, Sep 21 2004, 4:14 pm

avoiding non-kosher animal items can be hard because so many, many children's things have animals on them, and you get stuffed animals as gifts, and baby clothes with animals on them, and crib sheets, playpen mats, toys, books, animals are everywhere!

Source: see p. 189-190 in From Exile to Redemption which quotes Likkutei Sichos vol. XXV p. 311.

The book quotes the Rebbe as saying, "it would be advisable to use illustrations only of pure subjects. When choosing toys for infants, for example, one should buy only representations of kosher animals; only such illustrations should appear in the booklets that are prepared for the use of children, and so on."

This does not cover all eventualities, but if you keep the Rebbe's guidelines in mind, you can manage. 1) You can let people know about this and the reason behind it, so they cooperate 2) there are actually plenty of clothes one can buy, despite the fact that so many have bears and rabbits. Ducks, chicks, cows are fine! and giraffes are kosher

3) when non-kosher animals appear in a Torah context, that seems to be fine. The point is - don't teach the letter pei with a pil (elephant), choose some other word that begins with pei. We have lions on the paroches in shul, and various non-kosher animals are representive of the shevatim (lion, snake, donkey, wolf) and that's Torah. There were eagles and lions on the coverings of the mishkan. I don't think this means we should have pictures of lions etc. just like that, but within their proper Torah context, like artwork conveying Torah ideas, I think that's acceptable.

proudmom

Tue, Sep 21 2004, 4:18 pm

I have a lot of books with non kosher animals in it so my uncle told me instead of crossing them out with a black marker or even throwing them out you can get stickers with kosher animals on them.

BelovedBird

Wed, Sep 22 2004, 9:51 am

What torah concept do the lions on the paroches depict?

miriam

Wed, Sep 22 2004, 10:04 am

I completely agree with not having treif animals on clothing but I don't with books. If you disallowed treif animals in books, there would be no books in the house. The children have to be aware of the world around them. I try very hard not to have books with pigs. I do draw the line there.

zuncompany

Wed, Sep 22 2004, 10:59 am

My husband actually asked the shailah cause we are baali teshuvahs and sometimes our family just doesn't listen (even though we tell them over and over). We were told not to necc throw things out. Just put them away and only bring it out when the person is visiting. That way it doesn't hurt their feelings and at the same time the kid isn't playing with it all the time. With clothes since my family lives in Chicago and I live in Philly I return it and get something we can use.
Sara

↑ Motek ↓

Wed, Sep 22 2004, 7:49 pm

Quote:

What torah concept do the lions on the paroches depict?

I assume that the lions on the paroches in shul is bec. of the lions on the paroches in the Mishkan

↑ Motek ↓

Mon, Nov 15 2004, 2:28 pm

about the eagles and lions on the aron kodesh/paroches, the Rebbe gave two reasons:

1) it reminds us of a derech in avodas Hashem, to be a gibor k'ari - strong like a lion, ratz ka'tzvi - run like a deer, kal k'nesher - light like an eagle

2) these animals are part of the Supernal Holy Chariot-Merkava which is why they appear in shuls too

Tefila ↓

Tue, Nov 16 2004, 10:29 am

Quote:

avoiding non-kosher animal items

What about tots underwear and diapers??

chestnut

Tue, Nov 16 2004, 10:38 am

this is the first time I heard about this minhag (guess, dont' have enough lubavitch friends, only one), so I have a question.

I'm not trying to be disrespectful to someone's minhagim, but:
how come it's OK to have non-kosher animals on the Aron Kodesh (which is so holy), but not on the kids' clothing?
I understand what it represents on the Ark, but still confused...

↑ Motek ↓

Tue, Nov 16 2004, 10:47 am

when animals appear in a Torah context, that's fine

there are lots of animals in Torah, some examples: the serpent in Eden, Rivka giving ten camels to drink, Moshe's stick that turns into a serpent, the plague of frogs, Bilaam's donkey, Mordechai riding on the king's horse, etc.

as mentioned above, the animals on the paroches, also some tribes had pictures of animals on their flags

all this is Torah

Frelich - since the babies don't see their diapers, I don't see that it matters, but I'm sure there are women who won't allow it in the house

gryp ↓

Tue, Nov 16 2004, 11:45 am

actually my baby plays with the diapers in his basket and he points to the blues-clues dog on it. I dont like this but what am I supposed to do? buy stickers and put them on each diaper? Smile

we get them by the case so I can just imagine an activity for one boring day.....

imanut

Mon, Nov 22 2004, 4:01 pm

RG, my baby plays with her diapers too. but I think the point is that children are not supposed to gaze at nonkosher animals ie. don't hang it over the crib, or buy nonkosher stuffed animals etc.

de_goldy ↓

Mon, Nov 22 2004, 5:57 pm

I know that friends of ours, who are shluchim interstate, face this problem all the time as they receive many, many gifts for their kids from members of their chabad house. Often they are given big non-kosher stuffed toys or other things with non-kosher animals on them

So...they thank the person who gave it, and later, with their kids they take the toys to the local children's hospital, thereby teaching their kids a dual lesson. 1. No non-kosher animals in the house and 2. Bikkur Cholim.

Just thought that was a nice way of dealing with it.

↑ gryp

Mon, Nov 22 2004, 8:49 pm

that is nice, thanx for sharing.

im not obsessing over the diapers, but he does play with them, and points to the dog on it. im just not happy about it, but it doesnt even look like a dog, so at least that.

su7kids ↓

Wed, Nov 24 2004, 12:21 am

The way I understood things with the treif animals was that the Rebbe didn't want us to display them in front of a child.

So, if you're going to have posters on the bedroom wall, don't p ut a picture of a cute puppy dog, but a kosher animal.

When my now 24 yo son was a baby, I pulled apart the Fisher Price activity center and made taht all Jewish, and I made a mobile for my 2nd son.

I also saw a friend who took the gifts and sewed Tzivos Hashem patches over the treif animal.

sarahd ↓

Mon, Nov 29 2004, 2:39 pm

I find this interesting. I have never understood why it was okay to name my child after a non-kosher animal (I.e. Dov, Arye, Zev) but not allow him to look at a picture of one. Any explanation for this seeming contradiction? Also, in times when horses and camels were commonly used for transportation, did people refrain from looking at them?

↑ Motek ↓

Mon, Nov 29 2004, 3:13 pm

don't know about the animal names except that it's traditional and goes way back

about horses and camels (and donkeys) for transportation - the issue seems to be not to use animals when TEACHING, for chinuch

↑ su7kids

Mon, Nov 29 2004, 3:25 pm

With regard to names, and visiting Zoos, etc. I think we are to still focus on the fact that Hashem created these animals, but the idea is not to show them to the child, not to "not acknowledge their existence".

One can go to a zoo and say "this is a kosher animal" and "this is a treif animal" and explain why.

I know with the name Sholom Dovber there is a beautiful sicha from the Rebbe given a month after my SHolom Dovber was born, where he talks about the character traits of the bear, which "Dov" and "bear" are in two different languages, and it is quite powerful.

But its the exposure, if you're going to expose your child to something at least let it be something KOSHER.

I know the Rebbe didn't approve of a "certain mouse" in a Jewish chldren's comic, too. I think h e brought that up in that particular sicha.

↑ Motek ↓

Mon, Nov 29 2004, 3:58 pm

su7kids wrote:

I know the Rebbe didn't approve of a "certain mouse" in a Jewish chldren's comic, too. I think h e brought that up in that particular sicha.

I just saw a recent copy of that publication and you know what? the mouse is no longer there

there's a duck!

curlyhead

Thu, Dec 30 2004, 5:48 am

What do you do if someone gives you get a gift with an non kosher animal? I won't use it and most of my friends also would not use it so I can not give it away as a present.

Could one buy clothing with butterflys? Is that included as a non-kosher animal?

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