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A Different Life in Bethlehem

Decent Essays

Life in Bethlehem had many facets. One of main things that separated the jews from the rest of the world was what they eat, or more importantly what they did not. For Jews, it was forbidden to eat pork. This is due to the fact that the Torah says pigs are unclean. As Scott Korb states in his book, "perhaps the most obvious thing to say about food... would be that the people did not eat pigs, which to them was essentially how it had always been. The law came down from God, through Moses himself, and was first recorded in the Torah."(book)

Although not eating pork is not the only thing we know about their dietary habit. They ate many different things indigenous to the area such as olives, olive oil, figs, dates, and pomegranate. Scott also gives examples of the average person meals throughout the day. A person in this region enjoyed, "cheese, different butters, and on rare occasions even small amounts of beef, veal, lamb or mutton". If a citizen lived near the coast, they would enjoy fish and small roasted fowls. They also enjoyed cow or goat milk which would be drank fresh or turned into yogurt (also a drink), coupled with wine "since fermentation was the best way to preserve grape juice".

As with many other civilizations and cities during this time frame, the average person had to deal with much more dirt and filth then we do today. With that in mind, Bethlehem would be no different. If it was extreme enough, people would sometimes take drastic measures. Scott Korb

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