Okay, I wrote up a big post, and once I looked over it, I realize it might seem preachy, or give what's already common knowledge. If that's the case, please pardon me. I'm simply trying to relate my present understanding of the subject, in case someone finds it useful.
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Well first of all, it's not just pork. The class of land animals judged safe to eat were those ruminants (animals that chew the cud) with cloven hooves. This kept the Israelites away from not only trichinosis in pigs, but also the parasites in canines, felines, rats, and so forth. Keep in mind that trichinosis can also be found in rodents.
There are many kinds of codes that were instituted for the Isrealites to follow. Some of these were designed specifically to protect the Isrealites from harm. The book of Leviticus contains taboos, bans, and instructions that helped prevent everything from a city-wide plague of black mold or leprosy, to individual families dieing of parasites or food poisoning. Psalms contains many wise sayings, including instructions on debt that many people should listen to more closely today.
Keep in mind that many of these rules were set up when the Isrealites were a slave people who had been separated from the proper worship of their God, and their freedom and responsibilities for their lives, a people who were also living near, in, and among those who had detestable practices. Many of these laws were to provide constraints on a people who still needed to mature, and who often rebelled, not understanding the strictures for them. I view these rules much as ones set down for a young child. “Don't touch the stove, it's hot”. Of course when we learn how to use the stove it's safe, but the child still needs to be told.
The two greatest laws are as follows:
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
On these hang all the law and all the profits.
How does that apply to the ban on pork? God loves us, and wants us to be happy, healthy, loving people, and I'm pretty sure it pains him to see his children dieing of food-born contagion.
One challenge is understanding which laws are protective laws that we now no longer need due to advances in understanding (such as the child that knows how to safely use the stove). Once identified, these laws fall under understanding and avoiding dangers in general. So long as I keep myself from food born contagion, I am following the spirit of the law, rather than being overly legalistic. Avoiding good food put into the world by God, once I can safely utilize that food is to avoid experiencing his glory. In fact, if I recall correctly, the ancient Jews had a saying. He who finds a new fruit of God's creation before him, and fails to try it will answer to God.
Over time, knowledge of how to safely consume several animals was gained, and so the ban on many kinds of animals was no longer necessary, though in many cases still a good idea. In Christendom the prohibition was lifted as a way to point to a larger truth (about not calling gentile brothers in Christ unclean, or less than Jews who had found Christ).
I have been wondering about the prohibition of meat with blood on it, and figured that until I better understood it, I would follow the prohibition as best I could, like a child not wanting to touch the stove until he knows how to do so safely.
I now understand the prohibition against eating meat with blood in it, and have also found out that only part of the red coloration of rare meat and it's juices is blood, and that this is only the tiniest bits left in the capillaries. Much of the coloration comes from other parts of the meat. Further, such an instruction seems obviously related to properly bleeding an animal, rather than leaving the blood in it.
As such, I no longer feel a need to avoid rare stake, and will find a new comfort point for my steaks, probably around medium, or medium rare... and I will experiment to see what, in that range, I enjoy. I will still cook hamburgers far more thoroughly, due to the specific dangers involved in extruded meat.
I also intend to thoroughly bleed any animal that I kill when I begin to hunt, due to the ability to make the meat keep longer, thus reducing my chances of getting sick from eating bad meat. So in the end, I come away with a refined understanding of the code, and the reasons for it, and I'm pretty sure my heavenly father, and his ancient high priests were pretty wise to give me this rule.
