In a Mishnah on this page of Talmud there is a discussion about which parts of the paschal offering may be eaten.
פסחים פד,א
כׇּל הַנֶּאֱכָל בְּשׁוֹר הַגָּדוֹל — יֵאָכֵל בִּגְדִי הָרַךְ, וְרָאשֵׁי כְנָפַיִם וְהַסְּחוּסִים
MISHNA: Anything that is fit to be eaten in an adult ox, [whose bones have fully hardened,] may be eaten in a young kid. And the soft ends of the ribs and the cartilage are soft enough to be considered edible and may therefore be eaten from the Paschal lamb.
What is Cartilage?
Cartilage comes in several different flavors other than roasted. There is articular cartilage, which acts as a solid lubricant. It covers the joint surfaces and ensures a frictionless movement of the surfaces of articulating joints, like your hips, knees and elbows. Then there is hyaline cartilage which acts like a more flexible versions of bone, and provides structural support. It is what gives your ears and nose their shape, and keeps your ribs attached to the breast bone. Finally fibrous cartilage is the stuff of which the menisci of your knees are made. These act as a cushion against the stress of walking, running and playing frisbee. When you tear a meniscus, you have torn fibrous cartilage.
We are not the only species to have cartilage. There is an entire class of fish known as the Chondrichthyes (from the Greek chondr meaning 'cartilage', and ichthys meaning 'fish,’) whose skeleton has no bone in it and is made from cartilage alone. This class includes sharks and sting rays.
“Patients with cancer and chronic inflammatory disorders have used shark cartilage preparations for many years. Preclinical studies that support their beneficial effects are scanty, and reports of clinical trials have been anecdotal. ”
Can Shark Cartilage Save your life?
In 1992 William Lane and Linda Comac published Sharks Don't Get Cancer: How Shark Cartilage Could Save Your Life. Let’s get one thing straight right away. Sharks do get cancer. But since they generally spend their time out at sea and far away from scientists, it’s been hard to determine the true incidence of shark cancer. Anyway the reason that shark cartilage was of interest to the medical community was the fact that in 1983 it had shown to inhibit the growth of blood vessels. Since cancerous growths need a blood supply, if you can inhibit that supply you can, in theory, keep the growth in check or perhaps kill it completely.
This finding launched an industry, and not in a good way. It also later came to light that the shark cartilage product that William Lane was promoting , Benefin, was manufactured by, you guessed it Lane Labs, a company run by his son. In 1999, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration pursued an injunction against the company for illegally promoting the product as a cancer treatment. Then in 2005 a study of shark cartilage in patients with advanced breast or colorectal cancer found no benefit or suggestion of efficacy.
The National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, has a webpage that reviews the use of cartilage (both bovine and shark) in cancer. In addition to the 2005 study that failed to show any clinical benefit, the site notes one trial of 60 patients with advanced cancer taking powdered cartilage by mouth. It is difficult to tease apart any effect of the cartilage since all but one patient had been treated with standard therapy before the trial. “The cancer stopped growing in 10 of the patients for 12 weeks or more and then began to grow again. The cancer did not shrink or go into remission in any of the patients.” So far, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved cartilage as a treatment for cancer, but a number of cartilage products are sold in the United States as dietary supplements.
“...we have shown that several in vivo and in
vitro experimental studies have demonstrated that shark cartilage is a true source of biological compounds with antiangiogenic and antitumor properties. Unfortunately, those experimental findings have not been followed by reliable results in clinical trials, especially with cancer patients.”
Is Shark Cartilage Kosher?
There is no need to consume shark cartilage, cow cartilage or cartilage in any form. It. Doesn’t. Work. Not for cancer and not for arthritis. But it is hardly a surprise to learn that against all the evidence some people still want to take it. So is it kosher?
The Rabbinical Council of Chicago has a helpful page on its website addressing the use of glucosamine and chondroitin. These are sold as supplements, usually to treat arthritis and are commonly produced from the soft shells and cartilage of shells of crabs, lobsters and shellfish, and sometimes from the cartilage of sharks. These are “…flavorful enough to be given the status of the fish they come from, and are therefore non-kosher.” But they continue:
However, there have been some prominent Poskim who have suggested halachic rationales as to why the considerable processing done to the shells and cartilage, might do away with the non-kosher status as well. Some Poskim accept those rationales, but most are undecided or reject such claims. However, most of those who hold that the glucosamine and chondroitin are inherently non-kosher, agree that someone suffering from arthritis may take those items in pill form because:
It is generally accepted that non-chewable pills are considered inedible non-foods and therefore are not required to be kosher.
A person who is incapacitated is permitted to “eat” non-kosher medicine in an “atypical manner”, and (almost) everyone agrees that swallowing a pill is not considered eating in a typical manner. This line of reasoning would only permit the consumption of items which have a history of being effective at curing the said illness, and at this point it seems that glucosamine and chondroitin meet that standard as a cure/relief for the symptoms of arthritis.
We may quibble with the last line, but anyway, the Chicago rabbis concluded that “many hold that glucosamine and chondroitin are not kosher but they may still be taken in pill form, especially by those who suffer from arthritis, but most Rabbis would not permit the inclusion of glucosamine and chondroitin powders in regular foods.” You can find a similar approach on the website of the Orthodox Union, which also notes that vegetarian glucosamine is available. No sharks or crabs are harmed in its making. If only there were an alternative for those Paschal lambs.
