I need answers. Are mermaids kosher? What did your rabbi say???

[dragonlady7]

jews are almost always right about stuff, that's the thing, anyway, tumblr judaica

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As per my rabbi, mermaids are NOT kosher, due to the following:

1) If mermaids are like Ariel from The Little Mermaid, then they have human intelligence and free will. This makes them human (whatever King Triton might have to say on the subject), and thus eating one is committing murder, which is against halacha. (She could convert to Judaism, though!)

2) If mermaids are like the original little mermaid, then they have intelligence (possibly of human levels), but no souls and thus no free will. This means they are not human, but they appear human, and thus eating one is in violation of lifnei iver, which means “before the blind” and comes from the verse “do not place a stumbling block before the blind.” In other words: someone seeing you eat the mermaid may assume the mermaid is human, and thus that eating human is okay, and thus they may commit murder to eat human, which is against halacha.

3) Mermaids that do not fit the “human top, fish bottom” tradition of mermaids may not possess fins and/or scales, thus marking them as not kosher.

Thus: Mermaids are not kosher.

Comments

[krait]

That last point is making me wonder: even traditional mermaids are only scaly and finned on the bottom half; on the top half they have scaleless skin and no fins. Does this mean traditional mermaids are only kosher on the bottom half? Is there consensus on whether a fish must be completely scaled to be kosher, or is having some areas of scale enough?