Is chicken kosher? That's the question dividing Israel's most notable rabbis these days, unleashing a fascinating—and often heated—halachic debate.
The controversy began two years ago, when a group of haredi Jews in Jerusalem grew troubled by the notion of eating genetically modified chicken. With more and more birds today treated to grow bigger and taste better, these pious carnivores argued, truly observant Jews had to watch out, as modified chickens were, halachically speaking, no longer real chickens, as they constituted a forbidden tampering with God's creation. Rashi himself was dragged out in defense of this position, and the solution was simple: seek out an artisanal species of bird.
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