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Not to eat the sciatic nerve (gid hanasheh)
The cited verse
The Hebrew (Masoretic Text)
עַל־כֵּן לֹא־יֹאכְלוּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת־גִּיד הַנָּשֶׁה אֲשֶׁר עַל־כַּף הַיָּרֵךְ
In Maimonides’ words
How Maimonides defines this commandment in his Sefer HaMitzvot — his own words, shown as a primary source.
הזהיר מאכול גיד הנשה, והוא אמרו על כן לא יאכלו בני ישראל את גיד הנשה, ומי שאכלו כלו לוקה ואפילו היה קטן מאד או שאכל ממנו כזית. וכבר התבארו משפטי מצוה זו בפרק ז' מחולין. (וישלח יעקב, שם פ"ו):
He prohibited [us] from eating the sciatic nerve. And that is His saying, "Therefore, the Children of Israel do not eat the sciatic nerve" (Genesis 32:33). And one who ate all of it - even if it was very small - or ate a kazayit of it is lashed. And the regulations of this commandment have already been explained in Chapter 7 of Chullin. (See Parashat Vayishlach; Mishneh Torah, Forbidden Foods 6.)
Hebrew: Sefer HaMitzvot, Warsaw 1883 (public domain). English: Sefaria Edition, trans. Rabbi Francis Nataf, 2021 (CC0). Via Sefaria; translator’s footnotes omitted.
Literary form: a command embedded in narrative
Applicability
How the catalog describes where and when this commandment applies. These are independent descriptions, not a verdict on which laws still count.
- Recorded as practiced today
Classical halakhic consequences
The consequences the classical halakhah attaches to this commandment, grouped by who imposes them. Where a category has none recorded, that absence is itself meaningful.
Imposed by a court
- Lashes (malkot)
At the hands of Heaven
No divinely-imposed consequence is recorded.
Ritual remedy
No ritual remedy is recorded.
How the streams of Judaism treat this commandment
The streams of Judaism read the same commandment differently — an ongoing plurality, not a ranking. Each position below is reported as the catalog records it; none is presented as the correct one.
- Orthodox Binding
- Conservative Binding
- Reform Not binding
- Reconstructionist Not binding
- Karaite As the catalog records it: binding biblical scope
24 of 613 commandments have been examined in depth so far — this one is queued.
How later traditions received this commandment
How later traditions read or reworked this commandment, each attributed to its own voice. The catalog’s own classification of each reception is shown as it records it, never adopted as GEBible’s.
Rabbinic aggadah
- Bereishit Rabbah 77-78 expanded it homiletically
Josephus
- Ant. 1.334-336 expanded it homiletically
The Qur'an and hadith
- Q 3:93 The catalog describes this reception as: possible allusion (via tafsir)
Where this commandment meets modern human-rights frameworks
One modern normative lens, attributed to it — not GEBible’s assessment. Each row names the framework it measures against and the catalog’s own classification of the relation.
This framework catalogues tensions; it records agreement in only one of its entries. The near-total tension rate is the shape of the instrument, not a finding.
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general principle
This framework classifies the relation as an incompatible method.
The commandment prescribes flogging for eating the sciatic nerve of a slaughtered animal; corporal punishment for a specific anatomical dietary restriction is incompatible with modern norms of bodily integrity.
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Article 7
This framework classifies the relation as an incompatible method.
ICCPR Article 7 bars cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment; thirty-nine lashes for consuming a prohibited nerve and surrounding tissue constitutes a degrading physical sanction under international human-rights standards.
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general principle
This framework classifies the relation as a direct contradiction.
Modern proportionality doctrine requires a rational relationship between sanction and harm; flogging for eating a specific anatomical structure of an otherwise permissible animal is incommensurable with any identifiable secular harm.
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general principle
This framework classifies the relation as abrogated in practice.
The malkot sanction requires a Sanhedrin of twenty-three judges, an institution defunct since the Second Temple era; the lash penalty is formally binding but has been practically unenforceable for nearly two millennia.