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Limb of a Living Creature This prohibition was the last to be given to humanity. It has nothing to do with physical health or hygiene. It has to do with the spiritual constitution, because the eating of live meat is at the root source of cruelty and selfishness. Eating even a tiny amout of living flesh (flesh taken from a living animal), whether cooked or raw, violates the prohibition. The intent of this prohibition is not to promote vegetarian practices. Before the Flood, meat of any kind was forbidden as food. After the Flood, God told Noach that meat would be permitted as long as this one condition was maintained in preparing it. All food prohibitions in the Torah have deep mystical significance, and the prohibition of eating live flesh is explicit, as it is written in Bereishis (Genesis) 9:3-4, "Every moving thing that lives shall be for you for food; just as the green herbs, I have given you everything. But flesh with its living soul, its blood, you shall not eat."
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