New York, NY – The City is known for having excellent tap water, but why does it taste so good? It might be the microscopic shrimp.
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Tiny copepods were discovered after a reddit user uploaded photos of what they found through the other end of a microscope after adding H&E stain to New York tap water. According to blog Gizmodo, copepods are added to water to eat mosquito larvae, keeping water sources clear.
But besides a serious “ick” factor, the copepods are technically crustaceans, which means they aren’t kosher for the city’s large Orthodox, observant Jewish population. Reports of requests by the Jewish community to have the water “purified” surfaced in 2004, but according to the Department of Environmental Protection, extracting the creatures wasn’t possible, claiming that they deliver health benefits to water reservoirs. “When it comes to delivery, if there is a spike and you are not comfortable with what you see in your water, all we can recommend is a commercial filter, which will effectively filter them out,” DEP spokesman Charles Sturcken told Water & Waste Digest.
they CANNOT be seen by the unaided human eye. the water is kosher.
if you can’t see them, how are they treif?
oh vey is mer
pass the shrimp sauce please…..
IF I DON’T SEE THEM , DO I OBLIGATED TO TAKE MICROSCOPE TO MAKE WATER NOT KOSHER?
But are they visible to the naked eye, or only under a microscope?
I wonder what one would find in other water sources
Gizmodo did not say they are added to water to eat mosquito larvae, all they said was, “Copepods are even known to eat mosquito larvae”. http://gizmodo.com/5626497/you-swallow-invisible-shrimp-with-every-gulp-of-nyc-tap-water
If we looked under microscope at everything we eat and drink there would be very little that is “kosher”.. So what would happen? all of the yidden would starve to death and presto … problem solved.
here is the problem it is not noticeable via a naked eye so it is not a problem.
A lot of mosquito larvae or a few copepods. Either way our water is cleaner and safer than anything our ancestors drank.
If you can’t see them without a microscope, halachically they don’t exist. (Chazal and Rishonim didn’t have microscopes.) Take a microscope to a piece of meat and you’ll find all kinds of interesting non-kosher critters.
And they aren’t likely added to the water deliberately; they live in almost every kind of freshwater environment. It would take a multibillion dollar filtration system to remove them.
So these are not naturally found in the water but are actually added to the water by the city workers to “keep it clean.” This is very bad. If they naturally lived in the water, then we would have to do what they have to do, but to know they are doing this on purpose is terrible.
I’ve said this before: The Zohar in Parashas Bereishis states that Hashem created creatures so small that we cannot see them with our eyes. They permeate everything. The reason Hashem didn’t allow us to see them is that if we knew how numerous they were, we would go crazy.
I guess the Zohar was right.
And, yes, if you cannot see them with the naked eye, the water is 100% kosher.
Halacha does not require a microscope. Eyn ledavar sof. There are many “traif” microbes around. Not just in water.
Does the narishkeit ever end? Get on with real issues. Is everyone insane?
what an ionsane thing the halacha is if you can not see it with your eyes it is kosher but there are always those that will go beyond the mountain think of all the protein we are lossing as well
Will these little shrimp in the water eat the little bugs on my strawberries when i wash them? Do they eat the little bugs in brussels sprouts? Are you allowed to carry water with the little shrimp on Shabbos in the eruv if you’re using the water to wash starwberries and lox? And finally can you use the shrimp infested water to wash Indian hair sheitels?
To #6 The Rat: If they were visible to the naked eye, no one would be drinking the water.
This is getting silly. There are also all kinds of microorganisms in the air that enter our bodies when we breathe. Should we stop breathing too? Or maybe we should all walk around with tanks of air strapped to our backs like scuba divers. What I find really odd is that for all of these chumras, why can’t I find a clean restaurant on 13th Avenue in Boro Park?
הרבנים בדורות שלפנינו מעולם לא היו אוסרים המים בנוי יארק, ותמצא הרבה בספרים ומה שאין אנו נזהרים …. ומה שאנו נוהגין להקל , וכו
To Dovidl (No. 13).
Actually, we are fortunate to have these in our water–natural or otherwise. Why don’t you drink Perier or Vasa Yisroel and the rest of us will enjoy our treife water with the wonderful “shrimp” taam.
It’s a good opportunity for some filtration company to lobby some big rabbis to pass a chumra on tap water unless it is filtered only with the approved super duper Kosher filter of a company that donates the most to the rabbi’s shul or charities.
Though, I won’t sweat much and continue to drink NYC tap water like I have for most of my life.
Not narshkeit! Take a white cloth like a hankerchief, and put it over a faucet in Brooklyn for a few minutes. Aside from the iron deposits, you will notice dozens of thin, tiny animals the size of a few grains of sand, and about the same colour. If you look closely, they resemble sea monkeys. No microscope needed, plainly visible to the naked eye.
I’m not sure how many of the above commentators are poskim, but it’s pretty clear that there are differing opinions on the kashrus of NYC tap water. There are those who have no issue drinking the water, as they have no halachic qualms based on the inability naturally see the cope-pods.
However, to make a blanket statement that the water is kosher to all, based on a halachic ruling that applies only to a segment of the frum Jewish population who pose halachic queries to your posek, and to not recognize that other opinions, views and poskim exist, would be premature if not outright irresponsible.
This is a misleading article, and I can’t blame the people above who wonder why it is not kosher, if it is microscopic.
So, to state the facts: The copepods in NYC tap water are visible to the eye. They are Dicyclops thomasi variety, which grow up to 1.4 mm long. When alive, they jump vigorously, and you can’t miss them. In NYC tap water, they are all dead, killed by the chlorine, and fall to the bottom.
This is all confirmed by the DEP, in writing, in a letter to the OU. In fact the DEP survey found that the average is 9 copepods per liter of water, although it varies by location in the city from 0 per liter to 22 per liter (depends on the speed of the water in the mains).
There are halachic considerations that may still render the water as kosher, such as considering NYC reservoirs to be one gigantic water pit (‘bor’), whose bugs are permitted by the Torah.
However, the logic of permitting based on that they are invisible to the eye, or not common in the water, is very difficult to understand. They are common, and they are difficult to see simply because they were killled by man made intervention.
Regarding our forefathers, they generally did not have a reservoir system. They used river water (no copepods). Occasionally a well would be come infested, as is documented by many teshuvos, cited in Darkei Teshuva 84.
# 19 chasidishe tzioni. please dont joke or make a choizek about these issues. Noone argues about the brussels sprouts and maby other various vegetables as was the mesorah we held from long ago not just recently,theyre naturally FULL of tolaim. But I guess you know better(you must be a farmer). Just read the mishpacha article on the heimishe greenhoue farmers in Quito,Ecuador and then make your silly comments.
Same goes for Strawberries. Speak to an expert in tolaim,and then make your comments.
I think we have a cottage industry of “wannabe pokim and gadolim” who sit around 24×7 doing nothing but thinking about new chumrahs for yidden and screaming gevalt about some phony kashruth issue. With all the tzoros of klal yisroel, wasting any time or resources on this issue. Its hard enough to get gidden to eat healthy foods and the constrant stream of stories about worms in fish and microscopic insects in fruits and vegetable makes it even more difficult. Most heimeshe families would rather eat a big plate of fatty meat that has chassideshe hasgacha than do the work necessary to properl prepare a green salad or a grilled salmon.
I would suggest that it is not kosher at all. You dont have to see them eveyr time, but if its known that they exist at a microscopic level and they are crustaceans. I woudl suggest you want to filter your water. Of course Torah does not discuss microscopes that I am aware of, but given that they have been viewed under microscopes and it is known, you can not eat them…. can a blind jew eat Shrimp that he can not see either? I am no talmud scholar, but I suspect that I would want to filter the water knowing what I now know.
I have personally taken NYC tap water, put it in a bowl, and let it all evaporate.
No evidence of copepods or any other critter.
I will drink the water.
u guys seriously think the NYC water tastes good??? whenever i visit new york all i smell is chlorine in the water!!!
u think ur water tastes good in NYC? to anyone coming from europes alps regions, all new york water tastes like chlorine!!! poor u…
he OU article specifically states that these seem to be visible to the naked eye.
i don’t need the ou to tell me that i can look on my own and see nothing.
PS take a microscope and see what you inhale every time you breath, I can’ wait for the new kosher air masks that must be worn so not to breath in and maybe swallow a small bug that one cannot see
Mayim ganovim yimtoki
#29 the nyc water system is feed from streams and rivers and is nothing more then a collecting pond your argument doesnt hold water. sorry good try but no cigar if you want use a filter but under our jewish laws this is not required these arguments are old ones argued by previuos gadolim in the 1970’s when it was brought to the forfront because of AIDs.
The OU is highly inconsistent it gives with one hand and takes away with the other. Why do they allow them in one instance and say that it is a problem in another? Everyone is arguing whether they are visible or not, myself included. But here’s the kicker? If they are not kosher to drink in your water, why are they kosher to eat in the kosher certified, unfiltered water containing food products on supermarket shelves? Why do they draw such a zig-zag shaped line in the sand? The logic is very flawed? If Abraham Abinu would drink it, so would I. If Moshe Rabeinu would drink it, so would I. If Rambam would drink it, so would I. Who am I to say I know better than they?
Abigayil # 40, maybe if you read the article? It says clearly “copepods are added to water to eat mosquito larvae, keeping water sources clear.” I doubt they did that at the times of Avraham, Moshe and Rambam…
#5 : “IF I DON’T SEE THEM , DO I OBLIGATED TO TAKE MICROSCOPE TO MAKE WATER NOT KOSHER?”
Not sure about your question, but you ARE obligated to learn English language in order to SCREAM your comments on English-speaking web site.
Can someone please tell me why are we being more machmir than Yaakov Avinu? When there was a famine, Yaakov Avinu sent his sons to Mitzrayim to buy grain. Was Yaakov concerned about kashrus, buying grain from Ovdei Kochavim? I’m sur he was, but within reason.When he saw Rochel Imainu, he gave her gifts and kissed her. The chumash says so b’feresh. If I had kissed a girl I liked back in my dating days, I would have been put in cherem.
To Anonymous #37 – and what about unkosher microscopic insects that live on our skin and who enter our bodies through our ears and noses while we sleep? How do we keep them out? The only place I know for certain that has zero microscopic animals is outer space – no air, no water, no nothing.