Interesting Psak: Octopus is not kosher

Octopus is not kosher. That's not much of a chiddush. But it is more interesting when the octopus is specifically Paul the Octopus, a modern day prophet.

By the way, just to make this post slightly more interesting, and less inane, I just wanted to let you know that the Hebrew word for octopus is "Tamnon".

back to the post...

Paul the Octopus is a German octopus that was somehow thrust into the limelight recently when it seemingly predicted correctly all the results of the Worldcup.

Rav David Stav gave an interview in which he said that these predictions go against halacha. Rabbi Stav said that the use of Paul as a prophet is evidence of the bankruptcy of the western world. The jewish people have successfully taken advantage of intellect, science, and medicine and has achieved great things... It seems that intellect is not enough to satisfy the needs of people, and the search for something other than intellect brings people to go to these idiocies.

So no matter how you look at it, octopus is not kosher.