Genesis 32:32

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“Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank.”

Health, Nutrition, Medical Science, Anatomy, Sociology

Culinary, Anatomy ^{(232) (233) (234) (235) (236)}

Very superstitiously do the Jewish abstain from it unto this day: they have a whole chapter in one of their treatises in the Misnah, giving rules concerning it; where it is forbidden to eat of it, whether in the land of Israel or out of it; whether in common food or sacrifices, even in burnt offerings it was to be taken out; and whether in cattle of the house or of the field; and both in the right and left thigh, but not in fowls, because they have no hollow, and butchers are not to be trusted; and because the Jews are more ignorant of this nerve, therefore they abstain from all nerves in the posteriors of animals. They are very careful to take away all the fat and the sinew which shrunk: and hence it is, that in many places in Italy, and especially in Germany, they eat not at all of the hinder quarters of ox, lamb, or goat; because there is in those parts of the beast both very much fat, and also the forbidden sinew; and it asketh so much care to cleanse the parts of these, that there are few that are able to do it, or dare to undertake it.

The nervus ischiadicus, the principal nerve in the neighborhood of the hip, is easily injured by any violent strain in wrestling. “Unto this day:” the remark is applicable still. This is the nerve that fastens the thigh bone in its socket.