But not necessarily.
Rav Mahfoud goes on an annual visit to Rav Chaim Kanievsky to pay his respects before Rosh Hashana and to discuss the latest kashrus questions that have been raised within his kashrus organization.
This time another visitor tagged along with Rav Mahfoud.
A chicken.But not just any chicken. A new chicken. A chicken with no feathers.
This featherless chicken was recently developed to grow like this, along with some other alterations.
The ancestor oof this strain of chicken was a strain of chicken that was developed over 100 years ago and is more red in color. The rabbonim of 100 years ago already paskened that that chicken is muttar to be eaten and is included in the "tradition" we have for chickens.
This new chicken is a grandbaby of that chicken, but altered further to also grow without feathers.
It also turns out that somehow this chicken is sturdier than your average chicken. It has less health issues, less treifa problems, less problems with the sinews in the legs, and can handle the heat better.
Rav Mahfoud brought along the chicken to ask Rav Kanievsky:
1. Is this called the skin having peeled, which is a treifa, or is this ok because it grew like this?
2. is this included in the tradition or not, and are we allowed to alter chickens to grow differently than the traditional way?
Rav Kanievsky paskened that we should not alter chickens away from their traditional way of growing, and even if it looks like a chicken in every other way, we cannot accept it as acceptable within the tradition of kosher fowl.
source: Ladaat
I don't know why he said we are not allowed to make alterations from the traditional appearance of a chicken. I can follow saying an altered chicken is not included in the tradition, but we alter all sorts of things with our food and farm sciences nowadays - some might be kosher and some might not be because of those alterations. I would have liked some additional explanation as to why this is not included in the tradition, and more so why are we not allowed to alter chickens from their traditional appearance.
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