Readers might recall that a few weeks ago I told the story of an in-flight encounter between an Orthodox man and a secular Israeli woman who was blithely consuming a nonkosher meal. As a result I was drawn not very willingly into a discussion of kashrus with a few young people of the type known in Israel as dati lite — in other words although they still identify themselves as religiously observant they take a very permissive view of what constitutes observance. The conversation which took place during the week of parshas Shemini — the Torah portion that delineates the rules for kosher and nonkosher animals — went something like this: “Can’t we still be good ethical people ” they asked “without being so meticulous about kashrut?”
I hope I managed to convey to them the importance the role of kashrus plays in the formation of a refined moral Jewish character.
In the hope that these ideas will be of interest to Mishpacha readers as well allow me to share them with you.
The Torah says “And the rabbit because it chews its cud and does not have a cloven hoof it is tamei… and the pig because it has a cloven hoof… it is tamei…. (Vayikra 11:7-8).
These two verses lay the underpinnings for the mitzvah known as kashrus.
The typical member of modern Western civilization is not comfortable with this mitzvah. “Come on ” he says. “You want to tell me that eating shrimp keeps me from being a good person? Avoiding certain foods is going to make me more of a mensch? My Jewish identity depends on these esoteric laws and rituals? Don’t they just imprison the human spirit? Shouldn’t religion dwell on loftier matters than what’s for dinner? There’s a saying [from a non-Jewish source] ‘It’s not what goes into a man’s mouth that defiles him but what comes out of his mouth’ — isn’t that true?”
Well I think I’ve listed most of the usual questions and they are indeed sensible. But you might be surprised to know that this discussion wasn’t originated by modern “enlightened” people. These ideas are as ancient as the Torah itself and Chazal address the issues in their commentaries on the Torah.
The Midrash Tanchuma (Shemini 7) asks “What does HaKadosh Baruch Hu care if the Jewish People eat without shechitah? Or whether they slaughter an animal by cutting its throat or its thigh?”
What does He care indeed?
But before we try to answer this philosophical question let’s look at an interesting textual phenomenon. We find that every time the Torah speaks of kashrus it adds a few words pertaining to the concepts of holiness and elevation. That is to say the Torah itself seems to be aware of the question and to offer a hint at the answer. And so it seems that in the Torah’s view there is indeed a connection between what goes into a person’s mouth and the formation of his character. Here in the parshah for example after discussing the pure and impure species of wild and domesticated animals birds and vermin the Torah ends the passage with the pasuk “For I am Hashem Who brings you up from the land of Egypt to be G‑d to you and you shall be holy for I am holy” (11:45).
Rashi comments “[Why is it that] in all the other passages it says ‘I brought you out ’ and here it says ‘Who brought you up’? The school of Rabi Yishmael taught ‘If I had brought Yisrael up from Egypt only so that they shouldn’t defile themselves with vermin like the other nations that would be sufficient.’”
To fill out the picture let us bring in another pasuk that shows an additional aspect of the mitzvah of kashrus: “To distinguish between the tamei and the tahor and between the animal that may be eaten and the animal that may not be eaten” (47).
We see then that elevation (“Who brought you up”) and awareness of distinctions (“to distinguish between…”) are the salient points of this mitzvah. And now let us add the Midrash’s answer to the question cited above “What does HaKadosh Baruch Hu care?”
The answer is “In order to purify man.”
Contrary to popular opinion the Torah says that what we put into our mouths does have an influence on our character our awareness and our Jewish identity.
What could this influence be and how could there be such an influence?
If we look at the animal kingdom in its entirety we see that the division of animals into permissible and forbidden species is actually linked to the physical structure of the animal in question. The species deemed tahor are those that chew their cud and have a split hoof and these physical characteristics are indicators of certain behavioral characteristics.
There is one particular distinguishing characteristic of the meat we are permitted to consume: Our meat is to come from species that do not display the cruelty that typifies the animal world and it is to be slaughtered by the method of shechitah and not simply killed by methods that show no regard for the animal’s instincts. In addition we must make sure that the blood has been properly removed for “the blood is the life-force ” and this not for our consumption. All this is meant to elevate the human soul and heighten its awareness of the quality of mercy. This approach to our food day after day impresses upon a person constantly that he cannot dominate the animal world without restriction.
Now who says that Judaism dwells on trivial matters?
The truth is quite the opposite. Judaism holds that man can access spiritual elevation in every area of life. What’s for dinner is a matter of no consequence only if those seated at the table are people of no consequence. In a Jewish home where people thank Hashem before and after eating and they fulfill the injunction to speak divrei Torah at the meal eating is no trivial pursuit. It is one more way of making human life holy.
“In eating a slice of bread we can discover G‑d; in drinking a cup of wine we can sanctify the Sabbath; in preparing a piece of meat we can learn something of the reverence of life ” according to Eight Questions People Ask about Judaism by Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin.
Furthermore kashrus turns out to be an amazing recipe for increasing and preserving the Jewish identity of the individual and an unconventional weapon against assimilation. The author Herman Wouk had the following to say about kashrus observance:
“Today following the Hebrew diet takes effort for anyone who is not a recluse. The eating habits of the majority confront one everywhere: in restaurants in trains and planes at the home of friends. Holding to the diet calls first of all for clarity of purpose then some willpower and certainly an elastic sense of humor to survive and return the venerable comedy on the subject… The Jew who travels undergoes inconvenience and with it a forcible reminder of who he is and what his home ties are. There’s no doubt that the food laws work. They are social instruments for keeping the Jewish nation alive and psychological instruments for preserving the identity of individuals. The essential question the only one that the whole discussion tends to is first whether Judaism is worth preserving; and second whether any practical means of survival exists for it except its law.” (Herman Wouk This is My G-d)
And it’s this last question — whether there is any practical means of Jewish survival outside the realm of halachah — that modern Jewry no matter what creative alternatives are presented continues to face. —