by Rabbi Avi Billet
Having spent over eight days carefully scrutinizing every piece of food brought into our homes, it is very appropriate that the first parsha we read post-Pesach deals with the rules of kosher as they apply all year round.
Chametz is unique because it is a kind of food which is generally permitted, whose status changes for the holiday. Non-kosher, on the other hand, is always prohibited.
In an attempt to address some “kosher food” misnomers, let us address the following three questions.
- Are the rules of kosher meant to be repressively restricting?
- Is it true that kosher is designed to have health benefits?
- Is a person who eats kosher holier than a person who eats non-kosher?
The Sefer Hachinukh addresses these very questions in his discussions about the laws related to food in the following commandment numbers: 73, 147, 153-165.
The following ideas are a combination of his comments with an added modern social commentary.
It is very difficult for man to assign a thought process to God’s divine will. How dare we? Whether or not God does, in fact, think, is a question philosophers may debate forever. Suffice it to say, He gave the Jewish people the Torah, a law book, and we are meant to be bound its rules.
God sees everything and takes account of everything. Whether He chooses to punish now or to bide His time, these “choices” are not ours to make, nor to understand. It is within our power to choose how we will view the rules – as mindless restrictions, or as rules that are designed for us to live lives of holiness.
The Chinukh explains that there *may* be health benefits derived from avoiding bacteria-laden fats in all animals, as well as in non-kosher animals.
But the bottom line distinction lies in the key terms which distinguish between the kosher and non-kosher animals: tum’ah and tahara.
Tum’ah and tahara are generally wrongly translated as “impure” and “pure.” A more accurate translation would define tum’ah as “a status which serves as a barrier for participating in a holy act.” Tahara, the opposite of tum’ah, is “an object’s status in which a holy act is permitted.”
An object which begins in a state of tahara (ready for a holy act), can remain in such a state if it is treated appropriately. For example, an animal which is tahor, fit to be given to God as an offering in the Temple, a.k.a. kosher, will remain tahor if it is slaughtered properly. If improperly slaughtered, it is now unfit, tameh, and no longer allowed to be used for the holy act of offerings and sacrifices.
An item which exists in or attains a status of tum’ah has two options. The first is to remain tameh – this is the lot of the non-kosher animals. God has His purpose for putting them on this earth – but He does not want them as sacrifices. They are unfit and not-kosher.
On the other hand, a person who attains a status of tum’ah can remove the status to participate in a holy act. There are different levels of tum’ah, and each is removed in a different way. In the time of the Temple, one method of tum’ah removal was through the sprinkling of the ashes of the parah adumah (red heifer). A person who became tahor in this fashion could now enter the Temple and participate in bringing offerings to God, both holy acts.
The other method, still employed today, is removal of tum’ah through water. This is accomplished nowadays in primarily two formats: a. ritual washing of the hands associated with eating food, primarily bread, but sometimes even vegetables as we do at the seder (as well as upon waking or after using the restroom), and b. going to the mikvah, the ritual bath.
If the result of removing the tum’ah to achieve tahara is changing one’s status to allow participation in a holy act, we have just redefined two major elements of Jewish living as being acts of holiness: eating and the physical relationship between husband and wife.
Viewing these physical activities as holy acts is quite a different perspective from how the general society views them. But if they are holy acts, they have vitally significant and fundamentally sound reasons for having rules and regulations.
As such, the laws of family purity and kosher might be better off viewed as tremendous gifts which feed into the holiness of the Jewish people, as defined by the words which begin Leviticus 19 – “Kedoshim ti’h’yu” – you shall be a separate and special people, says God, “Ki kadosh ani” – for I am special. One need look no further than the word used for the first stage of Jewish marriage - Kiddushin - to see that marriage is in its ideal sense, a holy union.
And regarding eating - Jews are not holier because of kosher-food consumption. But the Jew who recognizes that eating is a holy act, committing oneself to the rules and guidelines which teach that eating is a holy act, does live an existence in which holiness has a very strong presence in his or her life.
See a related discussion in "Why Eat Kosher?"
No comments:
Post a Comment