Sh’mini
Leviticus 9:1-11:47
Précis: On the final day of the week-long ordination ceremony Moses instructs Aaron and his sons on the proper rituals. Aaron makes his offering. Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu offer “strange” or “alien” fire before God. They are slain. Moses tells Aaron that he must not engage in the normal mourning rituals. The Priests are prohibited from drinking alcohol while they are engaged in their sacred duties. Next, God tells Moses and Aaron to instruct the people about the animals they are permitted to eat (part of the laws of kashrut). A general warning to guard against defilement and to be concerned about ritual purity is given.
Leviticus 11:2 – “Speak to the Israelite people thus: These are the creatures that you may eat from among all the land animals.”
Of all of Jewish rituals, there are few which offer more intrigue or engender more questions than those regarding “kashrut”- what is permissible for a Jew to eat. In the verse cited, we find the outlines of “land creatures” fit for Jewish consumption. The questions of “why these?” has been discussed probably since the commandments first were heard or written down. Maimonides, in his Guide for the Perplexedopines that “I maintain that the food that is forbidden by the Torah is unwholesome. There is nothing among the forbidden kinds of food whose harmful character is doubted...” Thus, the greatest sage of the medieval Jewish world suggests a health basis for the distinctions.
On the other hand, Rabbi Yitzhak Arama, living in the “golden age” of Spain, states in his Akedat Yitzhak that “We would do well to bear in mind that the dietary laws are not, as some have asserted, motivated by therapeutic considerations. God forbid! Were that so, the Torah would be denigrated to the status of a minor medical treatise and worse than that. Apart from that, the alleged ill effects could be treated with various drugs, just as there are antidotes to the most powerful poisons. In that event the prohibition would no longer apply and the Torah would be superfluous.”
While various commentators discuss the rationale for these laws, the text itself provides an alternative basis (found in verse 44): "For I am Adonai your God; sanctify yourselves therefore, and you be holy, for I am holy." Somehow, by abstaining from certain animals as food, we somehow are attempting to be“holy.”
But what is holiness? The Italian commentator Luzatto looked to the word "holy" and found from its Hebrew root a sense of "set apart" or "distinctness." He suggests that we observe kashrut in order to be separate from other people. Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz notes that observing kashrut makes one more sensitive to the holy, since we must make conscious thought about what food we partake in.
When we look for the reasons for kashrut, we can be reminded of God’s presence in all aspects of life, in the need for self-restraint, and as a means to preserve our people.
The discussion which began more than 3,000 years ago continues.
