I am very excited for the opportunity to share words of Torah with you. Each week, in this spot, I look to share an idea I've found that speaks to me and that I think will resonate with you as well. This week, I share with you an excerpt from an article by Rabbi Yehuda Appel entitled "Kosher Ideas" suggesting some deeper meaning behind what we do and don't eat.
[...] Jewish tradition found the entire enterprise of eating to be filled with obstacles and opportunities. Meal time is termed in Jewish literature as "the hour of war"; the Hebrew word for war - milchama - has the same root as lechem - bread. Eating is supposed to be an act of elevating oneself through the medium of thought, speech and action. In the realm of thought, we should view eating as an act of fulfilling the Almighty's will. In the realm of speech, we say a blessing over the food. And in the realm of action, we eat the food with care and appreciation of the Almighty's beneficence.
In this week's Torah portion, Shmini, the delineation is made between kosher and non-kosher animals. The Torah states that for an animal to be kosher it must chew its cud and have split hooves. Chewing the cud ("rumination") involves the regurgitation and then redigestion of food. Jewish tradition sees this as an allusion for the need to review and reexamine one's actions, a procedure that is at the very heart of righteousness. The split hoof, coming as it does at the foot, emphasizes the need for a person to be complete from head to toe.
In contradistinction to the wholeness of a kosher animal, there are four animals - the camel, pig, shafan and arnevet (the last two animals' identities are not known today) - who are singled out in this week's Parsha because they possessed only one of two kosher signs.The camel represents pride, the pig - hypocrisy, the shafan - idolatry, and the arnevet - narrowness.
On the other hand, fish are seen as the most holy of species. Unlike other species who, even in their kosher manifestations need some tikkun (rectification), the fish needs none. Fish do not need to be ritually slaughtered or have its blood removed as its land cousins did. Moreover, the fish were unaffected by Noah's flood. [...] The Torah also makes distinctions between kosher and non-kosher fish. To be kosher, a fish has to possess both fins and scales. The sources explain that these elements can be likened to crowns atop the fish, attesting to the kosher fish's higher spiritual status. Furthermore, such fish tend to swim in the upper expanses of the ocean where the water is more pure.
It is clear that Jewish tradition sees the act of eating as an opportunity to elevate one's behavior to a higher level. Why not make dining - and dieting - a truly holy act?!
Hoping and praying for a Shabbat Shalom and a Chodesh Tov,
Rabbi Davies
Rabbi@SOICherryHill.org
