Toward Situating Kashrut Within Today's Parasha and Within Our Own Lives

by Rabbi Stuart Dauermann, PhD

In approaching the issue of kashrut, it may be helpful to consider this: What is the relationship between human freedom and divine constraints? 

1. Prodigal Son, Book of Jonah - getting away from God/Father and His restrictions: Is it movement toward greater freedom or toward greater bondage?
2. Distance from God often is acted out in greater license and a throwing off of restraints [see Psalm 2], but paradoxically, this almost always results in coming into bondage.
3. On the other hand, people who draw near to God accept a life of greater constraints but paradoxically greater freedom.  As the Anglicans liturgy refers to God, "Whose service is perfect freedom."
4. These principles are woven throughout today's parasha.

Deuteronomy 11:26-12:32 

1. [11:26-28] - We have a choice as to whether we are going to choose the path of blessing or of cursing in the land,
2. [11:31-32 ] - God does however establish firm boundaries which we are to respect in the land.
3. This tension between human freedom and Divine choice continues immediately in the next chapter.
• "These are the laws and regulations which you MUST obey as long as you live in the land Hashem , the God of your ancestors is giving you . "[12:1]
• They MUST destroy everything connected with idolatrous worship [12:2 ff.].  Again, the emphasis is upon the Land, the Holy Land, that Land which is especially the dwelling place of God His people.

 

There are three kinds of uncleanness he especially addresses here and in parallel passages in Leviticus

1. Unclean worship [idolatry]
2. Unclean sexual practices
3. Unclean foods.

• He is teaching us here that rich relationship with God does not mean complete license to do as one pleases.  Rather, as we move deeper into God's will for our lives, there is a deeper level of accountability and of conformity to His commandments. And in the immediate context, the Holy Land is a place where the people will move closer to the Holy Mount where God will dwell, and as you move closer to that mount, things change.
• It is like the priests and Levites in the camp of Israel in the days of the Tabernacle and Temple.  Their lives were more strictly regulated by virtue of their greater privilege and responsibility, and greater proximity to the Holy One and to Holy space.  b. Indeed, in the wilderness community, Holiness-a sense of proximity to God which called for the greatest of care-in a sense radiated out from the Holy of Holies.  This was the holiest place, where God's very presence was most concentrated.  But the entire camp was also holy, with the sense of holiness radiating out in concentric and in a sense weakening circles from the center out.

Moses says, "Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings just anywhere. . .but only at the place which Hashem your God shall choose" [12:13-14].  Again, we find the constraints of Hashem which come with being close to Him.

• He draws a line again between human freedom and Divine constraints when he speaks of our freedom to eat meat in any town, as much as we want, except for the blood.  But the offering to God of meat and other things, must be made at the Temple site, the place which Hashem your God shall choose [12:13-28].

How might this deepened awareness of the presence of God and this more constrained life make itself evident in our own lives today?  One clue is how this nearness to the Holy Land. City, Mount, Place, and the Holy God also brings with it a heightened sensitivity to matters of cleanness and uncleanness, of that which God deems fit [kosher] and unfit [treifa].

• He uses the terms tamei and tahor-unclean and clean.  That which may be eaten, that which may be done, and that which may not be eaten or done.  And what makes these things clean or unclean?  Simply God's say-so: it is unclean because He says so.

Again, there are three categories that he concentrates on as being areas where pagan uncleanness must be broken with and where the children of Israel are to maintain purity out of deference to proximity to the Holy God, the Holy land, the Holy Mount, the Holy Temple.  Those three areas are:

1. Unclean worship [idolatry]
2. Unclean sexual practices
3. Unclean foods.

It is important at this point to take note of the connection between awareness of God/Proximity to God and constraints.  The closer we draw to God, the greater the care we must exercise in how we behave religiously, relationally, and in what we eat and how.  See Isaiah 6, where the Prophet is keenly aware that he is in the presence of God.  He condemns himself as a man of "unclean lips" [tamei sfataim] who dwells among a people of unclean lips [am t'mei sfataim].  And what made him sense his uncleanness? His keen sense of the proximity of the Holy One "For my eyes have seen the King, Adonai Tsva'ot."  Again, it is helpful to remind ourselves how this concern with purity, with that which God deems fit or unfit, is especially expressed in Torah in the context of fitness/unfitness of worship, fitness/unfitness of sexual practices, and fitness and unfitness in eating. That which is fit, or kasher/kosher, is termed clean or tahor; that which is unfit, or treifa/treife, is called unclean or tamei.  Deuteronomy 13-14 - After chapter thirteen, a chapter highlighting the need to preserve purity of worship of Hashem and Him alone, the text turns to a more direct exploration of the question of holiness and its implications for our choices.  Again, without reference to God, at a distance from God and His presence, one might deem it fit to do whatever he wishes.  But whenever one draws nearer to the presence of God, doing that which is fitting-that which is literally kosher-becomes a more pressing issue. We see this in chapter fourteen.  Some issues related to kashrut.

A few years ago, Joseph Lieberman, then running for Vice President, said on the Larry King show that in his Vice Presidential role he would continue to eat kosher.  By doing so he would be continuing to honor God not only by what might be termed "holy eating," but also by continuing to identify himself as a religious Jew, despite whatever social awkwardness that might entail.  Could it be that we would do well to follow such an example?

 

1. What reasons are commonly given by Jewish people for why we don't keep Kosher?
• How weighty to these reasons seem to you against the background of this lesson?
2. From our lesson today, we can see how the principle of heightened awareness of being in the presence of God is reflected nowadays in the kashrut.  These kosher laws best makes sense as expressing and maintaining a deepened awareness of proximity to God, a deeper awareness of His presence, and of the intent to honor Him in all of life.  They are not simply rules that govern the way Jews eat: rather they meant to express a heightened awareness of God and a heightened awareness of our relationship to Him as a people.
3. Notice, the Kosher laws are not laws for individuals to obey because they feel close to God.  They are laws for a nation to obey, because in fact, God has chosen to bring this nation near to Himself.
4. Keeping Kosher is all about worshipping God with your mouth, your knife and your fork. And it is about giving expression to your membership in the people of Israel, about heightening rather than weakening the testimony of a nation that Hashem is our God.

 

Kashrut may be summarized as being divided into following areas:

1. Separating milk and meat [Deut 14:21].

• Perhaps to preserve distinction between death and life - the holiness and the numinous quality of the boundary between life and death.
• Also, perhaps a distancing from pagan fertility rites.
• Jewish practice goes the extra mile here.  Not only not serving milk and meat, but also, waiting between meat and dairy meals.

2. Regulating the slaughter of animals.

• Killed humanely, as quickly and painlessly as possible.
• All blood drained from the carcass, recognizing God as the author of life and recognizing death as another liminal mystery-having drawn near to the boundary between life and death.

3. Prohibiting certain meats

• Only permitted to eat meats which fall into "kinds" which reflect the created order. This makes the act of eating into a theological statement of God as the Creator. This makes the act of eating into a reminder of our living in a created universe according to someone else's rules.  Animals that seems to be a hybrid between one kind and another are forbidden.
• Also, the permitted meats are from domesticated animals that eat grain, not other animals.  This is also why birds of prey are forbidden.  Any animal that lived by eating "treife" animals [animals torn in the process of being killed] would be forbidden.

4.  No grape beverages not prepared by Jews, since other wine may have been consecrated to idolatrous worship.  Does this have any relevance for us today as Messianic Jews?

 

The story of Peter on the housetop has nothing to do with keeping Kosher. Its about clean an unclean people, not clean and unclean animals.  The animals are only a picture of the truth which Peter later understands and interprets.

Messiah has come, revolutionizing our attitude toward everything, but not necessarily abolishing kashrut. Kashrut is not about salvation but about communally honoring the presence of God and glorifying him as a nation.

Kashrut is about manifesting our solidarity with our Jewish people who as a collective people are meant to honor God communally in such ways.

Kashrut is about elevating the spirituality of the process of eating, reminding ourselves every time we put something in our mouths that Hashem is our God, and reminding those around us that we serve the God of the Jews.

We may not humiliate or misuse people in the name of our religious regulations, but should instead forego exercising our religious principles if to do so would cause injury to our brother.

These rules are not rigid regulations by which we take the occasion to oppress ourselves or others, but guidelines for a way of glorifying God in solidarity with Jewish precedent.

We should bear in mind Franz Rosenzweig's comment to someone when they inquired as to whether he put on tefillin in the morning.  His bright answer was, "Not yet."  This is because he was perfectly satisfied in seeing himself and all serious Jews as being people "in process."  Consider the following statement by Rabbi David Ariel concerning Rosenzweig's position:

The ideal Jew is always striving, in individual and even idiosyncratic ways, to move from the periphery to the center of Jewish experience.  This is the person who sees Judaism as a lifelong quest to understand the religious experiences that inspired our ancestors and can touch us deeply as well [What Do Jews Believe, 124].

What about you? What about me?  What about us?  Are we in process?  Are we moving toward the center or not, and if we are, what does today's parasha have to teach us about how we might make adjustments in our lives, even in matters as personal as our worship, our sexuality, and our eating?

May God be with us all as we consider this.

 

Shabbat shalom.