פרשת שמיני

The verse in this week’s Parsha, which discusses the prohibition against eating forbidden foods, uses a very unique phraseology.  Hashem commands us to keep this commandment because, “אני ה’ המעלה אתכם מארץ מצרים” – “You should keep these laws because I am the God who brought you up from Egypt.  The Gemorrah in ב”מ דף פ”א asks why the Torah chooses to use this exclusive term “who has raised you up”.  The Gemorrah answers that in truth, this commandment is so great that would this to be our only commandment, it would be sufficient.  Therefore, it is understandable that the term, “raising up” is quite apropos to this commandment.  

I would like to explain why the Torah seems to place such an emphasis on the laws of human consumption.  Regarding all other commandments in the Torah, there are none which are internally imbued in the body.  When a person desecrates the holy Shabbos, while his crime is severe enough to warrant the death penalty, he has not really internalized any sin.  On the other hand, when a Jew eats something forbidden, that food continues to be digested by him and on a cellular level, will eventually become part of his body.   Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the Torah places such a severity on the perpetrations which have to do with food.

Tosfos in Chullin דף ה’ points out that the Gemorrah says that Tzadikim enjoy a special protection from God that they will never, even accidentally, come to sin.  Tosfos however challenges this principle by citing a number of examples in which righteous Jews indeed sinned!  Tosfos resolves this difficulty by saying that when the Gemorrah says that Tzadikim are protected from sin, this protection is limited specifically to the arena of forbidden foods because the sin of forbidden foods contains the most disgrace.  Perhaps what Tosfos mean is that forbidden foods is the only prohibition in the Torah which is completely internalized, as we explained, thereby generating the greatest disgrace. 

Indeed, the word “טמא” is translated by Onkelos to mean “Closed”.  I would like to offer a possibility as to why this word is eerily accurate to describe the effect of consumption of forbidden foods.  We know that when one ingests non-kosher food, that food seals off his soul’s ability to connect with its’ creator.  With this understanding we can now comprehend why the commandment to only eat kosher foods is in the same verse as the reminder that God took us out of Egypt.  The entire purpose of our exodus from Egypt was to witness the splitting of the sea, to receive the Torah, and eventually be let into the land of Israel.  This process was supposed to be an escalating experience with each crescendo greater than the last.  Similarly, each and every Jew’s personal ascent is dangerously dependant on what he has consumed.  So long as he is careful about what he eats, he will have the continual ability to grow, but the minute he ingests a non-permitted food, he will instantaneously halt his potential for growth. 

Perhaps, at this point, it would be appropriate to bring the words of Seforno.  Seforno explains why it is that the chapter in the Torah which deals with the permissible food is specifically brought with the Chapter of the inauguration of the Mishkan.  We know that the Presence of God left the Jewish people when they sinned with the Golded Calf only to return after Moshe’s copious tears, at the ceremony for the dedication of the Mishkan.  However the return was only on the condition that the Jews were to please their creator.  Seforno says that just as the return of the Shechinah to the Jewish people was dependant on their behavior, so to is the entire relationship of the Jewish people with their creator dependant on their ability to fulfill the laws of consumption which God laid out.

I would like to illustrate this with a well know event that is documented about the Rambam.  There was once a man who was appointed by his community to approach the Rambam with a particularly perplexing philosophical issue that his entire community had with their belief in God.  After listening patiently to this man’s query, the Rambam responded by questioning this person who the community Shochet (ritual slaughterer) was.  The man, visibly shaken, asked the Rambam why he needed to know who the Shochet was in order to respond to the question.  The Rambam replied that this man’s question was based on a fundamental principle which was heretical and since the community was a respected community who certainly only ate Kosher food, he was therefore inclined to believe that the community must be consuming meat which was slaughtered improperly to have gotten to such a belief.

To understand the spiritual effect that non-kosher food has on a Jew, one must realize that impure food produces the same spiritual results as poison would produce physically on the body.  Just as one who had food which had a 1 in a 10,000 chance of having poison in it wouldn’t dream of feeding it to his kids and would rather throw it out, thereby suffering the financial loss. Similarly, it would behoove us to take the same precautions when it comes to the Kashrus of food.  Parenthetically, the Vilna Gaon explains that the demarcations which determine whether an animal is Kosher or not are indicative of what affect that animal will have on the one who ingests it.  For example, just as an animal without split hooves is usually one of prey who pounces on his unsuspecting victims, the eater of it will be likely to assume the same traits.  Or one who consumes an animal which chews its’ cud will be likely to be satisfied with little and not have glutinous tendencies. 

Based on the tremendously powerful effect that we just described non-kosher food to have, it is interesting to note that never before have Jewish people been found to be stealing and murdering publicly on a regular basis until this day and age.  Yet on a parallel vein, never in Jewish history have our people opened restaurants and diners which go out of their way to make Treif food available. 

R’ Moshe Shapiro relates an intriguing story about the Brisker Rav who was once dining with a wealthy philanthropist in his home in Switzerland.  As the two of them were eating, it became known to the Rav that there was a slight possibility that the food he was ingesting didn’t meet the standard of one of his many stringencies.  When he heard this, he, apparently instinctively, vomited out his entire lunch.  When the people sitting around glanced at their host to gauge his reaction, they were surprised to see him sitting in awe of the deep fear of heaven that his illustrious guest possessed. 

May we all merit to always fulfill this great commandment and sanctify our bodies!