Torah This Week
Welcome to Torah This Week, where you will find thoughts and reflections by CLAL faculty and associates on the Torah portion of the week.
PARASHAT SHEMINI
(Leviticus 9:1 - 11:37)
The Torah identifies the characteristics of animals that are permitted (kosher) for Jews to eat (Leviticus, chapter 11). A land animal must chew its cud and have split hooves, a fish must have both fins and scales, and a bird must not be a bird of prey.
Since these characteristics alone determine which animals are kosher, one cannot speak of a Jewish "taboo" on pigs or any other particular animal. Pig is non-kosher solely because it does not chew its cud, not because it is "dirty" nor for any other reason.
But why these characteristics? If the characteristics of kosher animals were reversed or altogether different, would we not ask the same question? Why land animals must chew their cuds and have split hooves is an interesting question, but it is also irrelevant to kashrut's moral purpose of limiting our killing and eating of animals. It is like asking why red lights signify "stop" and green ones mean "go" There may be psychological or other reasons for the choice of these colors, but they are irrelevant to traffic lights' primary purpose, which is to guide traffic. Red and green may have been selected arbitrarily.
The signs that make animals kosher may be seen as having been arbitrarily selected. But the purpose is not at all arbitrary. The system's logic is found in its addition of one more element to our tradition's thoroughgoing program to sanctify our lives. By simply making us pay attention to what and how we eat, the Torah encourages us to engage that part of us that is most God-like, namely our consciousness, in every mundane detail of our lives.
(Joseph Telushkin)
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