It is a rabbinic dictum not to attempt to weigh the value of one mitzvah against the other. Rather than saying that this mitzvah is more important than another, we are to recognize that all mitzvot are grounded in our brit (covenant) with the Holy One and derive their authority out of our chosen response to God’s will.
And yet… it is hard to resist the temptation to create a hierarchy. So, at least in the popular mind, there are some mitzvot so central to Jewish identity that they are almost synonymous with Judaism itself. Lighting Shabbat candles is one of them. Wearing a head covering is another. And a third is kashrut, the dietary laws. When you think of a religious Jewish home, it is a kosher home. So central, in fact, is kashrut, that it has became the way to refer to any action or person that is moral, upright, and proper. In that sense, it has even entered the English language.
The dietary laws are simple in their larger principles: meat and meat products (fleishig) are strictly separated from dairy products (milhig). Vegetables, fish, and fruits may be served with either meat or milk. Only a small percentage of animals are permissible as possible food sources: fish with fins and scales, land mammals with cloven hooves and who chew their cud, and a specified range of birds that fly. Additionally, those permissible animals must be slaughtered through shehitah, as painless a way to kill an animal as has been devised. While the general principles of kashrut are simple to list, the details of their application fill volumes.
The most complex of those details pertain to the eating of meat, when most of the regulations of kashrut become active. Today’s Torah portion elaborates God’s permission to eat meat: “When the Holy One enlarges your territory, as God has promised you, and you say ‘I shall eat some meat,’ for you have the urge to eat meat, you may eat meat whenever you wish… You shall slaughter … as I have instructed you, and you may eat.” Meat is a concession to human urges: if you feel compelled to take an animal’s life for the sake of your hunger, you may do so, but only in this conscribed and supervised way.
What possible benefits does keeping kosher provide? What lessons does kashrut teach?
· Kashrut teaches us the value of responding to a divine command. God tells us to observe kashrut by separating meat and milk and only eating ritually slaughtered meat as a way of learning self-discipline and fidelity to God’s word. Just as it did in the past, kashrut teaches that lofty lesson today as well.
· Kashrut, like vegetarianism, teaches reverence for life. How does eating meat instill reverence? Because kashrut restricts the number of animals that may be eaten, and then insists that the method of slaughter be strictly regulated, kashrut makes sure that the animal’s death is as painless as possible. By forcing a kosher Jew to have to choose whether to eat meat or milk, and then forcing a waiting period after any consumption of meat, kashrut ensures that eating becomes a more conscious act, that we make ourselves aware of what we are doing and how that animal was transformed into food. Unlike vegetarianism, which elevates the value of animal life beyond the possibility of human consumption, kashrut represents a compromise that insists on humane slaughter and an awareness of having eaten meat, but which doesn’t require as strict a commitment as does vegetarianism. Hence, it is a compromise that more Jews can live with.
· The commitment to keep kosher, and to maintain a kosher home, is one that expresses and enforces solidarity with the Jewish people across time and around the world. Throughout the ages, Jews have hallowed their lives and nurtured a sense of community through observance of the kosher laws. By forcing us to make specifically Jewish choices about how and what and when we eat, kashrut reminds us of our larger Jewish commitments and privileges every time we sit down to dine. And by maintaining a level of kashrut, we assure that Jews the world over can eat comfortably in our own home. Kashrut is a non-verbal reminder that Jewish values are practiced here.
· The Torah contains God’s call to become a nation of priests. Just as the priests used the laws of purity and impurity to extend the service of God to every aspect of their lives, we can do the same. By observing kashrut, we make every snack, every meal an occasion to serve God through one of our most basic and elemental acts.
The laws of kashrut remind us of who we are and of what we may yet become. Observing the dietary laws is a response to God’s will and a way of integrating a wise and ancient wisdom in our lives. In the words of this week’s parashah: “thus it will go well with you and with your descendants after you forever, for you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Eternal your God.”
Shabbat Shalom!