Shabbos Parashas Shemini - 5779

Shabbos Parashas Shemini - 5779

Rabbi Hal Miller

These are the creatures that you may eat from among all the animals that are upon

the earth. [Vayikra 11:2]

Why do we need to eat only kosher food? The Torah delves in some depth to tell us what

we may eat and what we may not. Clearly there is importance to this, but the logic is not

obvious.

Ramban differentiates between sea, land, and air animals, noting that our verse deals with

"animals that are upon the earth", in which case these rules do not apply to fish, for

example, whose rules are "fins and scales". But that does not answer our question.

Many commentators explain the list of permitted versus forbidden foods in terms of what

impact they have on the human body. Shellfish carry toxins poisonous to man. Pork has

an issue with trichonosis. But as Akeidat Yitzchak and Abarbanel write, "Were that so, the

Torah would be reduced to the level of a minor medical treatise." Certainly, in modern times,

with the advance of science allowing us to defeat these medical problems, there are those

who argue that the laws of kashrut should be suspended. But that is merely allowing man

to overrule God, something which by definition is prohibited and wrong. If we continue to

understand the Torah to be for all time, then this impact on the body is not the answer.

Abarbanel asks why we are permitted to eat the animals that qualify (cloven hoof and chew

cud) but not those that are not in this list. He then points out that there are "noxious creatures,

e.g., vipers, adders, and scorpions, not mentioned in the list of forbidden foods," and further

that there are poisonous plants not forbidden. This is further argument against the "medical

treatise" school of thought, but it leads to something more as well. There must be something

beyond the medical that these foods are feeding us, either positive or negative.

Nechama Leibowitz writes that "many commentators maintain that the dietary laws do not

relate to the body but to the soul." Nachshoni expands on this: "Eating forbidden foods

contaminates the soul. Even repentance does not erase the contamination, but only brings

forgiveness and pardon." Most of the commentaries concentrate on what it means to

contaminate the soul, but Nachshoni makes an interesting point about repentance only

bringing forgiveness and pardon, and not actually eliminating the problem.

If kosher food nurtures and helps the soul, and non-kosher food somehow damages it, and

if we have no way to reverse that damage process, then we have an answer to our question.

Certainly we would ask forgiveness for any mistake we make, but if that isn't enough to

really get us back to where we were and should be, then the warnings of the Torah are more

crucial than they seem at first glance. We do not know what in the kosher foods supplies

our spiritual needs, nor what in the non-kosher foods causes damage to that soul. No matter

how many times we think our guess to be correct, we will never know, and are doing

permanent damage when we fail to observe these laws. Scary.