Shemini 5774 - English

By Rabbi Dana Kaplan
Jamaica

Shemini: What Should We Eat?

What should we eat and not eat?  We may think of this question primarily in terms of dieting, whether we want to lose weight or if we have been ordered by the doctor to avoid certain types of foods, for example, those with too much salt.  As Jews, we need to consider another category of permitted and prohibited foods – those edibles classified as kosher and those classified as treife (non-kosher).  The closing sections of this week's parashah focus on the dietary laws.

I would like to argue that we should consider adopting eco-kashrut to replace the biblical food laws.  This would give us a strong justification for observing a form of kashrut, allowing us to maintain a strong form of social cohesion while sacrificing convenience for a purpose that makes sense to all of us.  Eco-kashrut would apply to everything that we consume, not just food.  Our commitment to this would make the world a more sustainable environment for everyone and would thus have practical benefits.

Kashrut, the kosher laws, is a very complex system that governed all aspects of how to prepare and consume food.  Jews were prohibited from eating certain types of food, which were regarded as non-kosher, and restricted from mixing other types of food together or eating certain foods until a specific amount of time after other food items (e.g. milk after meat).  The consequence of following the kosher laws strictly was that it was impossible to eat out at any non-kosher restaurant or even at another family’s house, unless they were committed to the same standard of kashrut.

The Torah sets out the dietary laws of kashrut in chapter 11 of Leviticus 11, which is included in this week’s parashah, as well as Deuteronomy 14:3–21.  In addition, the Tanach makes reference to clean and unclean animals in Genesis 7:2-9, Judges 13:4, and Ezekiel 4:14.  These rules are expanded considerably in the Talmud.  Despite their prominence, no clear reason is given for them in the Five Books of Moses. Is that because the laws of kashrut are chukim rather than mishpatim?

Interpreting Leviticus 18:4, “My mishpatai (ordinances) shall you do, and My chukotai (statutes) shall you keep,” the Sifra, the halachic midrash to Leviticus, distinguished mishpatim, ordinances, from chukim, statutes.  The term mishpatim refers to rules that even had they not been written in the Torah, would have been entirely logical, such as the prohibition against theft or murder.  Without mishpatim, society would not be able to function.

On the other hand, chukim refers to those rules that do not have any obvious logic, such as eating pork (prohibited in Leviticus 11:7 as well as Deuteronomy 14:7–8) or wearing shatnez, wool-linen mixtures (prohibited in Leviticus 19:19 and Deuteronomy 22:11).  The Torah mandated these laws and the Sages argued that we have no right to challenge them or, God forbid, refuse to follow them.

But is it true that the Torah offers no explanation as to why we were obligated to observe the biblical food laws?  As the Torah arrives at the conclusion of the details of what one may and may not eat, the text does seem to offer a rationale.  In Chapter 11:45, God says we should keep kosher "… because I am Adonai your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God."  And then the text adds that, "You shall be holy, because I am holy."

Various commentators play around with these intriguing hints.  Perhaps observing kashrut is part of imitatio Dei, a religious concept by which humans search for virtue by attempting to imitate God.  Or perhaps we observe kashrut to thank God for bringing us out of slavery.  Or maybe we voluntarily abstain from eating certain foods that we just love, in order to demonstrate that we are now free and can make our own choices.  Some may find meaning in these ideas, but it is unlikely they will be sufficient to make them commit to the complete observance of kashrut.

For most non-Orthodox Jews, however, the laws of kashrut had little meaning and were almost completely ignored.  Creative thinkers considered how the concept of kashrut could be applied in a more meaningful manner.  For example, some felt that what was important was to abstain from eating the meat of animals that had been raised under inhumane conditions, such as veal.

Others argued that Jewish tradition should call for avoiding meat entirely.  As Richard H. Schwartz put it, “while rarely discussed in the Jewish community, a widely accepted aspect of modern life – the mass production and widespread consumption of meat – contradicts many fundamental Jewish teachings and badly harms people, communities, and the planet.”

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, the founder of the Jewish Renewal movement, developed a broader approach that reinterpreted the traditional concept of kashrut.  By the late 1970s, he was using the term eco-kosher to describe a humane approach to food and eating that was environmentally sensitive.  Eco-kosher would take the ecology of the earth into consideration when deciding what to eat or not to eat.

“On the one hand we have the threat of Earth’s destruction, whether cataclysmic or gradual; onthe other, we have the halting emergence of planetary cooperation, countries putting their heads together to control crime and disease, mediate conflict, and protect the environment.”  He argued that “Strengthening this whole-Earth cooperation is to me the most urgent and important way we have of serving God, the holiest and most pressing invitation of our time.”

Rabbi Dana Kaplan
Jamaica