Subject: Kosher and Unkosher animals
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 23:34:35 +0000
To: "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
From: Frances O'Connor
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: Re: The non-Jew keeping Kashrut, Shomer Shabbos
Can you recommend any books for the single gentile follower of Yeshua for
knowing how to keep Kashrut, Shomer Shabbos etc.
Thank you,
Frances
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From: Rabbi Dr. Joseph ben Haggai
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: Something fishy!
SHMINI
Leviticus 9:1-11:47
by Rabbi Yehuda Appel
Many people find dieting to be quite a challenge. Indeed,
Jewish tradition found the entire enterprise of eating to
be filled with obstacles and opportunities. Meal time is
termed in Jewish literature as "the hour of war;" the
Hebrew word for war - milchama - has the same root as
lechem - bread. Eating is supposed to be an act of
elevating oneself through the medium of thought, speech and
action. In the realm of thought, we should view eating as
an act of fulfilling the Almighty's will. In the realm of
speech, we say a blessing over the food. And in the realm
of action, we eat the food with care and appreciation of
the Almighty's beneficence.
In this week's Torah portion, Shmini, the delineation is
made between kosher and non-kosher animals. The Torah
states that for an animal to be kosher it must chew its cud
and have split hooves. Chewing the cud ("rumination")
involves the regurgitation and then redigestion of food.
Jewish tradition sees this as an allusion for the need to
review and reexamine one's actions, a procedure that is at
the very heart of righteousness. The split hoof, coming as
it does at the foot, emphasizes the need for a person to be
complete from head to toe.
In contradistinction to the wholeness of a kosher animal,
there are four animals - the camel, pig, shafan and arnevet
(the last two animals' identities are not known today) -
who are singled out in this week's parsha because they
possessed only one of two kosher signs. The camel
represents pride, the pig - hypocrisy, the shafan -
idolatry, and the arnevet - narrowness.
On the other hand, fish are seen as the most holy of
species. Unlike other species who, even in their kosher
manifestations need some tikkun (rectification), the fish
needs none. Fish do not need to be ritually slaughtered or
have its blood removed as its land cousins did. Moreover,
the fish were unaffected by Noah's flood. While the land
animals had been involved in bestiality before the deluge,
the fish maintained their purity and were thus saved.
This symbol of the fish as representing purity can also be
found in the kabalistic literature where it is used to
symbolize the Tzaddik, the righteous person. Many people
are guilty of misusing their gift of sight and viewing
scenes they would be better off avoiding. In kabalistic
understanding, the anatomical feature of the eyelid is an
allusion to this need to at times shut our eyes and avoid
seeing improper things. The Tzaddik, however guards his
behavior, intuitively avoiding such situations, and
actually needs no such safeguard. He is thus symbolized by
a fish, a species which has no eyelid.
The Torah also makes distinctions between kosher and
non-kosher fish. To be kosher, a fish has to possess both
fins and scales. The sources explain that these elements
can be likened to crowns atop the fish, attesting to the
kosher fish's higher spiritual status. Furthermore, such
fish tend to swim in the upper expanses of the ocean where
the water is more pure.
It is clear that Jewish tradition sees the act of eating as
an opportunity to elevate one's behavior to a higher level.
Why not make dining - and dieting - a truly holy act?!
~~~~~~~~~
The author, Rabbi Yehuda Appel, is an American who studied
and taught Torah for many years in Jerusalem. In 1990, he
and his family moved to Cleveland where he now serves as
Executive Director of Aish HaTorah.
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