To Life! TORAH PORTION A Diet Fit For Eternal Life Shabbat Shemini: Leviticus 9:1-11:47; Samuel 6:1-7:17. p have theDetroit Jewish News delivered to your door every Thursday for about a dollar a week 248.351.5174, visit wvvw.JNonline.us call (click the subscribe link) or fill out and mail the form below 1 year@$56 lI bill me 12 years @$88 payment enclosed charge my Visa 1 MasterCard exp date card # signature(required) name phone# street address state city zip email address J I would like to be contacted about special offers and/or sending a gift subscription mail to: Detroit Jewish News • PO Box 2267 • Southfield MI 48034-2267 DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Please allow 2-3 weeks to begin delivery. In-state subscriptions only. Out of state price $75 for 1 year, $132 for 2 years. 38 April 12 2007 iN arshat Shemini divides into them more compassionately. Hence, two halves, one for them and kosher meat is kinder meat. one for us. Well, this argument has a spotty The first half is about the glories record. Ideally it is true, but the kosher and the calamities of Aaron meat industry has not and his family. We, the read- always been in the van- ers, sit outside that time and guard of animal welfare. place, observing the sacred Due to public outcry, this is spectacle of priests prepar- changing for the better, but ing the Temple service. this argument alone cannot sustain a kosher diet. Perhaps the scene fills us with awe or even envy. The best explanation But that ends when is the one given by the Torah itself in our portion: Aaron's sons Nadav and Rabbi Daniel Avihu are struck dead. Keep kosher, distinguish- S. N evins Suddenly, our distance feels Specia I to the ing between the pure and safe, like the way we feel impure, in order to become Jewish News at a sporting event when a holy. powerful athlete lies injured on the The verse says, "Sanctify yourselves, playing field. We watch with sympathy, and you will become holy ones." The but also with shameful relief that we Talmud explains, "If a man sanctifies are not personally involved. himself a bit, they sanctify him a great deal. If he sanctifies in this world, And so, the parshah begins with a bit of alienation for your ordinary Jew. then he is sanctified in the world to We read the Torah, and we feel distant come." ( Yoma 39a). from its action. Kashrut is about overcoming the alienation between God and us. By All of that changes, however, in the second half. Suddenly we are specta- integrating holiness into our very diet, we turn our homes into temples and tors no more. The Torah is reaching across history ourselves into priests. Kashrut is the key to becoming holy. Through this into our very time, into our homes and kitchens with its kosher laws. The ancient diet, we differentiate ourselves focus on purity and impurity that has in our devotion to God. Other diets might help you live a longer life. The occupied Leviticus until this point Torah's diet is much more ambitious is not an antiquated obsession. The Torah is concerned with every break- — you can eat your way to eternal fast, lunch, dinner and all snacks in life! between. It is active and intrusive in Daniel S. Nevins is a rabbi at Adat Shalom our lives. Synagogue in Farmington Hills. Why must Jews keep kosher? Readers who keep kosher have prob- ably asked themselves this question more than once! There have, of course, Conversations been many answers offered through- What defines meat as kosher? out our history. Does it suffice to have an The easiest to advance and the first unblemished animal, a proper to fall was the health argument. Eat slaughter, inspection, soak- a kosher diet because it is healthful. ing and salting? Or should a Well, that may or may not be true. kosher animal also be treated Stuffed kishka is probably not good in a healthy and humane fash- for your arteries. You cannot build a ion? Does it matter how the comprehensive diet on fear of trichi- workers are treated in a kosher nosis. slaughterhouse? What is the Thus another explanation — eat connection between justice and kosher because it is more moral. Jews holiness? treat their livestock better and kill