>> Torah portion

Senior Living I Independent ape/Assisted Living

Camels
And Rabbits
And Storks
- Oh, My!

Parshat Shemini (Shabbat Parah):
Leviticus 9:1-11:47; Numbers 19:1-22;
Ezekiel 36:16-38.

I

n this week's Torah portion, we
find a declaration of which ani-
mals are and which are not per-
mitted to be eaten — what's kosher.
The word kosher has entered our
English language with large
acceptance and is found
everywhere from food labels
to the Food Network.
In this week's parshah, we
are taught to avoid eating
many animals, including
crawling insects, shrimp,
hares, camels, swine, storks,
herons of every variety and
bats. Sea creatures, we learn,
must have fins and scales;
land animals must chew
their cud and have true
hoofs. However, no explana-
tion for these dietary laws is given.
Later Talmudic restrictions clarified
the laws of kashrut by outlining the
proper methods for slaughtering and
preparing meat, and separating meat
from milk. The Torah contains a strict
prohibition against consuming the
blood of any animal.
One of the myths of the dietary laws
is that they were instituted for the
purpose of making people healthier;
yet none of the few appearances of the
word kosher in the Bible is connected
with food. Nor is there evidence of a
broad nutritional or health-related basis
for the dietary classifications. Actually,
their purpose was to make the people
of Israel holy, distinguished from all
others by customs and ceremonies that
help make them witnesses to God's
sovereignty and purity. Many actually
felt that by obeying dietary laws, Jews
could make themselves immune from
the dangers of assimilation.
Sforno, the 16th-century Italian
Torah scholar, had an explanation for
the following of the dietary laws. He
states that the human being is com-
posed of a material element combined
with a spiritual component. Our mis-
sion is to exert the power of the spiri-
tual over the material. Yes, we must eat
and respond to other material needs;

but through following the laws of the
Torah, we learn to guide our desires
by a system of law. Eating becomes
an expression of this rather than just
an instinctual function. Kashrut is a
way of integrating values
such as ethics, community
and spirituality into our
personal dietary practices.
Note in the parshah that at
the end of the list of kosher
animals is the statement,

Vhitkadishtem v'hayitem
k'doshim, Sanctify yourselves
and you shall be holy.
With every meal we actu-
ally serve up connection,
consciousness and gratitude
as we contemplate some-
thing greater, higher. We
need food to survive; it is at the very
core of our existence. But by creating
a discipline that keeps us from being
gluttons, we also develop a grateful-
ness for what we have and what we
don't.
The great modern thinker Rabbi
Aiden Steinsaltz says that the laws of
kashrut "are based on the principle
that humans cannot live a higher,
nobler life of the spirit without having
the body undergo some suitable prepa-
ration for it:'
As we observe the dietary laws, we
also learn moderation. The ability to
suppress the craving for certain things
has a strong influence on character,
helping to develop self-control, self-
mastery. We heighten our awareness
of the importance of spiritual health:
What we eat has an impact on how we
live and reflect our values. Creating
boundaries in our eating can teach us to
eat mindfully and to weigh the impact
of our food on our bodies as well as on
our communities and the world.

❑

Conversations:
• Do you ever think of what you
are eating as unclean or clean?
• Does what we eat really make a
difference to God?

The Secret for

At Independence Village of White Lake, our residents
live life their way, in an affordable but luxurious setting.
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• One and Two bedroom apartment homes

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248-360-7235

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1903340

March 20 • 2014

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