44 | MARCH 24 • 2022 

of which you know for certain 
are kosher, and they become 
mixed up, you are in fact per-
mitted to eat all three, since 
the two kosher cuts are in the 
majority, and the non-kosher cut 
gets subsumed into them. (If you 
have a question of this nature, 
you should consult a competent 
halachic authority just to clarify 
all the details and make sure that 
the halachah is being properly 
applied.) If there were some-
thing intrinsically wrong with 
the non-kosher meat, then how 
could this principle of nullifica-
tion in the majority apply?

A SPIRITUAL BLUEPRINT
So, what is the distinction 
between kosher and non-ko-
sher? The Maharal explains 
that the Torah is the spiritual 
blueprint of the world. He says 
that keeping kosher, as with all 
the other mitzvot, aligns us with 
this spiritual blueprint, and helps 
us actualize our latent spiritual 
potential. And so, the laws of 
kosher follow the framework of 
spiritual principles that God cre-
ated. And that framework exists 
external to the food itself. Eating 
kosher is living in harmony and 
in sync with the spiritual blue-
print of the universe, and not 
doing so is departing from that 
framework, and that is spiritual-
ly damaging.
To illustrate this, the Maharal 
cites the Midrash, which 
describes kashrut as a way “to 
purify people.
” This purification 
takes place through the con-
nection of a person’s soul to the 
ultimate spiritual blueprint of 
the world, which was created 
by God. But, it is not about the 
intrinsic nature of the food itself. 
He cites another Midrash which 
says: “
A person should not say I 
do not want pork … but rather I 
would like it, but what can I do 
that my Father in Heaven has 

decreed upon me [not to have 
it].
” (Torat Kohanim Kedoshim) 
So the laws of kashrut follow a 
framework of God-given spiri-
tual principles embedded in the 
Torah — a framework that exists 
external to the food itself.
Rabbeinu Bechaye shares a 
different perspective on kosher. 
In his commentary on this 
week’s parshah, he refers to the 
verse that concludes the section 
dealing with the laws of kashrut: 
“
And you shall sanctify your-
selves and you shall be holy, 
for I am holy.
” (Vayikra 11:44) 
Rabbeinu Bechaye says that we 
see from this verse that keeping 
kosher helps us to live a life of 
holiness.
There are two primary com-
ponents to the human being 
— the physical and the spiritual. 
These two components are 
naturally in conflict with one 
another, and the fact that they 
co-exist in a single organism is 
itself something wondrous. But 
to help us navigate this power 
struggle and ensure the spiri-
tual force within us ultimately 
frames and guides our physical 
drives, the Torah provides for 
the expression and fulfilment of 
these physical desires within a 
spiritually and ethically enrich-
ing framework. This framework 
helps us infuse meaning into 
even the most mundane, basic 
activities such as eating. It is 
in this context that the laws of 
kosher need to be seen.
Rabbeinu Bechaye says the 
more immediate physical needs 
of the body can easily over-
whelm our spiritual selves. This 
natural predominance of the 
physical over the spiritual is 
rooted in the fact that human 
beings are physical before we 
are spiritual; as children we are 
consumed by our physical wants 
and needs, and only later do 
we develop a spiritual muscle, a 
capacity to reflect and to chan-
nel, to exercise self-restraint. 
There’s also the fact that the 
world we inhabit is very much a 

physical, material one; the soul is 
a stranger in this world.
And so, we need all the help 
we can get to transcend this 
material world and our physical 
selves, and become truly ele-
vated, spiritual beings. Keeping 
kosher does this because it plac-
es a spiritual framework around 
what we eat. We can’t just eat 
whatever we want. We learn 
self-restraint. And we immerse 
ourselves in this holy framework 
from a young age. The Sforno 
says the laws of kosher help us 
achieve Godliness, even holiness, 
in this world.
Kosher fits into a broader phi-
losophy of food and of eating, 
one that is saturated with holi-
ness, spirituality and meaning. 
We have in the Torah the mitz-
vah of Birkat Hamazon — Grace 
after Meals — in terms of which 
we give thanks to God after eat-
ing, that the process of eating is 
not just one of self-gratification, 
but also one connected to grat-
itude. The sages of the Talmud 
added to that, and formulated 
blessings to be said before eat-
ing food to acknowledge where 
it comes from. It is part of 
acknowledging that this world 
and everything in it belongs to 
God, and that, when we take 
from it, we express our gratitude.
We don’t just consume. We 
stop. We give thanks to God, we 
give thought to whether or not 
the food is kosher. We acknowl-
edge the source of the food and 
give thanks for its tastiness, its 
nourishing goodness. Eating 
becomes a more refined, uplift-
ing and meaningful experience 
in this way.
This idea of elevation is 
embodied in the mitzvah of 
washing our hands before eating 
bread. The blessing we recite 
is al netilat yadayim. The word 
netilah, explains Rav Yaakov 
Tzvi Mecklenberg, comes from 
another Hebrew word, mean-
ing elevation. The implication 
is clear. When we wash our 
hands before eating, we elevate 

ourselves. We connect the act 
of eating to something higher, 
something greater than merely 
satiating our hunger.
Rav Mecklenberg connects 
the mitzvah of washing before 
bread to the requirement that 
the Kohanim, the priests in the 
Beit Hamikdash, wash their 
hands before beginning the 
sacred Temple service. He says 
we, too, should view this world 
as one great Beit Hamikdash, a 
world filled with holiness, with 
God’s presence, where we are 
called on to serve God and to 
live lives of meaning and dedica-
tion and spirituality. The world, 
and everything in it, was created 
by God, and therefore belongs 
to God, like the holy property 
of the Temple. And when we 
reach out to take anything from 
this world, from God Himself, 
we should do so in a state of 
holiness and purity, with a sense 
of reverence for the sacred task 
at hand.
Ultimately, we see that kosher 
and the laws around eating are 
about transcending the self, tran-
scending our own selfish physical 
needs, and creating a holy frame-
work for them. In doing so, we 
get in touch with our souls, our 
spiritual selves. We attain a sense 
of self-mastery, and become not 
merely a body, but a soul clothed 
in physical garments. Whatever 
our bodies take from this world 
needs to be done in a frame-
work of morality and ethics, in a 
framework of kindness and com-
passion, of spirituality, meaning 
and elevation. 
And then the experience of 
eating food gets transformed 
from an animalistic self-gratifi-
cation experience into one that 
is truly holy, and elevated into 
something meaningful, refined 
and ethical, and we ourselves 
become transformed. 

Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein, who 

has a PhD. in Human Rights Law, is the 

chief rabbi of South Africa. This essay 

first appeared on aish.com

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

continued from page 43