Transcript
Okay, Purim's behind us. Pesach is rapidly approaching. And in between we learn פרשת שמיני Parshas Shmini. פרשת שמיני Parshas Shmini, page 588 in the ארטסקרול סטון חומש Artscroll Stone Chumash. Let's, as is our custom, do a brief overview of the פרשה parsha, and then we'll delve into a few of the פסוקים psukim we want to look at together. So פרשת שמיני Parshas Shmini begins with the service of the כהנים kohanim. ויהי ביום השמיני קרא משה לאהרן ולבניו ולזקני ישראל Vayehi bayom hashmini kara Moshe l'Aharon u'l'vanav v'l'ziknei Yisrael. It was on the eighth day, which of course begs the question, the eighth day of what? רש\"י Rashi answers, שמיני למילואים Shmini l'miluim. It was ראש חודש ניסן Rosh Chodesh Nissan. It was the eighth day of the מילואים miluim. The מילואים miluim was the inauguration of the Temple. Tabernacle was constructed, was built. We spent significant time on its details, the כלים keilim, the utensils therein. And then there was a dry run. משה Moshe himself acted as the כהן kohen, and there was the inauguration ceremony of the, of the Tabernacle, of the משכן Mishkan. So it was on the eighth day, משה Moshe summons them, and it begins, it's opening day in the, in the מקדש Mikdash. And משה Moshe instructs אהרן Aharon and his children exactly what to do. And the פרשה parsha goes on at length with the קרבנות korbanos, what were brought, what happened, and so on.Page 592, we have the horrific episode, the tragic episode we're all familiar with of the death of נדב ואביהו Nadav v'Avihu. We know it's coming every year, yet when we read it, we can't help but feel a tremendous sense of sadness and empathy for אהרן Aharon. ויקחו בני אהרן נדב ואביהו איש מחתתו Vayikchu vnei Aharon Nadav v'Avihu ish machtaso. אהרן Aharon's sons, נדב ואביהו Nadav v'Avihu, take their pan and they place a fire, and they bring the קטורת ketores, and they bring what the Torah describes as an אש זרה אשר לא ציוה אותם eish zarah asher lo tziva osam. They bring a strange fire that they were not commanded. A fire bursts forth and consumes them. They die tragically, prematurely. And משה Moshe turns to אהרן Aharon, tries to comfort his own brother, בקרובי אקדש ועל פני כל העם אכבד bikrovai ekadeish v'al pnei chol ha'am ekaveid. וידום אהרן Vayidom Aharon. אהרן Aharon is silent. We don't know the nature of this silence. We discussed this at length in the past. You could go on our website or YU Torah and listen, we talked about it in the context of the Holocaust, the sound of silence, וידום אהרן vayidom Aharon. The nature of אהרן Aharon's silence. Was he silent because he accepted God's decree? Was he silent because he couldn't accept it? Was he silent because he was traumatized and shocked and had nothing to say? What was the nature of אהרן Aharon's silence? It's a beautiful insight of the קלויזנבורגר רבי Klausenberger Rebbe. We don't know exactly the nature, like I say, you can go on and listen, we spent an entire class on this subject. But what's unclear is whether he accepts his brother's consolation. משה Moshe tells him, בקרובי אקדש bikrovai ekadeish, that God says, I am sanctified through those with whom I'm closest. משה Moshe's trying to tell אהרן Aharon, your sons must be something else. They must be so holy because God chose to be chose them to be sanctified through. Is אהרן Aharon comforted? וידום אהרן Vayidom Aharon. We don't know. He's silent. And as I said, we don't know the nature of that silence. Our rabbis go to great lengths to debate, the מפרשים mefarshim here on our, on our פרשה parsha. What did they do wrong? What was their sin? What was their mistake? Did they bring a foreign קרבן korban? Did they enter the Tabernacle when they were intoxicated, when they were drunk? There's all kinds of conjecture what exactly they did wrong.One of my teachers from high school, Rabbi אשר בוש Asher Bush, a rabbi in מונסי Monsey. So he suggested if you look at our פרשה parsha, it seems disjointed. First half of the פרשה parsha has to do with the Tabernacle, the death of נדב ואביהו Nadav v'Avihu, sacrifices. The end of the פרשה parsha, what we're going to study this morning, has to do with כשרות kashrus, the laws of what's כשר kosher, what's not. And it seems totally disjointed. What does one have to do with the other? Is there a unifying theme? And he suggests maybe the unifying theme is that just as there are חוקים chukim, just as there are Torah commandments, which are a חוק chok, incomprehensible, we don't understand. Ultimately, we submit our will and we concede our understanding and we follow the will of the Almighty. So what's true in the realm of מצוות mitzvos he suggests, is also true in the realm of life. That maybe וידום אהרן vayidom Aharon is אהרן Aharon saying, I cannot and I will not understand what took place. There is a חוק chok in מצוות mitzvos, and there's a חוק chok in life. There are חוקים chukim in what we're asked to observe in commandments, and there are חוקים chukim in what we're asked to accept in terms of what life throws our way. And maybe that's the unifying theme. Maybe that's the connection between נדב ואביהו Nadav v'Avihu and the כשרות kashrus at the end of the פרשה parsha, is that just as there are things we're incapable of understanding in the realm of מצוות mitzvos, so too there are episodes, there are experiences in our lives which were incapable of understanding as well. One thing we know, it's a horrific and horrible and terrible tragedy that אהרן Aharon goes through.Why did some suggest that the prohibition that נדב ואביהו Nadav v'Avihu were punished because they entered the Tabernacle intoxicated? Very simple, turn the page, because the narrative continues, the פרשה parsha continues, וידבר ה' אל אהרן לאמר יין ושכר אל תשת אתה ובניך אתך vayidaber Hashem el Aharon leimor yayin v'sheichar al teisth atah u'vanecha itach, you're not allowed to be intoxicated. You can't drink when you enter the Temple. And if you do, it's a capital crime, it's punishable by death. ולא תמותו V'lo samusu. להבדיל בין הקודש ובין החול בין הטמא ובין הטהור L'havdil bein ha'kodesh u'vein ha'chol bein ha'tamei u'vein ha'tahor. להורות את בני ישראל כל החוקים אשר דיבר ה' אליהם ביד משה L'horos es Bnei Yisrael kol hachukim asher diber Hashem aleihem b'yad Moshe. So the כהנים kohanim are instructed they're not allowed to enter the Tabernacle in a state of inebriation. Why not? Why not? Why can't they drink? So the נצי\"ב Netziv, רב נפתלי צבי יהודה ברלין Rav Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin, excuse me, in his commentary on חומש Chumash, העמק דבר Haamek Davar, we shared this in the class we recently gave about the Jewish view of marijuana. The נצי\"ב Netziv says, a כהן kohen walking into the Tabernacle every day and later the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash, it is a burdensome job. It's not easy. It's not easy to do the sacrifices. You're lifting heavy animals, you're slaughtering, there's blood spurting, you're sprinkling, you're eating, you're burning, you're, there's a lot of, you know, you're hanging the meat, you're flaying. There's a lot of, it's a physically grueling labor. The כהנים kohanim are also the leaders and teachers of the Jewish people. You are having to deal with the Jewish people. The Jewish people are a wonderful people, but I can tell you they're not always the easiest people. They're demanding, and they're often critical, and they're complaining, and they're challenging, and they're ungrateful. They can be all these, never here, I'm just saying I've heard elsewhere, they can be all these things. Says the נצי\"ב Netziv, the כהן kohen may be tempted in the morning when he wakes up on his way into work to say, you know what, in order to get through this day, I need a drink. Says the נצי\"ב Netziv, the כהן kohen may say in the middle of the day, you know, I'm exhausted, I'm tired, this is hard work. I've just had to deal with a few ישראלים Yisraelim who are נודניקינג nudniking. And, you know what, I need a לחיים l'chaim, I need a drink. I need a little something. Says the נצי\"ב Netziv, that's why the Torah says you cannot use alcohol as an escape. You cannot use alcohol as a coping mechanism. You cannot avoid the challenges of life by drinking. You need to confront them, and you need to engage them, and you need to learn to rise above them to deal with them. It's a beautiful insight by the נצי\"ב Netziv. In a sense, it has nothing to do with the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash itself, it has to do with our attitude towards alcohol. And we try to extrapolate with an attitude towards marijuana in the class that we recently gave. Is that substances are not used that even ones that God says are permissible. We know that alcohol plays a very prominent role in Judaism. We make קידוש kiddush, we make הבדלה havdalah, at a ברית bris, at a wedding, every ceremony, we always have a בורא פרי הגפן borei pri hagafen. There's a designated ברכה bracha. Alcohol has a prominent role, but ritualistically it's supposed to elevate the experience, not supposed to be an escape from the experience. And when one engages alcohol or any substance for that matter, in an effort to avoid, in an effort to escape, then it's something which is bad. That's the נצי\"ב Netziv's insight here. רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik had a different insight. רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik said, and it's a little anticlimactic as we are now at the end or after פורים Purim, but I'll tell you for next פורים Purim. It's one of my favorite insights of the Rav. I may have shared this recently with you, I don't even remember. The Rav says that why on פורים Purim, דוקא dafka, do we drink? חייב איניש לבסומי בפוריא עד דלא ידע Chayav inish l'ivsumei b'Purya ad d'lo yada. You're supposed to drink until you can't tell the difference. Cursed is Haman and blessed is Mordechai. So why do you drink on פורים Purim, and we're not going to get into, we've discussed this also in the past at length, the different opinions, the רמ\"א Rema, you just drink enough that you take a little שלאָף shluff. Do you drink a lot that you're intoxicated? What's the, so on. But רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik said, why on פורים Purim would you drink? Judaism abhors, abhors forfeiting our our intellectual thinking. We we totally reject the idea of being drunk all year round. It's not a Jewish value, a Jewish way. So why would we say drink on פורים Purim to the point of intoxication? So who's the one who teaches that's the הלכה halacha, says the Rav? The גמרא Gemara, אמר רבא Amar Rava. רבא Rava is the one who says חייב איניש לבסומי chayav inish l'ivsumei. It is רבא Rava who teaches you have to drink on פורים Purim to the point of intoxication. The גמרא Gemara also says why don't you say הלל Hallel on פורים Purim? The גמרא Gemara gives three answers. Either because the מגילה megillah is, we've talked about this last week, the מגילה megillah is הלל Hallel, or a second answer is because the miracle happened outside the land of Israel, or thirdly because, thirdly because אכתי עבדי דאחשורוש אנן akati avdei d'Achashverosh anan. We remain servants, we remain enslaved to Achashverosh. We remain in exile. Yes, we overcame the threat of Shushan, but here we are still sitting in exile. We lack a בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash, we lack we lack the השראת השכינה hashras hashchina in the ultimate form in Yerushalayim. אכתי עבדי דאחשורוש אנן Akati avdei Achashverosh anan. Said the Rav, it's not a coincidence it's the same רבא Rava who observes that we are still in exile is the same רבא Rava who says the only way to feel happiness while you're in exile is to drink. In the Torah, whenever it says to feel happiness, ושמחת לפני ה' אלקיך v'samachta lifnei Hashem Elokecha. It says וישמח v'yisach לפני השם lifnei Hashem. Whenever it says שמחה simcha in the Torah, it always is in conjunction with לפני ה' lifnei Hashem. Real joy, real happiness is when you're before the Almighty, when you feel you're in the presence of God and the whole world is not random and chance, it's not the the influence of עמלק Amalek, which is מקרה mikra, but when you understand the world is made up of meaning and order and purpose, that there is God, there is providence to the world, then you feel שמחה simcha. What a relief, how liberating. What happens is not random. All that happens to me is for the best. There's a master plan. That's a source of incredible joy. When you're לפני ה' lifnei Hashem, when you know with certainty that God exists and you have no doubt whatsoever, you're immediately filled with a sense of שמחה simcha. There's a joy, it's liberating to know there's meaning and order to the universe. But when there's room for doubt, when you're in exile, when you can't see God palpably, when doubt creeps in, the only way to feel שמחה simcha is a counterfeit, inauthentic experience and that's alcohol. That's alcohol. So דוקא dafka on פורים Purim where we're still אכתי עבדי אחשורוש אנן akati avdei Achashverosh anan, דוקא dafka on פורים Purim said the Rav, where there is a awareness that we remain in exile. Right? The מגילה megillah tells more, how did they end up in Shushan? Because of the exile. So the awareness that we're still in exile, that's why we can only engage in a counterfeit form of שמחה simcha while we yet long for the most authentic form. So the Rav proved this, he said from right here our פרשה parsha, יין ושכר אל תשת אתה ובניך אתך בבואכם אל אוהל מועד ולא תמותו yayin v'sheichar al teisth, atah u'vanecha itach b'voachem el Ohel Moed v'lo samusu. When you come into the אוהל מועד Ohel Moed, where you palpably feel God, where you know with certainty God exists, where you can feel the most authentic, genuine שמחה simcha of being before the Almighty, יין ושכר אל תשת yayin v'sheichar al teisth. How could you engage in a counterfeit, in a fake, in an inauthentic source or vehicle of שמחה simcha when you have the capacity, when you're in the presence of the Almighty for the most genuine form? That's what's going on. That was the Rav's insight here. So that's why on we have the capacity, we're supposed to feel שמחה simcha. Three times a year, יום טוב yontif, שלוש רגלים shalosh regalim, you go to the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash, you go to Yerushalayim, you felt in the presence of the Almighty, and not coincidentally, what מצוה mitzvah was there to have on יום טוב yontif? שמחה Simcha. Today we don't have the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash. How do you fulfill שמחה simcha on יום טוב yontif? בשר ויין Basar v'yayin. Because we don't have the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash, so we again, we achieve שמחה simcha through a different route. Okay. The פרשה parsha continues with the laws of כשרות kashrus. Page 596. We have at length the signs, the symbols, the laws, the details of כשרות kashrus. First it tells us the laws of land animals. They have to have split hooves and chew their cud in order for them to be כשר kosher. It gives us these signs. We know that all, the Torah makes us a promise. Every animal that has split hooves, also chews its cud with the exception of a few, with the exception of a few. Then it tells us for the fish. In order to be kosher fish, it has to have fins and scales. And the Torah goes out of its way and makes a bold promise. Any fish that has fins also has scales. So really, even though there's two signs, though there are exceptions the Torah lists them, for the most part, if you identify one sign, you know that the other is there. The Rabbi Ari Kahn who's actually coming this Shabbos as our scholar in residence, he's one of the authors of the Discovery Seminar of אש התורה Aish HaTorah. It's outreach program used to be two and a half days, now it's one day. But one of the arguments אש התורה Aish HaTorah makes about the authenticity, or God's the authorship of the of the Torah of the Bible, it says, how could anyone but an omnipotent being make such a promise? If a group of human beings got together in the wilderness and said, let's create a religion, we'll write a book and we'll convince the world that this is given by God. And they sat down to write the book. So imagine, you're thousands of years ago, you're in the desert, wherever you are, you form a committee of people, men and women, and you say, what should we put in our book if we're going to convince people this book is from God? Someone raises his hand and says, I know, let's institute some laws of כשרות kashrus, a diet. Okay, it's an interesting idea, diet. We're gonna get into momentarily what's the value of a diet? Why would God ask us to to legislate our diet? But let's assume with committee votes, diet, excellent idea. Good. Someone else raises their hand and says, why don't we make the rules of the diet that any animal split hooves, chews its cud, fish fins and scales, excellent. Third person raises their hands and says, let's say that every animal that has split hooves to also chews its cud with the exception of these few. People in the committee would look and say, are you crazy? What if we're wrong? If we make that promise in the book, and then it turns out that in a thousand years, they inhabit another part of the globe and they discover an animal, another exception to the rule, what are they going to do with our book? They're going to throw it out. What are they going to do with our religion? They're going to walk away. We're going to be exposed. So why would we make a promise for something unless we are absolutely certain and positive that it's true? That's one of the arguments אש התורה Aish HaTorah makes. Rabbi Ari Kahn, you could ask him about it this Shabbos, that the Torah in a number of cases makes promises, in כשרות kashrus, actually makes promise after the שמיטה shemitah year, the sabbatical year, that if you leave your land, then Hashem will protect, it'll grow even more, you'll grow enough for three years in the eighth year. There's all kinds of promise when you go up עלייה לרגל aliyah l'regel, nobody will attack. All kinds of promises are made. Only an omnipotent being who can make good on those promises would make the promises to begin with. If it was a committee of men, of people, they would never make a promise they couldn't guarantee. And remarkably, extraordinarily, though today we have thousands of species and we have entire areas of study dedicated to these issues, we have not found more exceptions than what the Torah promises us. That which the omnipotent being promised is actually confirmed, is actually true. There's some debate exactly which these animals are. It's not entirely clear which they are, but that's the law. So when it comes to land animals, they have to have split hooves and chew their cud. When it comes to fish, they have to have fins and scales. What about birds? What's the הלכה halacha with birds? What are the signs in order to be a kosher bird? There is no sign. Maybe it can't be birds of prey. The Torah tells us there has to be a מסורה mesorah. There has to be a tradition that those animals. So it gives us a list of the birds that can't be eaten. The נשר nesher, the פרס peres, the עזניה uzniah, the דאה da'ah, איה למינה aya l'minah. It gives us a list. The problem is, how do we know what's on that list? So the ראשונים rishonim already tried, the גמרא Gemara says, the משנה Mishna actually says, that has a crop, it goes through all these gizzard, it goes through all these signs maybe for the bird. And at the end of the day, we say, since we are birds of prey, since we don't know how to identify the signs with the bird, שולחן ערוך Shulchan Aruch says, we rely on the מסורה mesorah. Only if there's a מסורה mesorah, if there's a tradition. That's why there's a debate. Turkey. There are those who don't eat turkey. Turkey is a new world bird, discovered and came to America. So, does the turkey, if it's a new bird, is there a מסורה mesorah? רב יעקב קמנצקי Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky did not eat turkey. רב הרשל שכטר Rav Hershel Schachter, יבדל לחיים טובים וארוכים yibadel l'chaim tovim v'aruchim, does not eat turkey. There were many great rabbis who did not eat turkey because they felt it did not have a מסורה mesorah. Mrs. Schachter eats turkey. But there are there are people who are strict not to eat not to eat turkey. Ah, so how do we rely on turkey? If it's a new world bird, how did they eat it? How do we rely on it? So there's a big discussion, there's תשובות teshuvos, חתם סופר Chasam Sofer, many others, if if if a bird exhibits the same qualities as another bird that is part of the מסורה mesorah, then we can include it within the מסורה mesorah. So the חתם סופר Chasam Sofer talks about the eggs being similar. If the eggs of the birds are similar. Others talk about can you cross-breed the birds? A turkey and a chicken, I don't know. But others talk about there are different ways of telling whether it can be considered a cousin, a relative of the same species and therefore under the same umbrella of part of that מסורה mesorah. Most of us rely on that, those who eat turkey. There are those who are strict, as I say, who don't eat turkey. But you see that birds are different than animals. Animals and fish have signs, burns are birds are exclusively מסורה mesorah. Yes. The company she says it's a big chicken. That a turkey is a big chicken. Right. That it's an extension of the chicken family. Yeah. Then the Torah gets into insects. We again there's a מסורה mesorah, some in Israel still eat locusts and grasshoppers, certain insects which are kosher, but we don't eat any insects, the creepy crawly things, contamination, kosher animals and the פרשה parsha ends. Okay, that's an overview of the of the פרשה parsha. What I want to study together today is the very end of the פרשה parsha which though the half of the פרשה parsha deals with the question of of the laws of כשרות kashrus, it's only after the laws are given at the very end of the פרשה parsha that the Torah gives us a little insight into why. Why does God care about our diet? Why does He care about what we put in our mouth? I hear this all the time. Is it really important? Does God really care what I eat? Isn't it important for me to be a good person? What matters? So I eat fish out. So I eat the salad out. So I'm not so careful with the symbols, the הכשרים hekhsherim. So I don't check my vegetables for insects. Does God really care? Does it really matter? Being a good person's what matters. These minutia, these details, so mundane. Does God really care? So the Torah says explicitly at the end of פרשת שמיני Parshas Shmini, our פרשה parsha, yeah, God really cares. And why does God really care? For him? Is this for God? Does God somehow benefit by what we put in our mouths? Does God get a cut of the kosher industry? So if you look on פסוק מ\"ד pasuk mem-dalet, פרק י\"א perek yud-aleph, chapter 11, פסוק מ\"ד pasuk mem-dalet, verse 44, page 606 in the ארטסקרול סטון חומש Artscroll Stone Chumash, says the Torah, the end of פרשת שמיני Parshas Shmini, כי אני ה' אלקיכם והתקדשתם והייתם קדושים כי קדוש אני ולא תטמאו את נפשותיכם בכל השרץ הרומס על הארץ Ki ani Hashem Elokeichem, v'hiskadishtem v'hiyisem kedoshim ki kadosh ani, v'lo sitamu es nafshoseichem b'chol ha'sheretz ha'romeis al ha'aretz. I am Hashem your God. You are to sanctify yourselves and you are to be holy. And why is it important for you to be holy? Because I am holy. And you don't contaminate yourself through any of the creepy crawly things that crawl on the ground. כי אני ה' המעלה אתכם מארץ מצרים להיות לכם לאלקים Ki ani Hashem ha'ma'aleh eschem me'eretz Mitzrayim lihiyos lachem l'Elokim. And why is it important for you to emulate or imitate me? Why do I care? And why am I in a position to demand what you eat? Because I took you out of Egypt. והייתם קדושים כי קדוש אני V'hiyisem kedoshim ki kadosh ani. And why did I take you out of Egypt? Why did I liberate and emancipate and form you as a nation and a people? To be holy. And why do I care if you're holy? כי קדוש אני Ki kadosh ani, because I am holy. זאת תורת הבהמה והעוף וכל נפש החיה הרומשת במים וכל נפש אשר שורצת על הארץ Zos toras ha'behemah v'ha'of, v'chol nefesh ha'chayah ha'romeises ba'mayim v'chol nefesh asher shoretses al ha'aretz. And this therefore is the law of the land, the law of the animal, the bird, every living creature in the water and for every creature on the ground. להבדיל בין הטמא ובין הטהור ובין החיה הנאכלת ובין החיה אשר לא תאכל L'havdil bein ha'tamei u'vein ha'tahor u'vein ha'chayah ha'ne'echeles u'vein ha'chayah asher lo se'achel. And these are the laws in order to distinguish between the contaminated and the pure, between the creature that can be eaten and the one that cannot be eaten. So here, in these few פסוקים psukim at the very end of the פרשה parsha, God says, why do I care about your diet? Because your diet is the means through which you can attain holiness. And why do I care that you're holy? Because I'm holy. And who am I to tell you what to eat? I'm the one who took you out of Egypt. And what's important about your diet is distinction, distinguishing, eating this, but not eating that. So even before we delve into, which we will right now, the מפרשים mefarshim who will expand further, but the Torah tells us, holiness. Diet equals holiness. קדושה Kedusha. Look at רש\"י Rashi. Begin with רש\"י Rashi. כי אני ה' אלקיכם Ki ani Hashem Elokeichem, כשם שאני קדוש שאני ה' אלקיכם כך והתקדשתם קדשו את עצמכם למטה k'shem she'ani kadosh, she'ani Hashem Elokeichem, kach v'hiskadishtem, kidshu es atzmechem l'mata. Just like I am holy, because I am God, God by definition is holy, so to I want you to sanctify yourselves למטה l'mata, in this world. I placed you in a world and the world is the means through which and the environment through which you can achieve holiness. והייתם קדושים לפניי שאני אקדש אתכם למעלה ובעולם הבא V'hiyisem kedoshim l'fanai, she'ani akadeish eschem l'ma'alah uv'olam haba. If you show the capacity to sanctify yourselves below, meaning on earth, in the physical world, then I will sanctify you above, in other words, you will reap the reward and the benefit in the world to come. And why should you do all this, says רש\"י Rashi, מ\"ה mem hei? כי אני ה' המעלה אתכם Ki ani Hashem ha'ma'aleh eschem, על מנת שתקבלו מצוותי עלייה היא לכם al menas she'tikablu mitzvosai aliyah hi lachem, because this is why I took you out, says God. I didn't take you out to make you like any other people. I didn't take you out of Egypt to become some secular political entity. I took you out with a sacred mission. I took you out to be a covenantal community. I took you out with a incredibly spiritual task to transform yourselves, to be a model, a symbol, to be a microcosm of what I wanted this world to be. That's why. כי אני ה' המעלה אתכם Ki ani Hashem ha'ma'aleh eschem, בכלן כתיב הוצתי וכאן כתיב המעלה b'chulan ksiv hotsesi v'chan ksiv ha'ma'aleh. Everywhere else it says God took us out, הוצתי hotsesi. Here it says המעלה ha'ma'aleh, he elevated. תנא דבי רבי ישמעאל אלמלא לא העליתי את ישראל ממצרים אלא בשביל שאין מטמאין בשרצים כשאר אומות דיים ומעליותא היא גדולה וזהו לשון מעלה Tanna d'bei Reb Yishmael, ilmalei lo he'eleisi es Yisrael mi'Mitzrayim, ela bishvil she'ein mitamim bishratzim k'sha'ar umos, dayam u'ma'alyusa hi gedolah v'zehu lashon ma'aleh. Had I only taken the Jewish people out of Egypt and the only thing different between the Jewish people and the rest of the world was that they sanctified themselves in their diet, דיים dayam. God also sings דינו dayeinu. We say דינו dayeinu, right, if you just took us out and you didn't do this, if you just did this and you didn't do the other thing, די דינו dai dayeinu. Well, God also has a song דינו dayeinu. If I only took them out and all they did was observe the laws of כשרות kashrus, דינו dayeinu. And that's why here, throughout the rest of the Torah, when it says God took us out of Egypt, it says הוצתי hotsesi, he extracted us. Here it says המעלה אתכם ha'ma'aleh eschem, he lifted us out. What does it mean he lifted us out? We become lifted, we are elevated, we are elevated when we control our diet. And if God lifted us out by giving us the laws of controlling our diet, דיים dayam, דינו dayeinu, that would have been, that would have been enough, says רש\"י Rashi. Says רש\"י Rashi. What is קדושה kedusha? So God says, I'm holy, I want you to be holy. Diet is how you become holy. And who am I to tell you to be holy? Because I took you out of Egypt. And if all all you did to become holy taking you out of Egypt was control your diet, that would have elevated you, דינו dayeinu. How does diet equal holy? What is holy? How is God holy? How is God holy? How does diet make us like God and holy? What is holiness? What is holiness? The Sforno also comments here. Look at the Sforno. והייתם קדושים כי קדוש אני V'hiyisem kedoshim ki kadosh ani, says the Sforno. כדי שתהיו קדושים ונצחיים בהכירכם את בוראכם והלכתם בדרכיו Kedei she'tihiyu kedoshim v'nitzchiyim b'hakirchem es bor'achem v'halachtem b'drachav, so that you will be holy and eternal when you recognize your Creator and you walk in His way. וזה חפצתי כדי שתדמו אלי כי קדוש אני V'zeh chafatzti kedei she'tidamu eilai ki kadosh ani. Says God, I want this, I crave this because I want you to be like me, for I am holy. וזה תשיגו כשתתקדשו ותשמרו מאסורים V'zeh tasigu k'shetiskadshu v'tishmeru me'isurim, כאמרם אדם מקדש עצמו מעט מקדשין אותו הרבה k'omram adam m'kadeish atzmo m'at m'kadshin oso harbei. Says the Sforno, how do you become holy? ותשמרו מאסורים v'tishmeru me'isurim, when you safeguard yourself from that which is prohibited. If I had to translate the word holy, holy is like a Christian term. I don't know what holy means. Holy is a Christian term. What's holy? What's the Jewish translation of the word קדוש kadosh, קדושה kedusha? Separate, distinct, distinguished. Or I would say most accurately, discipline. Discipline. Holiness, sanctity is achieved through discipline. God is the ultimate expression of discipline. In fact, for God, it's not even discipline. What discipline means is I'm tempted to do X, but because I am disciplined, I don't. Discipline means I manage every moment of my day. I control my time. Even though I am tempted to be lazy and procrastinate and waste time, but I'm disciplined. So I use every moment. Discipline means I really, oh, that chocolate cake looks delicious. Discipline means I have שלח מנות shalach manos piles all over my house. And okay, it's after פורים Purim, okay, a little bit. I just fasted on תענית אסתר Taanis Esther, it's okay. Discipline says, no, I'm not interested, I'm not going to eat it, I don't want it. Discipline says, I have a juicy piece of לשון הרע lashon hara. I can't wait to share it over coffee with my friends. It'll make me the center of attention, it'll get a good laugh, I'll be the person in the know. Discipline says, it's not worth it, I'm not going to say it. Discipline means I am combating a temptation. In other words, there is a a default, there's a momentum, there's a um, not friction, what's the, what's the term? I forgot the term. But there is a there's a status quo that pulls me, I'm disciplined to transcend, to rise above it, and to control it. And where do I get that capacity from? Where does that stem from? The ability within myself to say, I'm not looking at that image, I'm not eating that food, I'm not sharing that לשון הרע lashon hara, I'm not sleeping in, I'm not. Where do I find that capacity? Where do I draw that strength? It's the צלם אלוקים tzelem Elokim in me. It's the צלם אלוקים tzelem Elokim in me. Where does the temptation come from? Where's the יצר הרע yetzer hara from? The נפש הבהמית nefesh ha'behamis, from the animal impulse in me. Human beings, we've talked about this before, people of the book when we studied the Tanya together, we talked about this last Shabbos Shuva when we talked about that we are a soul, we don't have a soul. We are made up of two components. Our soul is purely an extension of God. The soul is purely discipline. discipline, the soul has no temptation. But when you plant the soul, when you house the soul in a body and the body becomes the clothing, the garment of the soul, the body now is a vehicle of temptation. The body wants to sleep, the body wants to speak לשון הרע lashon hara, the body wants to eat, the body wants to look, the body wants to hear, the body desires. And where what is the body? The body is the material, physical, animal impulse, animal instinct. This is what we describe. You eat like a pig. Your room looks like a pigsty. You're acting like an animal. Right? There are names of movies and there are names of songs that play off of this. The animal and pig and that's the physical, that's the description of the temptation in man. So there's this battle, there's this war that takes place constantly between the animal impulse and temptation and the godly spirit. What is the godly spirit? The capacity to be disciplined, to be in control, to be above. All of Torah is designed to empower the godly spirit to triumph over the animal impulse. That's Torah. It's a life of discipline. From which shoe you tie first in the morning, how you get dressed, how you go to the bathroom, how you speak, what you look at, how you regulate your time, and how you regulate your diet. God says, כי קדוש אני ki kadosh ani, I'm disciplined. For God, there's no temptation. God doesn't say, I'm tempted to destroy the world again, but I don't. I'm tempted to, but I don't. For God, there's no temptation. It's pure discipline. And the צלם אלוקים tzelem Elokim in us, we as an extension of God, are pure discipline. But for the time we are here on earth, we also combat the animal impulse. And so how do we express? That's what the sacrifices, Rav Hirsch says, קרבנות karbanos are all about. Coming into the temple, bringing an animal, saying to God, I am slaughtering this animal is symbolic of slaughtering the animal instinct in me. Says Rav Hirsch, that's what all of קרבנות karbanos is about. I'm killing the animal in me. I'm killing the animal in me. So כשרות kashrus is that even while I engage this physical world, which requires sustenance and nourishment and food, I do it in a manner which expresses discipline because that's how I become holy. That's how I become holy. Where does the רמב\"ם Rambam place his laws of כשרות kashrus?What's the name of the book? The book, the רמב\"ם's Rambam's משנה תורה Mishneh Torah, what he calls his משנה תורה Mishneh Torah, but we call the יד החזקה Yad HaChazakah. משנה תורה Mishneh Torah, the רמב\"ם Rambam called it the משנה תורה Mishneh Torah because he says, in his introduction, it encapsulates the whole Torah. You don't need משנה Mishnah, you don't need גמרא Gemara, you don't need, you need a חומש Chumash and my משנה תורה Mishneh Torah and you have it all. משנה Mishnah, it's a repetition, it's a summary of Torah. We thought that that might not be the best name. We called it the יד החזקה Yad HaChazakah, the יד Yad stretched arm. What is יד Yad? 14. There's 14 books in the רמב\"ם's Rambam's משנה תורה Mishneh Torah. 14 books in the רמב\"ם's Rambam's יד החזקה Yad HaChazakah. מדע, אהבה, זמנים Mada, Ahava, Zmanim and so on. Which book does the רמב\"ם Rambam put the the laws of diet? In the book called קדושה Kedusha. It's unbelievable. You know what laws are in the book called קדושה Kedusha? What laws would you put? You have 14 volumes and one of them is called holiness. Holy, holy, holy, holiness. What would you put in your laws of holiness? שבת Shabbos maybe, maybe יום כיפור Yom Kippur, I don't know. You know what he puts in the laws of holiness? Eating and sex. מאכלות אסורות Ma'achalos Asuros and and and uh and ביאות אסורות bi'os asuros and the הלכות halachos of relations, the הלכות halachos of food and so on. What the רמב\"ם Rambam puts in the book called קדושה Kedusha are the mechanisms, the way that we engage the physical world and show discipline and make it distinguished. Unlike other religions in which one must withdraw from the physical world to achieve holiness, in Judaism, you achieve holiness from within the physical world. But what we do, there's two extremes. There are those who believe you become holy by withdrawing, asceticism, right? So you fast, you take a vow of abstinence, you take a vow of silence. And then there's the opposite, our culture, hedonism. You delve right into the physical world, which is like, um, you know, sexual freedom and say whatever's on your mind and dress however you want and do whatever you want, a life of decadence and hedonism. Judaism is right in the middle. And Judaism says, you know where holiness is? It's by engaging the physical world but by elevating it, by making it distinguished, by making it distinct. We eat food, we enjoy food. There's a מצוה mitzvah to enjoy good food. But you make a ברכה bracha, it has to be כשר kosher, you have to observe מילכיגס און פליישיגס milchigs un fleishigs and so on. We enjoy the physical world. There's a מצוה mitzvah to experience physically, to experience pleasure in intimacy, a מצוה mitzvah to provide pleasure in intimacy. It's not something just for procreation. There's a pleasure component which is an obligation upon us. But we do it with a distinct person, in a distinct time, in a modest manner, and so on and so forth. That's holiness. So God says, why am I giving you these laws of כשרות kashrus? כי קדוש אני Ki kadosh ani, because I am holy. I am disciplined and distinguished, and I want you to be disciplined and distinguished. And how do you exhibit that distinction? By showing discipline. Continues the ספורנו Sforno. And that's why I took you out of Egypt. כי אני ה' המעלה אתכם מארץ מצרים להיות לכם לאלקים Ki ani Hashem ha'maaleh eschem me'eretz Mitzrayim lihiyos lachem le'Elokim. וראוי לכם שתעשו זו ההשתדלות להתקדש ולהיות קדושים כדי להפיק רצוני V'raui lachem sheta'asu zo ha'hishtadlus l'hiskadesh v'lihiyos k'doshim k'dei l'hafik r'tzoni. I didn't take you out to be a secular political entity. I didn't take you out to be another member of the EU. I took you out to be a holy people. And you owe it to me. להפיק רצוני L'hafik r'tzoni. You have to satisfy what I want because I took you out. כי אמנם כוונתי כשהוצאתי אתכם מארץ מצרים Ki omnam kavanati k'shehotzeisi eschem me'eretz Mitzrayim. כוונתי kavanasi my my כוונה kavanah was כדי שתשיגו זה שאהיה לכם לאלקים בלתי אמצעי. והייתם קדושים ונצחים בדמותכם אלי במידות ובמושכלות, כי קדוש אני k'dei shetasigu zeh she'eheyeh lachem le'Elokim bilti emtzai. Vihyisem k'doshim v'nitzchim b'damoschem eilai b'midos uv'muskalos, ki kadosh ani. Says God, I took you out with the intent of having no intermediary between you and me. Each of you can have a direct relationship with me. And do you know how to have a direct relationship with me, says God? The holier you are, the closer you are to me. Why is that? Because the holier you are, the more you're imitating me. Now it makes a lot of sense, right? If God puts in us the צלם אלוקים tzelem Elokim, and then we also have this animal impulse, but we live a life where the צלם אלוקים tzelem Elokim dominates the animal impulse, then the צלם אלוקים tzelem Elokim is going to feel more connected to אלוקים Elokim. The godly component in us is going to make us feel more connected. We each have a little of our mother and father in us. But if we're exactly like our mother or our father, we feel very connected to them. We look like them, we have the same habits, we have the same speaking, we have the same everything about them. We think the same, same humor, sense of humor. So if we have components of God and we have components of animal, but we express the component of God, then we feel more connected to him. We have more in common with him. And because we have more in common with him, we feel more connected to him. So God says you can relate directly to me, בלי אמצעי b'li emtzai, without an intermediary. And how do you do it? By being holy. Be like me. Be like me, and you'll be closer to me. And that's what כשרות kashrus is all about, says the ספורנו Sforno. So the מדרש תנחומא Midrash Tanchuma, the מדרש תנחומא Midrash Tanchuma asks, it's incredible. Says the מדרש Midrash, מה איכפת לו לקדוש ברוך הוא שיאכלו ישראל בלא שחיטה? שישראל נוחר ואוכל ושוחט מן הצואר או מן הירך Ma ichpas lo laKadosh Baruch Hu sheyochlu Yisrael b'lo shechita? SheYisrael nocher v'ochel v'shochet min hatzavar o min hayarech? What does it matter to God whether the animal is slaughtered at the windpipe or the nape of the neck? Why does God care whether we eat kosher food or non-kosher food? Does God really care? So let's listen to what the מדרש תנחומא Midrash Tanchuma answers. תדע, נו, שלא נצטוו השחיטה הזו אלא כדי לצרף את ישראל. כי לעתיד לבוא עתידים הצדיקים בבהמות והלוייתן ואין שם שחיטה Teida, no, shelo nitzatavu ha'shechita ha'zu ela k'dei l'tzaref es Yisrael. Ki l'asid lavo asidim hatzaddikim u'v'heimos v'ha'livyasan v'ein sham shechita. God doesn't really care about שחיטה shechita. Yes, he cares about שחיטה shechita. It prevents pain to the animal, the animal doesn't feel pain. It's the painless way of of killing the animal. But does God really care about שחיטה shechita? No. Does God really care about this animal, that animal? To a degree, it's arbitrary. What God really cares about is that there's a diet. So the diet may be arbitrary, but we're observing a diet. And by observing a diet, we're going to be a more disciplined people, and by being a more disciplined people, we're going to be more, have more in common with God and thereby be much more connected to and much more closer with God. Okay? That's Rashi and that is the Sforno. The um, the Rashbam gives a different reason for kashrus. To see the Rashbam you gotta go back earlier in the parsha. Go all the way back to פרק י\"א פסוק ג' Perek Yud Aleph, Pasuk Gimmel. פרק י\"א פסוק ג' Perek Yud Aleph, Pasuk Gimmel, the רשב\"ם Rashbam gives a different answer.Says the רשב\"ם Rashbam, שסע שסע shosa shesa. The Torah says that in order for an animal to be kosher, it has to have split hooves and chew its cud. Says the רשב\"ם Rashbam, ולפי פשוטו של מקרא ותשובת המינים, כל הבהמות והחיות והעופות והדגים ומני הרבה ושרוצים שאסר הקב\"ה לישראל, מאוסים הם ומקלקלים ומחממים את הגוף, ולפיכך נקראו טמאים Ul'fi p'shuto shel mikra u'teshuvas ha'minim, kol ha'beheimos v'ha'chayos v'ha'ofos v'ha'dagim u'minei harbeh u'shratzim she'asar haKadosh Baruch Hu l'Yisrael, me'usim heim u'mekalkelim u'mechamemim es ha'guf, u'lefichach nikre'u t'meim. The Rashbam is bothered. If it's an arbitrary rule, if it's an arbitrary diet, because what matters most is that we're dieting and being disciplined, why does the Torah refer to these non-kosher animals as contaminated, impure, טמאים t'meim, and kosher animals as טהורים t'horim, as טהור tahor, is pure. It's arbitrary. It's nothing intrinsic or inherent within the animal. It's just there to promote a diet, to promote discipline. So says the רשב\"ם Rashbam, not true. Says the רשב\"ם Rashbam, all the flesh and the fish and the fowl and the vermin that are forbidden are harmful to the body. That God's diet actually corresponds with health. That's what the רשב\"ם Rashbam says. The diet God gave us corresponds with healthy living. That's the רשב\"ם Rashbam's contention, רש\"י's Rashi's grandson, שמואל בן מאיר Shmuel ben Meir. The אברבנאל Abarbanel doesn't like it. You don't have this in your מקראות גדולות Mikraos Gedolos, but the אברבנאל Abarbanel doesn't like it, and he doesn't like it for a very good reason. What's his reason? The אברבנאל Abarbanel was actually a physician as well, but what's his reason? Because it's not true. If you look at the Torah's diet, it does not only permit healthy and the animals that are forbidden are unhealthy. Says the אברבנאל Abarbanel, there are plenty of kosher-observant people walking around with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, clinically obese. If the רשב\"ם's Rashbam's formula were true, everyone who keeps כשר kosher should be the model of health, and the people who keep non-כשר kosher should be on the brink of death, ticking time bombs. But that said notes the אברבנאל Abarbanel already, in his time, that it's not true. Many people who don't keep כשר kosher are specimens of good health, and many who observe כשר kosher, you look around the שולחן ערוך קידוש shulchan aruch kiddush on a given שבת Shabbos, you'll see that it's not exactly the who's who of healthy living. So says the אברבנאל Abarbanel, it can't be true. It can't be true. So what is כשרות kashrus about? The רמב\"ם Rambam in his מורה נבוכים Moreh Nevuchim says non-kosher are dirty animals. They represent dirty or filthy animals. Not necessarily harmful as the רשב\"ם Rashbam says to the health, but the רמב\"ם Rambam says they're dirty or they're filthy. But again, we know that that's not true either. That there's there's much more than that. There's much more than that. So there are other answers which are given. The רמב\"ן Ramban, the רמב\"ן Ramban says, I'll show you where it is. It's the רמב\"ן Ramban, פרק י\"א פסוק י\"ג Perek Yud Aleph, Pasuk Yud Gimmel. פרק י\"א פסוק י\"ג Perek Yud Aleph, Pasuk Yud Gimmel. Says the רמב\"ן Ramban, הנה טעם האיסור hinei ta'am ha'issur, you see, sorry. טעם האיסור Ta'am ha'issur. Second paragraph, uh, second to last paragraph. You got it? טעם איסור בעופות, מפני אכזריות תולדותם Ta'am issur b'ofos, mipnei achzarius toldosam. הבהמות יתכן שכן שאין בבעלי הגרה ופרסה שוסע דורס, והשאר כולם יטרופו Ha'beheimos yitachen she'kein she'ein b'ba'alei ha'gerah u'parsa shos'a dores, v'ha'she'ar kulam yitrofu. The רמב\"ן Ramban says the following. The רמב\"ן Ramban argues that you are what you eat. You are what you eat. So when we ingest, we ingest not only the cholesterol, we ingest not only the blood pressure within the red meat, but you also ingest the qualities and characteristics of that which you eat. We ingest the personality of that which we eat. So says the רמב\"ן Ramban, כשרות kashrus, that which the Torah delineates as non-כשר kosher is because they are birds of prey. Similarly, he says the animals, if it has split hooves and chews its cud, it it's not cruel, it doesn't eat other animals, it eats vegetation. If it lacks those things, it eats other animals. Animals that murder and kill and live off of eating other animals, we're not interested in ingesting that cruelty. Right, that's what he writes. אכזריות, מפני אכזריות תולדותם Achzarius, mipnei achzarius toldosam. הנה נמצו בתולדותם שינוי משהזכירו חכמים וכן הטהורים עומד וכן בצמיחם כולם איננו עוף דורס כלל. והם משונים Hinei nimtzu b'toldosam shinui mishe'hizkiru chachamim v'chen ha't'horim omed v'chen b'tzmicham kulam eineno of dores klal. Vehem meshunim. So the רמב\"ן Ramban says, the most important sign of unfitness as food is praying. Every bird of prey is invariably unfit. Torah removed it from us as food because its blood becomes heated up due to its cruelty and its dark and thick, which gives rise to that bitter which is intense to make the heart cruel. Thus the reason for certain birds being forbidden as food is on account of their cruel nature. It's possible that's the reason that certain animals, no animal that choose its cud and has parted hoof is a beast of prey, while the rest all devour others. So says the רמב\"ן Ramban, you are what you eat. There's a notion of it being מטמטם את הלב metamtem es ha'lev, that there is an impact of the food that we eat whether we're aware of it or not. That's why it matters to protect our kids from eating non-kosher. That's why it matters to not eat food which is non-kosher even if we don't know. We can't claim ignorance. We have to do everything we can because for the רמב\"ן Ramban, we are what we eat. We ingest the very character traits, we invest, ingest the very qualities of what we eat. So so far we've seen, the Rashi and the Sforno say, and the Midrash Tanchuma, the diet is arbitrary. What matters is leading a disciplined life. That's how you become disciplined. We saw the Rambam says kashrus has to do with dirtiness. The animals that are not kosher are dirty. We saw the Ramban, the Rashbam says it has to do with health. Kosher foods are healthy, non-kosher are unhealthy. The Abarbanel didn't like that because he says empirically it's not true. Says the Ramban, it has to do with you are what you eat. It has to do with cruelty. The um ספר החינוך Sefer HaChinuch also weighs in, and the Sefer HaChinuch says this, I'll read it to you in the English. Sefer HaChinuch says that the root of this precept lies the reason that the body is an instrument of the spirit. With it, it carries out its activity. Without it, it never completes its work. Thus we find that the body at its command is like a pair of tongs in the hand of a blacksmith. With it, he can produce a tool fit for its purpose. In truth, if the tongs are strong and properly shaped to grasp tools in them, the craftsman can make them well. If they are not good, the tools will never come out properly. In the same way, if there's any loss or damage in the body, some function of the intelligence will be nullified corresponding to that defect. For this reason, our whole and perfect Torah removed us from anything that causes such a defect. The faithful, trustworthy physician who adjured us about them is wiser than both you and them. How foolish and hasty would anyone be who thought that nothing is harmful or useful except as he understands it. The Sefer HaChinuch, like the Rashbam, says there's a divine understanding of what's healthy and unhealthy. Keep kosher and be healthy. But I think that you can combine these reasons. And I think that there's the spirit of the law. If you are disciplined, even if the diet is arbitrary, but it promotes and cultivates within us a sense of discipline, then we should be able to take that sense of discipline and apply it to what we eat. In other words, if you gorge on dessert, in my opinion, you're not keeping kosher. The Torah's view of kosher is not just about the ingredients, it's about the manner in which you eat. I wrote about this earlier this year, I got in big trouble about it, when I talked about our Shabbos meals and how much we're serving and the consumption and the what it costs and the competition and the many many courses and all of that. But the bottom line is keeping kosher is not just about the ingredients that go into food. You can have all the ingredients be kosher, but you're eating pure garbage which is unhealthy, which is also what kashrus is about. Kashrus is about discipline. When you are full and you feel like if I eat anything more I'm going to throw up, and then you eat the rest of your meal, that's a form of sorry for the graphic nature, but that's a form of not of keeping non-kosher. So perhaps you can combine these reasons. Maybe the kosher itself, you can't say that those are only the healthy foods, but what you can say is that the result of a mandate of a diet should be our capacity to eat a healthy diet. And when we eat an unhealthy diet even when it's all kosher, essentially we're not really keeping the spirit of the laws of kashrus. We're not really keeping the spirit of the laws of kashrus. There's a last reason which I want to share with you which is given by Rav Hirsch. Rav Hirsch says that kashrus accomplishes something else also. When you talked about being distinguished and distinct and separate and apart and holy, kashrus achieves something else. It protects the Jew from assimilation. It means the Jew always needs to remember that they are a Jew. And they can't just eat where everyone else eats, and they can't socialize where everyone else socializes, and they can't participate where everyone else participates. And whether it's the accommodations you have to make when you go out for a business meal, or whether it's the accommodations you have to make when you go out on an airplane or a vacation, or whether it's the accommodations you have to make in every aspect of life, it reminds you that you are separate and apart and distinct and distinguished and have to live a life which is a sacred mission. So kashrus again, even if the rules are arbitrary, it serves to elevate us as a community, to create a community of people who are separate and apart, who are protected from assimilation. There was a great article that was written many years ago when the Oreo cookie went under the OU. You may remember that great moment of Jewish pride. When the Oreo cookie went under the OU. Now, the Tootsie Roll went under the OU, Entenmann's, all of these iconic foods went under the OU, they became kosher. For many, they were a cause for celebration. But there was interestingly a conservative rabbi who wrote an article in the Jewish Week many years ago when Oreo went under the under the OU. And he wrote that he's very troubled by it. Why? He writes the following. With the possible exception of Santa Claus and the Big Mac, the Oreo has long been the most infamous prohibition for observant Jewish children. We long to taste this delicacy whose ingredients included forbidden lard, but had to make do with the inferior sawdust-textured substitutes. Some kids dreamed of catching a Mickey Mantle foul pop. I fantasized about unscrewing an Oreo and licking the middle. In truth, Oreo, sorry, sorry, Oreos aren't the only prohibited food to become kosher. Chips Ahoy, Honey Maid Grahams, many other products have also become kosher. Many people naively assume when they see a kosher symbol, a pious old religious guy, sorry, sorry. Oh, here. Now that kosher is in and Oreos will be okay, I'm not sure I want them to be. I know that in some perverse manner, my Oreo envy kept me safely at the outer edges of Middle America, shielding me from total absorption into the vanilla masses. Oreos were the equivalent of white bread. More than anything else, the Jewish contribution to American culture has been the communication of the experience of marginality, of having survived otherness. Oreo denial was for me a direct extension of Egyptian slavery. It made me uncomfortable enough to feel different and different enough to feel proud. Now with Oreos becoming acceptable, I can still rely on the other forbidden food, the Hostess Twinkie. Did the Twinkie become kosher? Is it kosher now also? I don't think so, not yet. That's why they went out. Yeah. Anyway, but it's an interesting, it's a it's a very interesting article. But it's the idea that, you know, to have every iconic non-kosher food become kosher, it's good for the Jew to remember that while everybody else loves the Oreo, we can't. We're not allowed. We're different. There's something healthy. There's something valuable. There's something meaningful in that. So that's uh these are some of the different perspectives at the end of our parsha, what kashrus is about. Interestingly, what the Torah promises us at the end of the parsha, we'll close with this is, that if you make your effort, God will match it and help us. That's what it says, the אור החיים Ohr HaChaim, כי אני ה' אלקיכם ki ani Hashem Elokeichem. Says the אור החיים Ohr HaChaim, פירוש אם משונה אומה ישראלית לקדושה וטהרה, שלא בחר ה' לקרוא אלוה על ידי ישראל. והתקדשתם, פירוש אם אתם מתקדשים, אני אקדש אתכם, לבלי יכניס לגופכם דבר שקוץ Perush im meshuna uma Yisraelis l'kedusha u'l'tahara, shelo bachar Hashem likro Elo'ah al yedei Yisrael. V'hiskadishtem, perush im atem miskadshim, ani akadesh eschem, l'vli yachnis l'gufchem davar sheketz. If you make an effort, if you show a desire to be holy, to be sacred, to be distinguished, to be distinct, to be disciplined, God says, I will meet you halfway. I will protect you from unintended non-kosher food entering your system. אין הקב\"ה מביא תקלה על ידי צדיקים עצמם, ומידה טובה מרובה, דבר איסור שנכנס לגופו של אדם, הקב\"ה ישמרהו בזה Ein haKadosh Baruch Hu meivi takala al yedei tzaddikim atzmam, u'midah tovah meruba, davar issur shenichnas l'gufo shel adam, haKadosh Baruch Hu yishmereihu b'zeh. If you show discipline and a desire to keep kosher, God will protect you from eating non-kosher by accident. He will elevate us. And we end with the כלי יקר Kli Yakar. Says the כלי יקר Kli Yakar, פסוק מ\"ה pasuk mem hei, קשה, למה פירט זה במצוה זו יותר משאר מצוות Kasha, lama peiret zeh b'mitzvah zu yoser mi'she'ar mitzvos? Why does God talk about taking us out of Egypt with kosher? He could have turned to any mitzvah and said, why do you have to do this mitzvah? I'm the one who took you out of Egypt, what I say goes. Could have said it about שעטנז shaatnez, about תפילין tefillin. Did he say it about תפילין tefillin? Could have said it about uh, חמץ chametz, I don't know, לולב lulav. Why did he say it about כשרות kashrus? Says the כלי יקר Kli Yakar, ועוד יש כמה שינוים בין השרץ השורץ, בין השרץ הרומש. בארץ ודבר ביושר בקרקע שאין לו ניכר כי בו נאמר על הארץ ולא בשורץ. ורומש יתכן טומאה יתרה על נפש V'od yesh kama shinuyim bein ha'sheretz ha'shoretz, bein ha'sheretz ha'romes. Ba'aretz v'davar b'yosher b'karka she'ein lo nikar ki vo ne'emar al ha'aretz v'lo ba'shoretz. V'romes yitaken tumah yesera al nefesh, and a number of other distinctions in the text. על כן אומר אני Al kein omer ani. Says the כלי יקר Kli Yakar, second paragraph. Therefore, I suggest the following: שכל הקרוב קרוב ביותר אל הארץ והרחוק מן האויר יש בו חלק גדול מן העופריות מן העוסה הגבוה קצת מן הארץ Shekol ha'karov karov b'yoser el ha'aretz v'ha'rachok min ha'avir yesh bo chelek gadol min ha'afrius min ha'oseh ha'gavo'ah k'tzas min ha'aretz. Why are the creepy crawly insects the worst? They're called contaminated, impure, they're the worst. So he says, the closer you are to the earth, the more earthly you are, the more material and physical you are. The higher you are elevated, the more spiritual you are. וזה טעם שאין אדם הולך על ארבע. V'zeh ta'am she'ein adam holech al arba. And this is why man walk on two legs instead of four. כי חציו גשמי וחציו רוחני ופניו למעלה. Ki chetzyo gashmi v'chetzyo ruchani u'fanav l'ma'ala. Our feet are firmly planted on the ground, like an animal, we're connected to the earth. We're material beings, but we stand upright because we also are connected to the heavens. We yearn and we stretch and we strive upward, while the animal has all four on the ground because it's entirely connected all to the ground, to the earth. לשון טומאה גרוע מלשון שקץ, האמור על דבר הנאסר לאדם. לפיכך הרומש ניכר עליו שאין לו ניכר יש בו חלק גדול מן העופריות. Lashon tum'ah garu'a mi'lashon sheketz, ha'amur al davar ha'ne'esar l'adam. L'fichach ha'romes nikar alav she'ein lo nikar yesh bo chelek gadol min ha'afrius. The creepy crawlies, the most earthly, it is the closest to the ground, and therefore bears that impact. And he continues, That's why fish don't require שחיטה shechita because they're in the water, they're disconnected from the ground. He goes on and on about this. So it's this notion, the more connected to the earth because again, כשרות kashrus is the way to elevate ourselves for spirituality even within this physical world. So we saw a lot of the ideas of kashrus. Please buy kosher food from Israel. Shop Israel Day, March 30th. Sunday.
