Parshat Re'eh  25 Av 5762, 3 August 2002

Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Reeh     Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17

By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel - Of all the practices which set the observant Jew apart from general society, none is more obvious to the outside world than the laws of Kashrut clearly delineated in our Torah portion (Deuteronomy 14:1-26): the forbidden animals (only those with split hooves and a double digestive tract are permitted), the forbidden fowl (the Bible specifically lists the forbidden species Deuteronomy 14:12-18), the forbidden fish (only those with scales and fins are permitted), forbidden reptiles (all creeping things), blood (and therefore we must soak and salt our meat before preparing it for consumption - Deuteronomy 12:16) and meat together with milk.

The general reason for these prohibited foods is expressed in the Biblical introduction to these detailed laws:"Because you are a holy nation to the Lord your G-d," (Deuteronomy 14:2). Apparently the Bible believes that holiness is achieved by disciplined conduct, through the ability to limit one's physical cravings and instinctual desires. Hence Maimonides codifies the laws of forbidden foods and forbidden sexual relationships in what he calls the Book of Holiness, one of the 14 books, of his magnum opus Mishneh Torah.

My eldest daughter Batya, now a proud mother of a four living in Efrat learned to internalize this fundamental message of Kashrut - the ability to say"no" to one's physical desires - at the tender age of five. She had been invited to a birthday party by one of her playmates whose home was not Kosher and whose parents refused to allow me to purchase the birthday cake at a Kosher bakery. I gave my daughter three choices: not to attend, to attend without partaking of any food, to attend and bring along her own cupcake. Batya opted for the third alternative. She then surprised me by declaring,"I guess I'm pretty lucky, Abba. After all, my friend Binah is allergic to anything that has chocolate, and I'm only allergic to anything that isn't Kosher."

There are, however, two aspects of the laws of Kashrut which are of singular importance - but which are not spelled out within the Bible, Our Torah portion teaches that, in preparing the sacrificial meat for the Holy Temple, "You shall slaughter... in the manner in which I have commanded you" (Deuteronomy 12:21). Now there is no place in the written Law wherein the details of ritual slaughter are delineated; our Sages teach that this was obviously given in the Oral Law- the tractate Zevahim and the Code Yoreh Deah, Laws of Shehitah (Ritual Slaughter) - and is a very significant aspect of our laws of Kashrut, with certified ritual slaughterers all over the globe precisely and punctiliously slaughtering the animal in the only prescribed way which will allow for Kosher consumption of the meat. The very existence of such a detailed group of laws so necessary for daily religious life and not anywhere expressed in the Written Law is considered by our Sages to be a most compelling argument for the ancienticity and authenticity of the Oral Law (Shakh, Yoreh Deah, Laws of Ritual Slaughtering 1,1).

The second significant aspect is the separation of meat from milk, meat products from dairy products, meat pots, dishes and utensils from dairy pots, dishes and utensils. Indeed, the Kosher kitchen is immediately distinguishable by its marked separation between meat and dairy - some families even having two separate sinks and even two separate kitchens altogether! And the source for this total separation is an obscure verse, repeated three times in the Pentateuch - one of which is in our Torah portion - "Thou shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk" (Deuteronomy 14:21 - coming at the conclusion of the Kashrut laws, but repeating the introductory phrase: "Because you are a holy nation to G-d").

The sages of the Talmud derive from the triple repetition a triple prohibition: one may not cook meat with milk, one may not eat meat cooked with milk and one may not derive benefit from meat cooked with milk. Hence, the Biblical prohibition is meat and milk blended together by means of the cooking process like a cheese-burger or salami fried in butter (basar bechalav, literally meat intertwined with milk). The Rabbinic prohibition extends to meat with milk, for example, a salami sandwich with buttered bread.

And local custom (minhag, on the same level as a Rabbinical prohibition) demands that a specified amount of time elapse after eating meat before which one is prohibited from partaking of any dairy product. Rav Moshe Isserles (16th Century) suggests that one custom maintains a six hour wait (or into the sixth hour according to some authorities) because that length of time is necessary for digestion, whereas a second custom only demands a one- hour wait because of the time in which remnants of the meat might still remain in the teeth. Rav Elimelech Bar Shaul, former Chief Rabbi of Rehovot, suggested that since the Talmud forbids eating meat with milk in the same meal, three customs developed: Poland and Russia waited 6 hours because they generally ate at 6:00 A.M., 12:00 P.M., and 6:00 P.M.; Germany waited three hours, because they were accustomed to two additional snack-times at 10:00 A.M. and 4:00 P.M.; and Scandinavia waited one hour because they enjoyed many small "nibble" meals during the day.

What remains is for us to attempt to understand the strange Biblical formulation, "Thou shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk." The usual explanation is that our Torah is expressing the message of compassion inherent in all of our Kashrut laws, the desire of the Almighty to impress upon us the moral ambiguity involved in destroying animal life for our gustatory enjoyment. Hence, He limits our meat consumption, and formulates the prohibition of meat and milk in terms of filial sensitivity. A similar message is conveyed when the Bible, prohibits imbibing blood because "blood is life".

A second lesson may be that by declaring milk from a cow as dairy and not meat, the Jewish tradition is proclaiming the possibility of change, affirming the power of repentance which provides for children who are not destined or doomed to repeat the vices of their parents, offspring who are different from - and better than their progenitors. The only way we can possibly remain optimistic in our imperfect world-vale of tears is by our belief in eventual redemption, knowing full well that there can be no redemption without repentance, no salvation without a fundamental change in human nature. Perhaps that is why one of the repetitions of the prohibition of boiling a kid in its mother's milk comes at the conclusion of a description of our three major national festivals (Exodus 23:19). Linking the mother's milk to the meat of the kid and making the two as one is a repudiation of the path-breaking message of our festivals: people can change, the children of Israel were able to emerge from a "mother-land" like Egypt, slaves can become free, and "the salvation of the Divine can arrive as in the blink of an eye."

Shabbat Shalom.

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