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August 25, 2000/24 Av 5760, Vol. 52, No.50
What value does kashrut have today?
Torah Study
MIMI PLATT ZIMMERMAN
R'eh/Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17
This week's Torah portion, R'eh, addresses several aspects of kashrut, the Jewish dietary laws. It is intriguing that the system of kashrut was established as a compromise with the ideal of vegetarianism. The eating of meat is referred to in this portion as a "craving": "for you have the urge to eat meat." (Deuteronomy 12:20)
The Talmud reiterates this point: "The Torah teaches a lesson in moral conduct: that people shall not eat meat unless they have a special craving for it." (Chulin 84a) Ideally, we would all be vegetarians, following the utopian Garden of Eden story in Genesis 1 in which we are commanded to eat plants and fruit.
While Judaism recognizes the need and the desire of human beings to eat meat, we are given clear ethical guidelines to follow. Rather than ban the eating of meat, Judaism restricts it and makes the entire process more humane.
Ideally, Judaism mandates that we not kill for food. But as a compromise, kashrut designates the types of animals that Jews may kill to eat and commands that they be killed in a uniquely humane fashion.
The guiding principle underlying the laws of kashrut is tsa-ar ba-alei chayim, the prevention of unnecessary harm to animals.
Our Torah portion instructs us not to eat the blood of an animal: "For the blood is the life, and you must not consume the life with the flesh." (Deuteronomy 12:23) The blood of the dead animal must be treated with respect, like the blood of all living creatures.
Both the Torah's insistence on our treating animals as we would human beings and the creation of a system of compromise with vegetarianism illustrate Judaism's concern with the ethical and humane in the laws pertaining to food.
Although the ethical aspect of kashrut is clear, there are other reasons why Jews have maintained this system throughout history. According to Philo, the first-century Jewish philosopher, the dietary laws are designed to teach us self-control.
Others have viewed kashrut as an approach to holiness. As the Torah states in an earlier parashah, "You shall not make yourselves unclean through any swarming thing that moves upon the earth. For I the Eternal am the One who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God: You shall be holy, for I am holy." (Leviticus 11:44-45)
It is in these words that I find relevance and meaning for my everyday observance of kashrut. Whenever I sit down to eat a meal, I am reminded of being Jewish because of the choice I have made to keep kosher.
The Reform Movement has long struggled with this mitzvah.
In its beginnings, Reform Judaism rejected the dietary laws. The first official statement of the movement, commonly known as the "Pittsburgh Platform," says: "We hold that all such Mosaic and rabbinical laws that regulate diet, priestly purity, and dress originated in ages and under the influence of ideas altogether foreign to our present mental and spiritual state."
In the latest statement, formulted in Pittsburgh in 1999, Reform Jews are encouraged to study all of the mitzvot, including those that have not long been observed by Reform Jews but "demand renewed attention as the result of the unique context of our own times."
An early version of this document specifically cited kashrut as one of the mitzvot deserving of our attention.
Why was this prior version changed to remove the subject of kashrut altogether from the message? Are we as a movement still so uncomfortable with the laws of kashrut that we would not be open to encouraging them as an option?
Reform Judaism teaches that kashrut need not be an "all or nothing" approach and posits that there is a range of options available to Reform Jews when making decisions to keep kosher. We need no longer be afraid of embracing kashrut as a meaningful choice for Reform Jews.
Mimi Platt Zimmerman is the outreach coordinator of the Florida Hillel Council and lives in Tampa, Fla. Torat Hayim, produced by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, is on the Internet at www.uahc.org/growth.
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