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Drash
for Shabbat Shemini/Parah Must chew its cud and have split feet Kosher meat just can’t be beat So throw away your pork chops Throw away your ham
and bacon If the Torah didn’t have Shemini, this week’s parasha, God might never have provided us the holy ditty that I just recited, the Kosher Meat Song. Shemini, a parasha from Leviticus, takes place in the Sinai wilderness and has three parts. The first part continues the story of the dedication of the tabernacle and ordination of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood. It briefly describes God’s mysterious punishment, by sudden death, of Aaron’s two eldest sons Nadab and Abihu. The second part of this portion presents many of the central principles of kashrut or keeping kosher. Other aspects of keeping kosher such as not boiling a kid in its mother’s milk are described later in Deuteronomy. The final part of Shemini addresses how to interact with animals so as not to become ritually impure. This business of keeping kosher caught my attention. When I was a kid growing up in a Reform congregation, I learned that one of the key things that separated us from Conservative and Orthodox Jews was that we didn’t follow customs that no longer made sense in the modern world. This notion was captured in 1885 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when Reform rabbis from all over the US met under the leadership of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the architect of American Reform Judaism. They said, quote "We hold that all such Mosaic and rabbinical laws as regulate diet, priestly purity, and dress originated in ages and under the influences of ideas entirely foreign to our present mental and spiritual state… Their observance in our days is apt rather to obstruct than to further modern spiritual elevation." The Reform view of kashrut has moderated significantly since then. Now it is left up to each Reform Jew to evaluate kashrut and decide which if any aspects they wish to adopt. Some may simply avoid pork, shellfish, or perhaps mixing milk and meat. Others may keep kosher completely when they are at home but not when they go out to a restaurant or to a friend’s house. There have been many explanations for the Jewish dietary laws, but none generally from the Torah. Maimonides emphasized the health benefits. Other rabbis have emphasized the more humane treatment, i.e. slaughter of animals. Still other rabbis have said that it simply represents our obedience to God’s commandments. In Shemini, God enumerates in great detail exactly what kind of animals can be eaten and what cannot be eaten. Adonai doesn’t say why, but does say, "For I the Eternal am your God: you shall sanctify yourselves and be holy, for I am holy." Yes, you can postulate that there were health benefits – avoidance of trichinosis and tapeworm for one. But the ancients didn’t know those diseases or how they are transmitted. And clearly some of the dietary dictums had and still have no apparent health advantages Yes, you can say that kashrut introduced a certain respect for animals and more ethical approach to eating. Yet unlike Buddhism or Hinduism, it didn’t promote vegetarianism – certainly an even more "ethical" treatment of animals. One can easily argue that the practical outcome of kashrut, for better or worse, is that it has visibly set us apart from our neighbors. Sure, circumcision sets us apart, but that’s not something typically noticed by friends and neighbors. Yet to be kosher generally means that you can’t break bread with non-Jews. You stick with your own kind, and like the kashrut rules themselves, you keep things separate. Perhaps this is one reason that Jews have historically been disliked or perceived as arrogant by their neighbors – this apparent unwillingness to break bread with others. It seems almost elitist, un-American, and yet it’s gaining in popularity in Reform circles. I propose that one reason keeping kosher is gaining in popularity is because some Reform Jews feel too integrated in American society, fear integration, and feel that following traditional dietary laws helps them to retain a strong separate identity as Jews. Is that right or wrong? Well, I agree with the current Reform movement position – it is really up to each of us to decide. Shabbat Shalom.
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