Shabbat Parshat Re'eh - 5762
“Ma’achalot Asurot” – Prohibited Foods

Parshat Re’eh is the Parshah that, among other grand topics, includes the concept of “ma’achalot asurot,” prohibited foods. For human beings, this subject assumes special importance. After all, it was the nature of the first command of the Creator to the First Couple in Gan Eden. Observation of these Laws takes on an aspect of holiness, in a way that is not immediately apparent, but is the unmistakable intent of the Torah (Devarim 14:21), “You shall not eat any carcass; to the stranger who is in your cities shall you give it that he may eat it, or sell it to a gentile, for you are a holy nation to HaShem, your G-d; you shall not cook a kid in its mother’s milk.”

The immediate transition from the statement of an association of holiness to the phrase, thrice repeated, that is the basis of the Laws of the Separation of Meat and Dairy Foods, strongly suggests that adherence to holiness directly implies this separation. This could be understood, perhaps, on the basis of the relationship between the human and the animal kingdoms implied by combining these “foods.” Eating meat requires the killing of the animal, albeit by means of “Shechitah,” ritual slaughter, the most painless way; somewhat of an infringement on its “Right-to-Life.” Whereas, the eating of dairy products, all essentially derived from milk, involves a “helping” relationship with the animal kingdom. The cow is in pain until milk is withdrawn from her breasts, either by nursing or by “milking.” By combining “meat” products with “dairy” products, we are combining the incompatible elements “killing” and “helping,” which is disallowed by the Torah.

Now the Torah clearly permits Man to adopt this stance in relation to his fellow creatures. We see this in Parshat Noach (Bereshit 8:3), “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; like the green herbage I have given you everything.” And again in Parshat Re’eh (Devarim 12:20), permission is granted to eat meat, “When HaShem, your G-d, will broaden your boundary as He spoke to you, and you say, ‘I would eat meat,’ for you will have a desire to eat meat, to your heart’s full desire may you eat meat.”

Advocates of vegetarianism will point out correctly that this would seem to be a concession to Man, and a recognition that he is perhaps not yet able to meet the ideal standard, which we saw printed on the menus of the Gan Eden “Restaurant,” that was entirely vegetarian. Perhaps the human race should first learn to stop killing each other, before it returns to worrying about not killing members of the animal kingdom.

The description in the Prophets of the relationship between the human and the animal kingdoms in the time of the Mashiach, that hopefully will dawn upon us in the very near future, as understood by the RAMBAN, involves reverting to the relationship of friendliness and cooperation that obtained between those kingdoms at first.

A further explanation of the connection between holiness and “eating,” especially the eating of meat, but an idea that could be extended to eating in general, involves the ideas of discipline; moderation and restraint, that underlie the relationship between the Jew and the entire material world. Indeed, human being, despite your frailty, you are the most powerful creature. You are permitted to assert that power, indeed to kill animals for the purpose of eating. But one of the hallmarks of holiness in Judaism is flight from the abuse of power. In a very different context, we find, “Rabbi Yochanan said, ‘Everywhere we find the greatness of the Holy One, Blessed is He, there do we also find His humility...’ ”

When are you permitted to eat meat? Only as the Torah says, “When you desire to eat meat...” Then you are permitted to eat it “to satisfy your full desire.” But taking the life of a fellow creature should never be done casually, as if it were of no importance, as if there were no difference between roast beef and broccoli. This approach to the eating of meat, indeed to eating in general, has the flavor, and the aroma, and the look and the sound of holiness.

Rabbi Pinchas Frankel

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