{"id":28773,"date":"2012-08-16T20:45:01","date_gmt":"2012-08-16T20:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=28773"},"modified":"2017-02-08T07:14:46","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T12:14:46","slug":"everyone-eats-why-jews-different-eliyahu-safran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/food\/everyone-eats-why-jews-different-eliyahu-safran\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyone Eats: Why Are Jews Different?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everyone eats. \u00a0Every man, woman, child. \u00a0Thief, sinner, or saint.<\/p>\n

Everything eats. \u00a0Every beast of the field. \u00a0Every insect. \u00a0Every fish swarming the seas and oceans, lakes and rivers.<\/p>\n

To eat is to live, to maintain contact with corporeal existence. \u00a0To keep the body alive. \u00a0For without the body, there is nothing. \u00a0No experience. \u00a0No memory. \u00a0No joy, no hardship. \u00a0No soul.<\/p>\n

Unlike animals and insects, people eat to live and for enjoyment. \u00a0Once beyond the barest of caloric needs, everyone develops personal routines surrounding eating to make the act more enjoyable. \u00a0We honor world-renown chefs. \u00a0Cookbooks proliferate. \u00a0Glossy magazines are dedicated to the joy of eating. \u00a0We love food.<\/p>\n

So how is a Jew to respond when challenged as to why he imposes upon himself not ceremonies dedicated solely to the enjoyment of eating, but rather strict limitations on what he can eat?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Of course, this is a false question. \u00a0Understanding the rules of kashrut\u00a0<\/em>(kosher) as a restriction is to miss the essential nature of creation and of our relationships with G-d and what it means to truly enjoy partaking of creation.<\/p>\n

Jewish tradition holds that if three people feast where no words of Torah are discussed, it is as if they are partaking of a dead offering. \u00a0What gives life to food \u2013 no matter how beautiful the \u201cpresentation\u201d \u2013 is the presence of G-d and Torah. \u00a0Our rabbis have taught that it is forbidden to enjoy anything of this world without a blessing. \u00a0That is, to fail to engage the connection between the physical and the spiritual, the created to the Creator, is to reduce the experience of eating to mere consumption, the behavior of a physical animal.<\/p>\n

Judaism holds that we are more than physical beings. \u00a0Our bodies, our physical selves, are only the temporary shelters for our most precious souls. \u00a0That said, G-d, who created man \u201cof the dust of the earth,\u201d recognizes that man must eat to sustain his physical well-being. \u00a0\u00a0G-d created a biological being, one in need of physical nourishment.<\/p>\n

In the Garden, Adam was given the right to eat vegetation but not meat. \u00a0To eat meat was to take a life and in Eden, he could not take a life. \u00a0Ramban suggests this restriction was due to the close kinship between man and beast, and that, according to the original design of creation, the beast was to serve and assist man, but not serve as his meal.<\/p>\n

But then Adam sinned. \u00a0He fell. \u00a0With that trespass, the original reason for his creation became moot. \u00a0From that moment on, there was a constant decline in man\u2019s moral standard. \u00a0After that time, G-d allowed man to eat meat, if only to blunt his blood lust against his fellow. \u00a0After Noah emerged from the Ark, G-d said, \u201cEvery moving thing that lives shall be to you as food\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

G-d is only too aware of Man\u2019s fundamental weakness and fragility; only too aware of his tendency to err and sin. \u00a0So G-d approaches man with a spirit of forgiveness and concession. \u00a0In the ideal, meat would not be eaten. \u00a0But in man\u2019s fallen state, such a concession is given. \u00a0However, man must still recognize the soul that is within him. \u00a0Man could eat meat but conditional on the prohibition of the blood. \u00a0Blood is life.<\/p>\n

Even in our fallen state, life must be respected and hallowed.<\/p>\n

The laws of kashrut<\/em> are restrictions but only in the sense that they are restrictions which enlarge us. \u00a0Despite the weakness of our natures; despite our propensity for evil, there remains within us the possibility of redemption and renewal, of teshuvah<\/em>. \u00a0The laws of kashrut<\/em> define G-d\u2019s master plan of fusing body and soul within the reality of corporeal existence. \u00a0At Sinai, the Jewish nation was born. \u00a0Beyond the seven Noahide laws, 613 mitzvot (commandments)<\/em> were given to purify an otherwise base and physical creature.<\/p>\n

Through these mitzvot<\/em>, mundane, everyday activities, activities shared with every other living thing, are transformed into expressions of spiritual ideals. \u00a0Meals become halachic performances on Shabbat, yamim tovim <\/em>(holidays), and seudot<\/em> mitzvah\u00a0<\/em>(obligatory festive meal). \u00a0The table upon which man eats becomes something more, something elevated. \u00a0It becomes a mizbe\u2019ach<\/em>, an altar, upon which a spiritual and noble task is accomplished.<\/p>\n

The laws of kashrut<\/em> allow the Jew to eat meat and enjoy it. \u00a0So long as the meat we eat is perfectly kosher as defined by Torah law, we may eat it heartily. \u00a0We have not retrieved our dominion over the animal kingdom that we possessed before the Flood. \u00a0However, we have been given license and freedom to slaughter animals for consumption so long as it is done in strict accordance with His regulations.<\/p>\n

Eating is truly an expression of our essential natures. \u00a0Our physical natures and our spiritual natures. \u00a0Only when we embrace both can eating be truly and completely ennobling.<\/p>\n

One day, Isaiah\u2019s prophecy will come to pass, that \u201cnation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn the arts of war anymore.\u201d \u00a0Man\u2019s urge to kill, in full bloom since Adam fell in the Garden, will dissipate. \u00a0It will no longer be necessary to kill animals to eat so that our desire for blood is blunted. \u00a0When that day comes, \u201cthe earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Man will be both fully physical and fully spiritual. \u00a0Until then, the adherence to the laws of kashrut<\/em> keep our thoughts on what we can be rather than what we are.<\/p>\n

\n

Learn more about kosher from the world’s most recognized and trusted Kosher certification<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu Safran<\/strong> serves as <\/em>OU Kosher\u2019s vice president of communications and marketing. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The way we eat may not be kosher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":363,"featured_media":55403,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"\nEveryone Eats: Why Are Jews Different? - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Eating is an expression of both our physical and spiritual natures. 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