As usual, my mathematical, logical mind looks for formulas, algorithms, and principles hidden in these marvellous books of the Torah, applicable for all time. Parashat Reeh, begins with: “Reeh, See, I set before you this day blessing and curse: blessing, if you obey the commandments of your God יהוה (YHVH) that I command you this day; and curse, if you do not obey the commandments of your God יהוה, but turn away from the path that I direct you this day and follow other gods, whom you have not known.” The message is simple, so why is the world once again choosing curses over blessings?
Moses continues: “These are the chukkim and mishpatim that you must carefully observe in the land thatיהוה, God of your ancestors, is giving you to possess, as long as you live on earth.” Remember, chukkim are regulations that we simply need to obey even if we don’t understand why. He warned the Israelites that when they entered the land, they were “…to tear down their altars, smash their pillars, put their sacred posts to the fire, and cut down the images of their gods, obliterating their name from that place”. How can we possibly tear down all the shrines erected to other gods in Israel today? In the past, when Israel had good kings who did exactly that, it resulted in peace and prosperity. We don’t have that today, but until a great king is established on Israel’s throne, we can start by tearing down the idolatry in our hearts, and God will do the rest.
In Deut. 12: 4-7, Moses told us, “ Do not worship your God יהוה like the pagans do, but look only to the place where your God יהוה will choose amidst all your tribes as God’s habitation, to establish His name there. There you are to bring your burnt offerings and other sacrifices, your tithes and contributions, your freewill offerings, and the first fruits of your herds and flocks. Together with your households, you shall feastthere before your God יהוה, happy (שְׂמַחְתֶּ֗ם) in all the undertakings in which your God יהוה has blessed you. You shall not behave at all as we behave now, here, each of us as we please… You shall rejoicebefore your God יהוה with your sons and daughters and with your male and female servants….” Happiness and feasting abound when we follow God’s directives, but when we behave as we please, the opposite occurs.
Deut. 12:15 caught my attention: “But whenever you desire, you may slaughter and eat meat in any of your settlements, according to the blessing that your God יהוה has granted you; the impure (tamei) may eat it together with the pure (tahor).” It seems to say that people, both impure and pure, could eat meat like the gazelle or deer (which are tahor), but an Israeli friend told me that the Hebrew tamei and tahor, “impure and pure” refers to the animals. Next verse 16 says, “But you must not partake of the blood; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.”
Later, Moses repeats this twice more. In Deut. 12:21-24, he says,“ When יהוה enlarges your territory, as promised, … and you have the urge to eat meat, you can eat meat whenever you wish. If the place whereיהוה has chosen to establish His name is too far from you, you may slaughter any of the cattle or sheep that יהוה gives you, as I have instructed you, and you may eat to your heart’s content in your settlements. Eat it, however, as the gazelle and the deer are eaten: the impure may eat it together with the pure. But make sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life.”
Then, Deut. 15:19 repeats this: “You shall set apart for your God יהוה all male firstborn of your herds and your flocks… You and your household shall eat it once a year before your God יהוה in the place that יהוהwill choose. Eat it in your settlements, the impure among you no less than the pure, just like the gazelle and the deer. Only you must not eat its blood, but pour it out on the ground like water.” Here again…does it mean that the pure and impure refer to the people or the animals? The animals that could be eaten whenever they desired were not to be used for offerings.
Leviticus 10 verse 8 emphasizes that we were not to eat the blood, and verse 9 states that: “This is a regulation, חֻקַּ֥ת עוֹלָ֖ם (chukkat olam) for all time throughout the ages, for you must distinguish between the sacred and the profane, and between the impure (tamei) and the pure (tahor).” Then he speaks of offerings and continues with, “you shall eat it in a sacred place. Leviticus 11 addresses everything tahor, that could be eaten, and everything tamei, that could not. But notice, these immediately followed the verses about offerings and sacrifices. So, there were things that could be eaten to our heart’s content any time we desired, and others that were acceptable solely as offerings and sacrifices to God. The meat from these offerings was not wasted (except for the ola, the burnt offering); it was eaten by the priests and families present at the offering ceremony.
As our rabbi taught us, the bottom line is that we, who were set apart, were no longer to behave like the idolatrous nations, and we could only offer animals that God accepted and in the place that He chose for us. These are chukkim. Otherwise, we could eat anything and rejoice anywhere.
Following this train of thought, let’s go back to after the great flood, at the time of Noah, and after we were told to go forth and multiply. In Genesis 9:2-3, God said, “Every creature that lives shall be yours to eat, as with the green grasses, I give you all these. You must not, however, eat flesh with its lifeblood in it. So, we were permitted to eat everything except for the blood. Beyond the physical benefits of blood lies the spiritual aspect. Blood is the life force of God’s creation, but pagans believed that the consumption of blood could transfer that life force to themselves or their gods.
Deut. 14:21 has caused much discussion amongst our sages and has led to a lot of misunderstanding in Rabbinic Judaism: “You shall not eat anything that has died a natural death; instead, give it to the ger (stranger) in your community to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people set apart to your God יהוה.” What is He saying? Does God hate the ger or the foreigner so much that He would poison them, but not the Israelites? Of course, not! Here’s where Hebrew pictures speak louder than words. God was slowly setting apart a Goy Kodesh, a Holy Nation, a Chosen People for a specific purpose, to be His ambassadors of light, “Ohr L’Goyim” to all the nations. How would He set this nation apart from the others at that time? Through their food, their clothes, certain liturgical practices, but most of all, their moral standards. Clothes, food and liturgical practices would change over time and even disappear, but His moral standards would last forever.
Verse 21 is immediately followed by a reference to a pagan fertility rite, “You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.” This fertility rite involved wrenching a nursing calf away from its mother, killing it, then boiling it in its mother’s milk. A barren woman raised in this superstitious environment would believe that she could become pregnant by drinking this milk. The pagans had no compassion for God’s creatures, but He was showing His new nation that they could not behave this way. They were being held to a higher standard. How can we translate this idolatrous practice into today’s world? Most of us don’t realize how many superstitious belief systems we are trapped in; paradigms that cause us to live in fear and to miss out on so much joy in life.
And how did boiling a kid in its mother’s milk transition into the prohibition of eating milk and meat together? Didn’t Abraham prepare cheese, milk and meat for the three messengers heading to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? Our sages have many explanations, but aren’t they adding to God’s words and replacing them with their own? Didn’t God tell us, “Do not add or take away anything from My words”? These Words, inscribed in stone by the finger of God, carried in an ark were the Ten Commandments, not any later human writings.
Listen carefully to Deut.14:22 and 24: “You shall consume the tithes of your new grain, wine, oil, and the first fruits of your herds and flocks, in the presence of your God יהוה, in the place where [God] will choose to establish His name, so that you may learn to revere your God יהוה forever and spend the money on anything you want—cattle, sheep, wine, or other intoxicant, or anything you may desire. And you shall feastthere, in the presence of your God יהוה, and rejoice with your household. Did you hear any strict prohibitions or the idea of fanatic self-denial in these verses? No, those come from religions, not a relationship with the GOD who loves His creation.
Parashat Reeh and Leviticus 11 both appear to address what we can and cannot eat, and keeping kosher has evolved into a major business in the Jewish community worldwide today. But why doesn’t the word “kosher” appear even once in the Torah? Rabbi Yeshua argued with the orthodox community of his day, accusing them of travelling miles to make one proselyte and placing more burdens on them than they were willing to carry. He also said, “Don’t worry about what you eat, worry about what comes out of your mouth, out of your heart.” We are free to keep kosher or not, just as we are free to obey or disobey His Commandments, but only God’s commandments will result in blessings or curses.
Mankind’s desire to add or take away from God’s Words has, over the centuries, created religious fanatics who not only want to destroy the God who wrote them, but also the people He set apart and whose role it is to live and disseminate them. Herein lies the root of the Antisemitism that we see rising in the world once again today. Yes, we can write letters to our governments to legislate against it; yes, we can march in parades and join rallies, but will these change the hearts of men? What will turn the tide? Back to the first verse of this parashah: “Reeh, See, I set before you this day blessing and curse: blessing, if you obey the commandments of your God יהוה that I command you this day; and curse, if you do not obey the commandments of your God יהוה, but turn away from the path that I direct you this day and follow other gods, whom you have not known.”
He is the only GOD, the only source of Truth. Let us turn away from other ideologies that do not reflect His Truth. Parashat Reeh teaches us that God wants us to rejoice, to be happy in everything we undertake, to feast together, to thank Him with tithes of our first fruits and to remember that He is the Provider, as Deut. 11 and 12 says “…because your God יהוה has blessed you.” Our loving Avinu Shebashamayim, our Father in heaven, only wants good for His children, Jew and Gentile, which is why He gave us the gift of the Ten Commandments, Israel’s constitution, as well as the gift of Free Will so we can choose to obey or disobey. The consequences, good or bad, belong to us! And finally, a message to our enemies, Abraham was told by our Creator, “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.” And as Joshua said: “ …as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
Shabbat Shalom
Peggy Pardo