EXOD894 See [[LEV893]] Leviticus 22:28 same SACTAB 61-2

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EXOD898 See [[GEN275]] Genesis 2:15 tend SACTAB 190-2

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EXOD899 See [[GEN666]] Genesis 9:3 eat SACTAB 273-4

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EXOD1046 See [[EXOD892]] Exodus 23:19 boil SACTAB 57-9

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EXOD1050 See [[GEN666]] Genesis 9:3 eat SACTAB 273-4

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EXOD1053 The most significant individual fast in the Torah is Moses's abstinence from food and drink for forty days and nights on Mount Sinai. (This verse). When Moses retells the story in Deuteronomy 9, he reports a second forty-day period of fasting. The midrash teaches that this supernatural abstinence raised him to the status of celestial, non-corporeal beings and prepared him to meet with the Holy One. Embodied readers know that a fast of several hours produces a somewhat altered state of consciousness; how much more so a fast of days and weeks! “As Moses came down from the mountain bearing the two tablets of the Pact, Moses was not aware that the skin of his face was radiant, since he had spoken with God” (Exodus 34:29). Both his body and his spirit were transformed by his fast and his encounter. While Jewish tradition focuses on communal, rather than individual fast, a full or partial fast to mark singular personal events, particularly one’s wedding and the observance of a parent’s yahrzeit, offers a unique opportunity to focus on and be attentive to one's relationship with oneself, one’s beloveds, and with the Source of all love. In addition to the fast of the firstborn that is observed primarily by traditional Jews on Erev Pesach, some may choose to refrain from eating or drinking to prepare themselves for communal service, such as serving as sh’lichei tzibur [i.e., communal prayer leaders—AJL]. And some contemporary Jews may fast as a way to atone for or distance themselves from negative behaviors or actions. It is not uncommon today to fast in preparation for medical tests or procedures. We may consider these periods of intentional abstinence as an opportunity for reflection or spiritual growth. At times of intense engagement or at times of stress, we may find ourselves forgetting or unable to eat. Recognizing the spiritual energy of such times may help us to be more intentional about naming and claiming this abstinence as intentional rather than accidental. (By Sue Levi Elwell, “TZOM: Fasting as a Religious/Spiritual Practice”)

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EXOD1055 See [[EXOD1058]] Exodus 34:28 forty SACTAB 449-50

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LEV98 To Promote Human Hygiene. The suggestion that one rationale for kashrut is to promote human health and hygiene has caused much debate over the centuries. Rambam [Maimonides, Guide, 3:48. “Among all those forbidden to us, only pork and fat may be imagined not to be harmful. But this is not so, for pork is more humid than his proper and contains much superfluous matter. ... The fat of the intestines [cheilev], too, makes us full, spoils the digestion, and produces cold and thick blood.”], Rashbam [Commentary to Leviticus 11:3 “All the caddie, creatures, fowl and fish ... that the Holy One of Blessing has forbidden to Israel are vile. They damage and overheat the whole body. Therefore they are termed unclean. Even expert doctors will so attest.”] and Ramban [e.g., Commentary to Leviticus 11:9, The fish without fins and scales live in lower waters, breed in musty swamps, and can be injurious to health.] all hold it to be true, but others, like Abarbanel [Sh’mini; key word: Vay’debeir Adonai el Moshe] and the author of Akeidat Yitzchak [Isaac b. Moses Aama, Sh’mini, Shaar Shishim (chap. 60). He suggests instead that they have a deleterious effect on our intellectual powers and ethical sensibilities] vociferously reject the idea. Torah is more than a minor medical treatise. Why are there plenty of healthy pork eaters? Why doesn't Torah teach about poisonous plants? Why does it use the language of abomination and detestation instead of unhealthy or hard to digest? The profundity of its purpose, they argue, is greater than the promotion of human hygiene. Nevertheless, it remains one of the more commonly assumed bases for the dietary laws. A translation of these principles to modern times requires little imagination. New proclamations about the positive and negative effects of various foods are issued every day. And following the dictates of Torah, we are commanded to choose life. This is keeping kosher. While sorting out the surfeit of information may be challenging, we can assert as a movement [i.e., the Reform movement-AJL] that an element of kashrut is the command to eat healthfully. (By Rachel S. Mikva, “ADVENTURES IN EATING: An Emerging Model for Kashrut”)

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LEV102 See [[LEV98]] Leviticus 11:3 eat SACTAB 59-60, 66, ft. 15

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LEV112 I don't know whether I believe that God doesn't want us to eat animals--the Torah seems to support both sides of that argument. Before the Flood, God does not indicate any purpose for animals in the scheme of the Creation. In Genesis 1, only birds and sea creatures and human beings are blessed. In Leviticus 11:40, the Torah makes it clear that there is no intrinsic value to an animal dying a natural death. Such a creature is called n’veilah, and we are forbidden to eat it. In the description of the cap High Priest’s Yom Kippur ritual (Leviticus 16), the fortunate animal is not the goat that is kept alive, doomed to wander sin-laden through the wilds of Azazel, but the one whose death comes in a korban, as part of a ritual sacrifice. All animals, like all humans, must die. The question is, does an animal's death fulfill a purpose? The Torah seems to say--whether you agree with this reasoning or not--that the animal’s purpose is to nurture bigger animals and human beings. Human beings, after all, also nurture the earth when we die and are buried. Although God seems to see nurturing other creatures as one of the purposes for the existence of animals, God clearly wants human beings to think about the lives they are taking. Consider the long lists of creatures permitted and forbidden, the near-death struggle in Parashat Vayishlach from which Jacob emerges wounded in his loins, the source of the prohibition against sirloin and tenderloin and porterhouse. Consider the statement in Genesis 9:4 that blood represents the life that belongs to God and not to us, and the Rabbis’ tortured extensions of the simple command to avoid boiling a kid in its mother's milk. Taking your animal’s life may be permitted, but we are to empathize with the animal’s pain, with tzaar baalei chayim. If the ideal is the reinstatement of the Edenic condition, then to confront the realities of consuming animals with every meal we buy, prepare, and consume not only builds our Jewish identities, but also makes us aware many times each day of God’s mitzvot--and reminds us of our failure to create societies free from violence and lustful appetite. The encounter with the realities of taking the lives of living creatures reminds us of our own creatureliness as human beings, even as the dietary section in Deuteronomy 14:21 reminds us that our destiny is to be an am kadosh, a holy people to Adonai our God. We are creatures, whom God commanded to consume other creatures to live--but we can also be holy, striving to climb out of creatureliness into godliness. It is a struggle: Jacob’s frail body versus the spirit; k’doshim tihyu, Leviticus 19:2 tells us--we are becoming holy; we have not yet reached the goal. (By Richard N. Levy, “KASHRUT: A New Freedom for Reform Jews”) (Continued at [[LEV354]] Leviticus 19:13 defraud SACTAB 71-2).

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