{"id":44952,"date":"2018-12-01T20:48:45","date_gmt":"2018-12-01T18:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=44952"},"modified":"2022-06-26T05:52:35","modified_gmt":"2022-06-26T02:52:35","slug":"seeking-sacred-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/seeking-sacred-balance\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking Sacred Balance"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[738,415],"acf":{"old_id":"44952","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":38047,"related_cahpter":"101","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Be neither ascetic nor unbridled. Do everything in good measure. The life of the soul and spirit is good; so, too, is the life of the body. Eat delicacies and drink your fill, take delight in your spouse, but always seek the golden mean","content":"

Leviticus 11 presents a detailed list of the kosher animals which may be eaten. It seems a non-sequitur after the disaster that struck Aaron, his sons, and the larger community at end of the previous chapter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (\u201cNetziv,\u201d 1816-1893) points us towards a connection between the two chapters. The sin of Nadav and Avihu was, he wrote, that \u201cThey entered fired with enthusiastic love for God, but Torah tells us: the love of God is precious in God\u2019s eyes, but not in a way which was not commanded.\u201d Their intense devotion was their sin; religiosity can be overly excessive.<\/span><\/p>\n

The laws of kashrut, and subsequent chapters of Leviticus limiting sexual behavior, come to counteract that tendency. At first glance, these laws do nothing more than ban foods, restrain sexuality and limit human enjoyment. But they can also be understood as permissive rather than restrictive, reining in not only permissiveness but also proscribing abstinence. The Torah teaches us that there is value in restraining our passions, but also rejects the impulse to suppress them entirely.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many cultures and religions strive to stifle the appetite for food or sex or both. Apparently the two are related. In \u201c<\/span>Is Food the New Sex?<\/span><\/a>\u201d Mary Eberstadt of Stanford University describes the 180\u00b0 switch in the behavior patterns of young adults in the United States. The participants in her study grew up in an atmosphere of sexual freedom; other than abuse and cheating, anything goes. Yet among this generation, there is a growing culture of complex restrictions on food, with concern for every detail and ingredient, a new set of moral imperatives. They have inverted the norms of their parents who ate whatever they liked but ascribed to a rigid sexual ethic.<\/span><\/p>\n

To which the Torah would say, \u201cA plague on both your houses!\u201d Be neither ascetic nor unbridled. Do everything in good measure. The life of the soul and spirit is good; so, too, is the life of the body. Eat delicacies and drink your fill, take delight in your spouse, but always seek the golden mean. After leaving Egypt, and before reaching the Promised Land, Leviticus sets the people on the road to responsible adulthood, guiding them, us, to seek out balance in life.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Seeking Sacred Balance","main_caption":"Be neither ascetic nor unbridled. Do everything in good measure. The life of the soul and spirit is good; so, too, is the life of the body. Eat delicacies and drink your fill, take delight in your spouse, but always seek the golden mean","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44952"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44952"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105970,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44952\/revisions\/105970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}