{"id":44965,"date":"2018-12-01T22:18:43","date_gmt":"2018-12-01T20:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=44965"},"modified":"2022-06-26T05:55:37","modified_gmt":"2022-06-26T02:55:37","slug":"kashrut-and-the-limits-of-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/kashrut-and-the-limits-of-reason\/","title":{"rendered":"Kashrut And The Limits Of Reason"},"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":[415,480,751,752],"acf":{"old_id":"44965","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":40540,"related_cahpter":"101","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Sometimes we can\u2019t answer why, because it\u2019s not all about us","content":"

From the time we are able to speak in sentences, we ask the same question over and over again about everything: Why?<\/span><\/p>\n

Why is the sky blue? Why do we go to sleep at night? Why do some people have everything they want and others can’t even get what they need?<\/span><\/p>\n

This question has been asked many times throughout history about Judaism’s food laws. Why does the Torah teach us not to eat pork, shellfish, insects, or certain kinds of birds?<\/span><\/p>\n

The answers that scholars offer tend to focus on health, or history, or ethical behavior as reasons to keep or reject the commandments laid out in Leviticus. Famously, the <\/span>Sefer HaHinuch<\/span><\/i> (13<\/span>th<\/span> century, Spain) which systematically explains the 613 commandments of the Torah, teaches that the prohibition of certain foods is meant to provide for our physical health. Other voices in Jewish thought have pointed to other rationales behind these rules for Jewish eating, seeking to defend \u00a0their practice by grounding them in a logical explanation. Later, in the modern period, Jewish reformers like David Einhorn and Kaufmann Kohler sought to rationalize these laws in order to reject them. What both the defenders and the rejecters had in common, however, was focusing on whether or not the laws of kashrut benefit us. This kind of rationalizing gives us a sense of control. We can point to the explanation and say, it makes sense, we’ll keep it; or else: it is no longer relevant, so don’t.<\/span><\/p>\n

But what these explanations ignore is that the Torah provides us with a reason to keep kashrut: for the sake of <\/span>kedushah<\/span><\/em>, for holiness. At the end of a long list of dietary laws in this chapter, we read (Leviticus 11:44): \u201cYou shall be holy, for I am holy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Holiness is a slippery concept, but in the Torah it often means set apart, or other. Otherness requires boundaries, some of which may seem arbitrary, but without which, there can be no distinction. The Sabbath is holy, because it is set apart from other days of the week. The Temple was holy, because it was set apart from other places. God is Holy, because God is set apart from the world, entirely Other. We are meant to experience holiness\u2014 not for our own sake, but because God is Other.<\/span><\/p>\n

No matter what our religious background, the practice of kashrut has something to teach us about the limits of reason. Sometimes explanations fall short. Sometimes, boundaries seem arbitrary. Sometimes, we can\u2019t answer why something is, because it\u2019s not all about us.<\/span><\/p>\n

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