Parshat Shemini: What does it mean to be 'Kosher'?

 There was a popular ad campaign for the Hebrew National food company with the slogan, “We have to answer to a Higher Authority.”  Given that in one spot the actor holding the hot dog is Uncle Sam, the government, that would allow fillers and other non-natural products in the food, the commercial stresses that because the company is kosher, it provides a higher standard or quality product.

Is a kosher hot dog a better quality hot dog?  Does it look better, taste better?  I’ll leave that to the consumers to decide…

Suffice to say that Kosher has never meant ‘better’ or ‘superior’.  It has never been a litmus test for comparison, only the result of preparing foods in accordance with Jewish tradition.

It is serendipitous that the only time the word ‘kasher’ appears in the entire Tanach or Bible is in the Book of Esther that we read this past week on Purim.  In chapter 8, Esther says to King Achashverosh, “If it is well with the King, and if I have found favor in the King’s eyes, and the matter is kasher/appropriate before the King, and I am good in the King’s eyes, then let the King write a response to the letters expressing the will of Haman son of Hamedata the Agagite who wrote to destroy the Jews in all the King’s lands.”

Kosher here means appropriate or fitting.

And it is fitting that in our Torah reading this week, Parshat Shemini, we read about the living things the people are permitted and not permitted to eat, again, it is worth noting that the word Kosher does not appear here – only tamei, impure, and pure, tahor.

These categories, tamei and tahor, impure and pure, apply in the ancient world both to people and to animals.  And again, they are not judgment calls.  The person who is impure is only that way temporarily.  The great commentary of Rabbi Isaac Abravanel on the Torah explains there’s nothing inherently negative about animals and thus meats that are not kosher by the rules set out in the Torah, in fact, he writes, “For the most part, they are pleasant for human beings to eat.”  In other words, there’s no risk, health or otherwise in eating them.  He’s practical in this area, citing the way many do eat these things and they appear healthy and strong.

Rather, Abravanel argues, kosher is not about the health of the body but rather of the spirit.  In the way we nourish our bodies, there is great potential to nourish our souls as well.  This idea can help us as a lens for our Judaism and faith in other areas, too.  Take Shabbat as an example, Friday night into Saturday the world continues turning as normal, the sun sets, rises, winds blow, it is a day like any other but with a potential to infuse the day itself, and every other day of the week, with a renewed appreciation of time, of creation, of each other.

And so Kosher as well can be both a way of eating and a way of thinking about how to infuse our lives with important Jewish values.  Perhaps a better way to say it is that Kosher can be a way of eating that guides us to be mindful of Jewish values and mindful, at the same time, of ourselves.

Let’s focus for a moment on being ‘mindful of ourselves’ since I think this is the less intuitive part of Kosher.  How often do we feel in our lives we are operating on auto pilot?  We can drive to familiar places while talking on the phone, listening to music, talking to a friend, and if there’s traffic on route A we can automatically divert to route B.  I remember in my house growing up if you were looking for something, whatever it was, it was worthwhile opening up the refrigerator since from time to time someone would open up the fridge and put the item there by accident.  Given that we easily lapse into auto pilot, what better way of regaining our mindfulness than by asking us to be more aware of the food that is a necessary part of our daily existence, that gives us the energy to do what we must do and what we want to do.

And in terms of our Jewish values, we are talking about, for example, the value of tzar ba’aley chayim, protecting living things, that Kosher preparation has the potential when done right to reduce the pain and suffering of animals when they are slaughtered.  And increasingly there is a movement to add tzedakah, justice, to the values Kosher or Kashrut inspires.  Is the food that is by tradition kosher being prepared in an ethical way?  Are employers paying a living wage?

And after all, Kosher does not mask or redeem unethical behavior.  A righteous person cannot be righteous if he or she eats Kosher but acts unethically.  The unethical behavior in every case invalidates dietary laws and any other ritual law or practice, as the Rabbis teach, “Derech eretz” – right action, right living, comes before everything, even before the etz ha’chayim, the Tree of Life itself, which is symbolic of the Torah that guides and sustains us.(Eliyahu Rabah, Ish Shalom, Parsha Aleph, Vaygaresh et Ha’adam & Yalkut Shimoni Braysheet, Remez 34, Hen ha’adam haya)

In a recent article that makes just this argument, Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo (www.timesofisrael.com - Parshat Shemini:  Are you really keeping Kosher?), quotes before the opening words of his article, of all people, William Shakespeare!  Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1:

“With devotion’s visage, and pious action, we do sugar o’er the devil himself.”

Wow.  That’s a powerful indictment of human character.  Like Kashrut, Shakespeare’s work is meant to make us mindful of our humanity – let’s not forget that “To be or not to be” is also in Hamlet act 3 scene 1.

Hebrew National is right, of course, that kosher does mean recognizing, acknowledging, and responding to a Higher Authority.  When we are sensitive to what animates us, we become more sensitive to the Source of what animates all of life, all of creation, the Creator of the sun that causes flowers to open and the seeds to grow into food for the animals that eat them and that we eat in turn – reminding us that we all, not just the hot dog guys, do strive to answer not to a Higher authority but to the Highest Authority.