Spirituality of Kashrut

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch

Just as the external temple, which represents your holy mission and to which you should sanctify yourself, becomes desecrated by impurity...so are these foods impure and unfit for your spirit, as far as they are all of them the living place of activity for your own being which is summoned unto holiness. If you have eaten them. not only touched but absorbed them into your system- you may be more nourished and better fed: but the animal instinct will be aroused more strongly within you, and your body becomes more blunted as an instrument of the spirit. Your heart, instead of being holy, instead of only striving for holiness- namely, your sublimity over everything animal-like, is drawn down to the animal- or become the more apathetic and dulled. Your spirit is now faced with a fiercer battle. and is less equipped for the fight" (Horeb, 317).

Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady, Tanya ch 6-8

The great Kabbalist, Rabbi Isaac Luria (the "Ari", 1534-1572) taught that every created thing possesses a "spark" of divine energy that constitutes its essence and soul. When a person utilizes something toward a G-dly end, he brings to light this divine spark, manifesting and realizing the purpose for which it was created.

In all physical substances, a material "husk" (kelipah) encases and conceals the divine spark at its core, necessitating great effort on the part of man to access the spark without becoming enmeshed in the surface materiality.

No existence is devoid of a divine spark -- indeed, nothing can exist without the pinpoint of G-dliness that imbues it with being and purpose. But not every spark can be actualized. There are certain "impregnable" elements whose sparks are inaccessible to us. The fact that something is forbidden by the Torah means that its husk cannot be penetrated, so that its spark remains locked within it and cannot be elevated.

Thus, one who eats a piece of kosher meat and then uses the energy gained from it to perform a mitzvah, thereby elevates the spark of divinity that is the essence of the meat, freeing it of its mundane incarnation and raising it to a state of fulfilled spirituality. However, if one would do the same with a piece of non-kosher meat, no such "elevation" would take place. Even if he applied the energy to positive and G-dly ends, this would not constitute a realization of the divine purpose in the meat’s creation, since the consumption of the meat was an express violation of the divine will.

This is the deeper significance of the Hebrew terms assur and mutar employed by Torah law for the forbidden and the permissible. Assur, commonly translated as "forbidden," literally means "bound", implying that these are things whose sparks the Torah has deemed bound and imprisoned in a shell of negativity and proscription. Mutar ("permitted"), which literally means "unbound," is the term for those sparks which the Torah has empowered us to extricate from their mundane embodiment and actively involve in our positive endeavors.

The "bound" elements of creation also have a role in the realization of the divine purpose outlined by the Torah. But theirs is a "negative" role-they exist so that we should achieve a conquest of self by resisting them. There is no Torah-authorized way in which they can actively be involved in our development of creation, no way in which they may themselves become part of the "dwelling for G-d" that we is charged to make of our world. Of these elements it is said, "Their breaking is their rectification." They exist to be rejected and defeated, and it is in their defeat and exclusion from our lives that their raison detre is realized.

(Based on Tanya chapters 7-8)

Louis Jacobs on Nachmanidies

Nahmanides, in his commentary to the Pentateuch [the Torah], tends to see the dietary laws as beneficial to the soul rather than the body. Nahmanides observes that the forbidden animals and birds are predators, so that for man to eat of their flesh will have an adverse effect on his character, whereas the permitted animals and birds are calmer and far less violent. As for fishes, those that have fins and scales are able to swim nearer to the surface of the water where they can inhale the fresher air, whereas the other fish lurk in the murky waters of the deep, and their flesh is less clear and refined.

Maimonides' Guide to the Perplexed (summarized by david Silverberg)

3:27: The general object of the Law is twofold: the well-being of the soul, and

the well-being of the body." Two sentences later, he explains that by "well-being of the

body" he refers to general social stability: "The well-being of the body is established by a

proper management of the relations in which we live one to another." According to

Maimonides, many of the Torah's commandments were issued to ensure the physical welfare of society at large, by eliminating violence and promoting ethical conduct.

3:33: It is also the object of the perfect Law to make man reject, despise, and reduce his desires as much as is in his power. He should only give way to them when absolutely necessary. It is well known that it is intemperance in eating, drinking, and sexual intercourse that people mostly rave and indulge in; and these very things counteract the ulterior perfection of man impede at the same time the development of his first perfection, and generally disturb the social order of the country and the economy of the family. For by following entirely the guidance of lust, in the manner of fools, man loses his intellectual energy, injures his body, and perishes before his natural time… The cause of all this is the circumstance that the ignorant considers physical enjoyment as an object to be sought for its own sake. God in His wisdom has therefore given us such commandments as would counteract that object, and prevent us altogether from directing our attention to it, and has debarred us from everything that leads only to excessive desire and lust.

3:35:

Maimonides classifies all the Torah's commandments into distinct categories and presents a brief overview of each. In presenting the dietary laws, he very explicitly identifies the reason underlying these prohibitions: "The object of all these laws is to restrain the growth of desire, the indulgence in seeking that which is pleasant, and the disposition to consider the appetite for eating and drinking as the end [of man's existence]." According to this passage, the primary objective of these laws is restraint, to train the individual in the art of self-control and moderation.

3:48:

"I maintain that the food which is forbidden by the Law is unwholesome… There is nothing among the forbidden kinds of food whose injurious character is doubted" among the professional healthcare community of his day, "except pork and fat." Maimonides proceeds to resolve these "doubts" by exposing the "injurious" features of even these foods: "For pork contains more moisture than necessary [for human food], and too much of superfluous matter… The fat of the intestines makes us full, interrupts our digestion, and produces cold and thick blood." Medically speaking, then, all foods forbidden by the Torah are potentially harmful for the human body, and for this reason they are proscribed by divine law.

With regard to the particular example of pork, Maimonides adds that the Torah's

concern involves not only the adverse effects of ingesting this food, but also, and primarily, the issue of general cleanliness and hygiene:

The principal reason why the Law forbids swine's flesh is to be found in the circumstance that its habits and its food are very dirty and loathsome. It has already been pointed out how emphatically the Law enjoins the removal of the sight of loathsome objects, even in the field and in the camp; how much more objectionable is such a sight in towns. But if it were allowed to eat swine's flesh, the streets and houses would be more dirty than any cesspool…

Sefer Ha-chinukh, mitzva 78:

At the root of this precept lies the reason that the body is an instrument of the spirit: with it, it carries out its activity; without it, it can never complete its work… Thus we find that the body at its command is like a pair of tongs in the hand of a blacksmith: with it he can produce a tool fit for its purpose. Now in truth, if the tongs are strong and properly shaped to grasp tools in them, the craftsman can make them well. If the tongs are not good, the tools will never come out properly shaped and fit. In the same way, if there is any loss or damage in the body, of any kind, some function of the intelligence will be nullified, corresponding to that defect. For this reason our whole and perfect Torah removed us far from anything that causes such defect. In this vein, according to the plain meaning we would say we were given a ban by the Torah against all forbidden foods. And if there are some among them whose harm is known [understood] neither by us nor by the wise men of medicine, do not wonder about them: the faithful, trustworthy Physician who adjured us about them is wiser than both you and them.

Professor Hannah Kasher Moses Maimonides: Physician, Scientist, and Philosopher (ed. Fred Rosner & Samuel S. Kottek, Jason Aronson, Inc., 1993):

…the view according to which Maimonides' explanation of the dietary laws is based on considerations of health stems from a misreading of his precise wording in the Guide (3:48). He writes there: "Eating any of the various kinds of food that the Law has forbidden is blameworthy [unhealthful]." This is not to say that "eating any of the various kinds of food that the Law has forbidden us is because it is blameworthy." At this point, Maimonides is explaining, not the reason for the dietary laws per se, but the agreement between the object of the religious prohibition and the content of the medical recommendation. The prohibition of certain foods is indeed intended to restrain man's appetites. But this is not accomplished through arbitrary, random injunctions. The Torah directs man to wholesome – not necessarily tasty – food, thereby warning him against foods that are harmful from the medical point of view ("their food is blameworthy"). The very details of the dietary laws have the effect that man, in choosing his food, relies not on what pleases his palate, but rather on what is rationally and medically beneficial. Maimonides here does not present the reason underlying the very institution of ma'akhalot asurot, the notion of forbidden foods. As he had previously explained at length, the concept of a dietary code serves to help focus man's attention away from physical indulgence towards more sublime pursuits. In this passage, he seeks to explain the basis upon which the Torah determined which species to permit, and which to forbid. Rather than randomly choosing certain categories of food, the Torah instead banned selected types of unhealthful foods, thereby conveying the critical message that the foods most gratifying to the palate are not necessarily the most beneficial. In this manner, the individual will accustom himself to the unimportance of physical gratification, and will afford far greater significance to more objectively valuable considerations.

R. David Hartman, from “An Open Letter to A Reform Rabbi,” in A Heart of Many Rooms (1999)

The Jewish people is not just a faith community; it is not merely a collection of individuals, each longing to connect himself or herself spiritually with God. Rather, Judaism is a way of life of a people chosen by God to be a medium of His vision of holiness and justice.

Rabbi Edward Feld

But the way Conservative Jews keep kosher is not simply a matter of finding leniencies. There is no “Conservative kashrut.” Kashrut is kashrut, at least as it relates to shechita – ritual slaughter. But for Conservative Jews, it is also much more. One of the hallmarks of the Conservative approach to Jewish law is its sensitivity to ethical issues. The recent creation of Magen Tzedek, a certification that kosher meat has been processed in a way that is both halachic and not abusive to the labor force, is an important example. Judaism’s strong opposition to cruelty to animals underlays many aspects of kashrut.