Rabbi Eliyahu Safran
What does it mean to fully exist in the material world and the
spiritual world? In other words, what does it mean to be fully a Jew?
Curiously, the answer can be found in the fundamental Jewish concept of
kashrut, a concept almost always associated with one of the most
material aspects of life, food and eating choices.
Upon returning from the war against the Midianites, the Jews were instructed to purge the non-kosher food taste from each and every pot, pan and food utensil which had been taken as a spoil of battle. This instruction makes plain a fundamental principle of kashrus as taught in the Talmud (Avodah Zarah 75b), that the manner used to remove the absorbed, forbidden, non-kosher taste demands a cleansing that is commensurate with how the non-kosher taste was originally imbued into the utensil. “Ke’bolo kach polto.” In the same manner that the taste of the food is absorbed by a utensil, so may the taste be purged. Everything that comes into the fire, you shall pass through the fire. Kashering a spit or grill can only be achieved by scorching with fire; kashering a pot used for boiling can only be purged with boiling water. Only then can one be absolutely certain that no residue of non-kosher remains. Just as heat always infuses taste into another material /substance, only heat can purge it; the more intense the heat, the more intensely the taste is absorbed and therefore the more intense the heat of purging.
This is of most important practical application. The ability to kasher utensils so that what had been non-kosher can be transformed into useful kosher kelim is a necessary prerequisite for living a kosher life. But is there an equally important insight to be gleaned from this instruction? Isn’t it true that Judaism teaches that every physical aspect of observance has a spiritual match as well? If so, what is the spiritual match to kashering?
When Elazar haKohen instructs the Israelites in kashering the Midianite utensils, he says, zos chukkas haTorah – this is the decree of the Torah. Such a universal statement for such a practical instruction! Clearly, this “practical application” suggests a broader lesson, one that encompasses the whole of the Torah.
But what can this lesson be?
Read More:
http://www.ou.org/ou/print_this/97465
Upon returning from the war against the Midianites, the Jews were instructed to purge the non-kosher food taste from each and every pot, pan and food utensil which had been taken as a spoil of battle. This instruction makes plain a fundamental principle of kashrus as taught in the Talmud (Avodah Zarah 75b), that the manner used to remove the absorbed, forbidden, non-kosher taste demands a cleansing that is commensurate with how the non-kosher taste was originally imbued into the utensil. “Ke’bolo kach polto.” In the same manner that the taste of the food is absorbed by a utensil, so may the taste be purged. Everything that comes into the fire, you shall pass through the fire. Kashering a spit or grill can only be achieved by scorching with fire; kashering a pot used for boiling can only be purged with boiling water. Only then can one be absolutely certain that no residue of non-kosher remains. Just as heat always infuses taste into another material /substance, only heat can purge it; the more intense the heat, the more intensely the taste is absorbed and therefore the more intense the heat of purging.
This is of most important practical application. The ability to kasher utensils so that what had been non-kosher can be transformed into useful kosher kelim is a necessary prerequisite for living a kosher life. But is there an equally important insight to be gleaned from this instruction? Isn’t it true that Judaism teaches that every physical aspect of observance has a spiritual match as well? If so, what is the spiritual match to kashering?
When Elazar haKohen instructs the Israelites in kashering the Midianite utensils, he says, zos chukkas haTorah – this is the decree of the Torah. Such a universal statement for such a practical instruction! Clearly, this “practical application” suggests a broader lesson, one that encompasses the whole of the Torah.
But what can this lesson be?
Read More:
http://www.ou.org/ou/print_this/97465
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