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Tasting Paradise - From Tabernacle to Kosher - שמיני

Friday, April 25, 2025 - 1:24 PM

Tasting Paradise - From Tabernacle to Kosher

The eighth day arrived.

After many months of great effort, donations, design and construction, the Tabernacle was finally set up. After seven days of inauguration, the Divine presence descended:

And the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. And fire went forth from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fats upon the altar, and all the people saw, sang praises, and fell upon their faces. (Leviticus 9:23-24)

Immediately after this climatic event in Jewish history, the Torah transitions, perhaps abruptly, to discuss the laws of kosher food, describing the animals, insects, and birds that are kosher for consumption:

And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, to say to them:

Speak to the children of Israel, saying: These are the creatures that you may eat among all the animals on earth (11:1-2)

To understand the connection between the Divine presence dwelling in the Temple and the laws of kosher, we have to zoom out and consider the Torah’s vision of human history.

Adam and Eve began life in the garden of Eden, where they lived in harmony with themselves, each other, nature, and G-d. They were placed in the garden “to work it and to guard it”. They were commanded not only to refrain from eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, but, though sometimes overlooked, they were commanded to eat of all the other fruit of the garden “And the Lord God commanded man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat.” In Eden, eating itself was a Divine commandment, because Eden is a state of harmony between the physical and the spiritual, where the process of eating is not merely a biological necessity or physical pleasure but a spiritual experience as well.

When Adam and Eve sinned they shattered the harmony of Eden, and caused a separation between the physical and spiritual. They were therefore expelled from Eden to a world of dichotomy, division, and conflict. Their task? To recreate the harmony of Eden, where peace, harmony, and the knowledge of G-d will permeate every aspect of creation.

Building the temple was an integral step in the story of human history, for the temple is a miniature Eden, a place where heaven and earth embrace. Thus, the third book of the Torah, describing the service in the temple, is the first time “Adam” is used as the word to describe the Human being, being that the harmony of Adam was restored in the temple.

But the temple is only the beginning. It is the model of what the rest of the world must become.

In Eden eating is a Divine commandment. Once the temple was built, we are empowered to extend the sanctity of eating wherever we may be on earth. Once the temple was built we received instructions on how to ensure kosher eating, where the food becomes energy not only for the body but also for the soul; fueling a life of meaning, purpose, and passionate devotion to kindness, and intense connection to G-d.

Love in Leviticus - ויקרא

Friday, April 4, 2025 - 3:49 PM

Love in Leviticus

The third book of the Torah, the book of Leviticus, focuses on the laws of offerings in the temple, ritual purity, priests, and ritual law. It appears to be a book focusing less on love and connection and more on obligation and service.

Yet, the opening word of the book tells a different story.

The third book begins:

And He called to Moses, and the Lord spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying,

Rashi points out that this verse is unique; the Torah usually tells us that G-d spoke to Moses, but here the Torah adds an something additional detail, , namely, that G-d first "called" to Moses, and only then "and the Lord spoke to him":

Rashi explains that calling Moses represents love and affection:

All forms of God's communication with Moses, whether they were in a form of speaking (וַיְדַבֵּר), in the form of saying (וַיֹאמֶר), or in the form of commanding (צַו), were preceded by a call (קְרִיאָה), an expression of affection.

One may view the Torah's commandments as "service" to G-d - there is something that G-d desires, and we are called upon to fulfill his will. Rashi reminds us that the Torah is an expression of G-d's love toward us. When G-d asks us to do something, He is asking us to seize an opportunity to connect.

Just as G-d’s call to Moses expressed love and connection, so too, within our own relationships, a request can be more than a practical need—it can be a call for closeness. When someone asks something of us, it may reflect a deeper longing to be seen, valued, or understood. And when we ask of others, if we do so with sensitivity, humility, and care, we mirror the divine model: using speech not just to convey a need, but to build a bridge between souls.

Just as G-d calls us, we, too, call to G-d.

In the parlance of the sages of the Mishnah and Talmud, the Hebrew word for reading the Torah is Kriah, which means both reading and calling. When we read the words of Torah, we are not merely reading G-d's communication to us, but rather, we feel His love for us, and in turn, we "call" to Him, expressing our desire to connect.

As The Alter Rebbe, founder of the Chabad movement, writers in Tanya:

Torah study is referred to as "calling" . This phrase means that in Torah study, one calls G‑d to come to him, so to speak, as a man calls to his friend to come to him, or as a child will call his father to come and join him and not to part from him. (Tanya, Chapter 37)

Unlike the ancient Greek name Leviticus, the Hebrew name of the third of the Torah is Vayikra, "And He called"; reminding us of G-d love for us and His deep desire for connection to us.