Parashat Shemini

The Poison Schnitzel

by Rav Yosef Zvi Rimon
Founder and Board Chairman, JobKatif

In this week’s parasha, we read about the prohibition against eating non-kosher food. This week, instead of giving my normal Dvar Torah, I would like to tell a story.

When I was in the army, I was stationed in a base in the Gaza area. Unfortunately, this base was not kept kosher. There was no clear definition between dairy and meat utensils. The other religious men on the base and I knew that we would need to kasher the kitchen. The first night, before we had our chance to touch the kitchen, the other soldiers prepared schnitzel and french fries. So I went to the fridge and took out some cottage cheese and yogurt and ate on the side.

As I finished my “meal” one of the guys who was eating schnitzel came up to me and said “Good for you! I really have feel bad for you. We’re here, eating schnitzel and french fries and you need to eat cottage cheese. You religious guys are really unlucky. But any way, good for you!”

What would you answer this person?

I looked at him straight in the face and said “When I looked at you eating you dinner, I felt as if you were eating poisoned schnitzel!”

He said to me, shocked “poison schnitzel? Nothing happened to me from eating that schnitzel!”

“It’s not poisonous for your body” I answered him, “It’s poisonous for your soul. G-d gave of mitzvot, he gave us guidelines to what makes food kosher, which makes us more complete people. Whoever knows this also knows that when he eats non-kosher food it actually causes harm.”

Being strict about eating kosher is not always easy, but keeping it makes us more complete. A person that is aware of the damage that it causes to his soul by not eating kosher food receives strength to rise up to the challenge and only eat kosher food.

Even when it is difficult for us, we are happy to do the will of G-d and we know that we are doing the right thing.

By keeping the mitzvah of kashrut, we receive a substantial thing. We have the ability to transform physical food in to something that posseses spiritual significance.

Man and animal have one thing in common, physicality. The thing that makes man special is his spirituality. Food provides nourishment for the body but it also provides something for our soul. That is why the food we can eat goes through a long process before it can be deemed kosher.

First we must choose which animal is kosher. After, we have to slaughter it according to specific rules. Then we have to separate between the different limbs of the animal that are and are not aloud. And then we must salt those parts to remove any blood. When we cook this salted meat we must be careful not to cook it with any milk products or in a dairy pot. When a person can finally put this piece of meat into his mouth he must make a bracha before and then again after.

Through this detailed process we turn mortal food into something spiritual. This profane object is transformed into something sacred.

I would like to conclude with the words of Rav Soloveitchik (Halachik Man):

“Sanctifying man’s body, purifying his animalistic life of any desire or urge, raises him to a level of servant of G-d, that is the goal of Halacha. However, this purification does not occur from negation or abstinence, but rather by guiding and directing one’s physical life.”

“A person is only worthy for the world to come, when he transforms his present animalistic life, that has no purpose, to a holy life of a man of G-d.”

Shabbat Shalom!