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Meaning in Mitzvot -
Lesson 109

Tzav - Kashering Meat and Nullifying Chametz

21.09.2014

TZAV - SALTING OF MEAT

 

Our parasha teaches the prohibition of eating the blood of animals or birds (Vayikra 7:26.)  Later, the Torah vehemently expresses the severity of this prohibition: "Any person from the house of Israel or from the sojourners among them who eats any blood, I will set my face against the soul that eats blood, and I will cut him off from among its people.  For the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to atone for your souls; for it is blood, and (it) atones for the soul" (Vayikra 17:11-12).

 

An animal's blood is viewed as the essence of its life, as we find in the English expression "life's blood."  The blood exemplifies the beast's animation as well as its bestiality.  Human beings too have animal-like energy and a bestial nature; but the Torah urges us to distinguish ourselves from the beasts and give expression to our uniquely human nature, the expression of our Divine image.

 

When we pour the blood of sacrifices on the base of the altar, it is as if we pour out our bestiality.  This is atonement for our souls that sin by occasionally yielding to their lower, bestial impulses.  Only then do we offer up the rest of the sacrifice.  We do have the ability and responsibility to elevate and sanctify some aspects of the material, but not the lowest and basest aspects, which must be demonstratively discarded.

 

If on the contrary we eat the blood, it is as if we are anxious to assimilate the bestial nature of the animal into our own natures.  Indeed, pagans drank animal blood for this very reason - they believed that drinking the blood, the essence of the bestiality, would bestow some of the animal's savage energy on the blood-thirsty celebrant  (see Rambam's "Guide to the Perplexed" III:46.  This practice is also mentioned in Homer.)

 

For this reason we are extremely scrupulous about not eating blood.  We do not limit ourselves to pouring out the "life-blood" which flows out naturally following slaughter, but we also thoroughly salt the meat in order to extract the blood which is normally absorbed in the meat  (SA YD 69.)

 

RINSING THE MEAT

 

Halakha demands rinsing the meat before salting as well as after salting.  This order is very important, and the meat can be ruined if it is salted before rinsing.

 

The halakhic reason for this is that while salt has the ability to extract the absorbed blood, it also has the property of pickling, which is similar to cooking.  Salting the meat before rinsing off the surface blood could pickle this blood into the meat, rendering it forbidden (SA YD 69:2.)

We could compare the surface blood and absorbed blood to our outer flaws - deficiencies in thoughtful behavior, and our inner flaws - deficiencies in character.  We should first strive to repair our public flaws, corresponding to the rinsing, and only afterwards work on more subtle imperfections through a searing character analysis, corresponding to the salting.  Hypocritically reversing this order shows disdain for derekh eretz (lit. "the way of the land", ie. moral behavior), and risks making our behavior even more difficult to rectify.

 

Exposing our hidden flaws is not enough; once they are out in the open we have to rid ourselves of them - corresponding to the final rinsing.

 

SPECIAL CASES

 

There are some organs that can not be koshered merely by salting and rinsing; they require special treatment.  Perhaps we can discern a certain symbolism in these rules.

 

The heart can be salted only after it is torn.  This is because the blood is so strongly absorbed in this organ (SA YD 72.)  Rav Amnon Bazak has related this to the role of the heart as the seat of our emotions.  In order to purify our deepest feelings, a wrenching emotional experience may be necessary.  This reminds us of the famous epigram of Rav Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, "There is nothing more complete than a broken heart."

 

The liver is so full of blood that salting is not enough to eliminate it.  It is koshered only through roasting (SA YD 73.)  The liver is considered the seat of anger (See Berakhot 61b; Shemot Rabba on Shemot 7:14.)  While all character traits can be ridden of their negative tendencies and used for good, anger is perhaps the most difficult of all to purify.  This is hinted at in the difficulty of ridding the liver of its blood.

 

 

PESACH - "ISSUR MASHEHU" (AN ARBITRARILY SMALL AMOUNT OF PROHIBITION)

 

What happens when a forbidden food becomes mixed together with a permitted one? The usual rule is that the prohibition can be nullified if the amount is so small that its taste is no longer distinguishable; in general we assume that a mixture of one in sixty is nullified in this way (SA YD 98:1.)  However, chametz during Pesach is an "issur mashehu" - even the smallest amount of chametz prohibits the entire food (SA OC 447:1.)  What is the meaning of this stricture?

 

It is easy to understand why most foods are nullified when they are indistinguishable.  What enjoyment do we get from a food that we can’t taste? Yet there are a few types of prohibited substances that our Sages decreed can never be nullified.  It is useful to divide these into three categories:

 

1.  Some foods never get overwhelmed in a mixture because they just don’t mix.  If I take one forbidden apple and place it next to a million permissible ones, there is no reason the forbidden apple should be nullified by mere proximity.  It is distinct by virtue of its unique identity.  This is one way we can understand the exception of a biryah, a distinct creature.  Since we can always identify it, it can never get lost in the crowd.  (Based on a lecture of Rav Aharon Lichtenstein.)

 

2.  Some prohibitions don’t get overwhelmed because even a tiny amount is dangerous.  If we know that a tiny fraction of the oil in a particular food was rancid, we may still eat it; but if we know that a tiny fraction was tainted with botulism we would probably refrain.  Likewise, foods prohibited because of danger may not be permissible in a mixture of sixty (see Taz YD 116:2.)

 

3.  Some things have the ability to replicate themselves.  How would you like to buy a grain silo and be reassured that there were only two mice in the entire area - one male and one female? Or receive a transfusion and be reassured that there were only a few germs of plague present?

 

This is one way to understand the exception of pagan worship, whose appurtenances are never nullified even according to Torah law (SA YD 140:1.) Regarding idolatry the Torah commands (Devarim 13:18): "not the slightest bit of the interdiction shall adhere to your hand."  Even the slightest amount of idolatry can not be ignored, because such beliefs actually replicate.  This is the plague of missionizing, which the Torah warns us about many times.  For instance, the verse we just cited is taken from a passage warning of the worthless people who attempt to brainwash (hadi'ach) the people of their city to worship pagan gods.

 

The likeness of chametz - leavened matter - to an infectious organism needs no elaboration.  Yeast is in fact a micro-organism which succeeds in inflating the dough by natural increase - actually "infecting" the dough.  The Talmud explains that this is indeed one element in the special stringency of the prohibition of chametz (Avodah Zara 68a).

 

The issur mashehu of chametz reminds us that evil is often contagious.  An act that is immoral could perhaps be "nullified", outweighed by the general norm of proper behavior.  But the immorality of a single individual has a way of demoralizing others.  A person who cheats others not only garners unfair gain, but also stimulates a general decline in ethical standards, as no one wants to be the only sucker who plays fairly.  Envy, immodesty and insolence are other examples of corrupt traits that can spread through society like a kind of rot.   At Pesach time, we are reminded that the kind of wrongdoing that multiplies and corrupts society requires special effort to identify and root out.

 

 

 

 

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