Shabbat Commentary - Shemini

This week's Portion, Shemini, opens with God (through Moses) commanding Aaron and his sons to make offerings for themselves and for the children of Israel "...because today YHWH is appearing to you." (Leviticus 9:4) The offerings are made "And YHWH's glory appeared to all the people." (Leviticus 9:23) in the form of a fire which "...consumed the burnt offering and the fats on the altar.) (Leviticus 9:24)
Immediately following this awe-inspiring event, Aaron's sons Nadav and Abihu offer "...unfitting fire which He had not commanded them..." (Leviticus 10:1) For this incorrect action, the fire of God consumes them. (Leviticus 10:2) Swift and terrible punishment for failing to precisely heed God's commandments.

With this intense image of Divine judgement before us, we find in the remainder of Shemini, God's commandments regarding edible animals and those forbidden t0 be eaten.
God also warns the children of Israel against becoming "impure" by coming in contact with "impure" objects such as an animal carcass. (Leviticus11:24-47)

Shemini's' teaching regarding edible and forbidden ("detestable") animals,along with God's warning that "You shall not cook a kid in its mother's milk) (Exodus 23:19) form the basis for the Jewish dietary laws (Kashrut) Milennia of rabbinic rulings and interpretations have expanded and structured these sections of Torah to create the Jewish dietary rules which are a defining element in today's Jewish community, whether or not one actually keeps kosher.

A quick glance at my kitchen shelves revealed apple juice, soda, potato chips, pickles, and dishwashing liquid - all with the kosher symbols of one or another of the American kosher certification institutions. Definitely a quantum leap away from Shemini and God's separation of the animals into edible and "detestable."

Shemini brought to mind an incident which occurred some time ago. I attended a day-long Jewish educators' conference at a JCC near Syracuse, NY. After the morning workshops, the participants gathered in a multi-purpose room, where tables, chairs, and a lunch buffet were set up. The kosher lunch selections were bagels, cream cheese, pasta salad, tuna salad, mushroom barley soup, cookies. I have a number of food allergies and couldn't eat any of it. However, I'd come prepared (or so I thought) with a lunchbox filled with fresh carrot sticks, an orange, a banana, and rice cakes. As a courtesy, I brought my lunchbox to the conference Chairperson, explained about my food allergies, and showed her the items I'd brought.
The Chairperson was unexpectedly perturbed.
"I need to consult the JCC Director," she said. "We only allow food here that's been prepared in a kosher kitchen." (I don't keep kosher.)

I kept my lunchbox tightly closed and waited for her to return. I considered offering to eat in my car, but it was winter with below freezing temperatures and that wasn't an option.

After about ten minutes the Chairperson returned.
She said, " You can't eat your food where we're serving the kosher lunch. There is just one place in the JCC where you can eat. Follow me."

I followed her down a corridor to the back of the building. She opened a door. "You can eat in here."
She shut the door and returned to the kosher lunch area.
"In here" turned out to be the janitor's broom closet - a small windowless room with metal shelves of cleaning materials and brooms, mops, a vacuum, and a floor polisher leaning against the wall.
I sat down on an industrial sized canister of disinfecting powder and quickly ate the lunch food which had been deemed so horrendously non-kosher that I was banished from all the sacred (?) spaces of the JCC to a toxic closet.

After lunch, I re-joined the conference participants and fulfilled my professional responsibilities by going to workshops dealing with Jewish values, building our students' self-esteem, and interpreting Judaic texts.

In all the years since that lunch in the broom closet, I've thought about ways that I should have responded. Had I been more engaged in Torah Study at that period in my Jewish journey, I might have pointed out that the JCC Director and the Chairperson were hardly following Abraham's example of welcoming guests as described in Parshat Vayera.

This week, as I read Parshat Shemini, I imagined myself insisting that we find more reasonable ways to separate my "impure" food from the kosher food; ways that would still have allowed me to remain in the multi-purpose room. I might even have challenged their assumption that an orange, a banana, and rice cakes were somehow tainted by being stored on a shelf in a non-kosher kitchen, when, in fact, plant products were never even mentioned in God's commandments regarding edible and detestable animals.

In Shemini, we can only guess what Nadav and Abihu were thinking when they intentionally or unintentionally misinterpreted God's commandments. We do know the tragic consequences.

Regarding that humiliating lunch incident, I'll never know whether I was dealing with well-meaning, but cruelly rigid adherence to God's commandments as interpreted in the rules of Kashrut; or were the Chairperson and the JCC Director demonstrating ignorance, a lack of commonsense, and a disdain for Jewish values? I only know the disturbing results of their actions.

As always, Torah Study raises questions, suggests many possible answers, encourages deeper thinking, and is eternally relevant.

Shabbat Shalom Rest and Renew

Resource: All quotes from Shemini are from Commentary on the Torah by Richard Elliott Friedman