In this week’s Torah portion, parshat Re’eh, Moses tells the people that they may not sacrifice burnt offerings anywhere they want, but only in the place that God chooses. Moses also teaches about the three pilgrimage holidays and the mandate to destroy all traces of idolatry in the land. Having a central site to offer sacrifices, to rejoice, and to worship God is key to the spiritual and physical practice that the Israelites will have in the land of Israel. There should be no other places of worship – foreign or Israelite – to detract from the centrality of a single place to worship our one God.
But there is an exception that we might not have expected: the Israelites will be able to eat meat outside of Jerusalem. Not all meat that the Israelites consume will come from the animals sacrificed in the Temple.
Torah teaches:
רַרַק בְּכָל-אַוַּת נַפְשְׁךָ תִּזְבַּח אָכַלְתָּ בָשָׂר, כְּבִרְכַּת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר נָתַן-לְךָ–בְּכָל-שְׁעָרֶיךָ; הַטָּמֵא וְהַטָּהוֹר יֹאכְלֶנּוּ, כַּצְּבִי וְכָאַיָּל.
But whenever you desire, you may slaughter and eat meat in any of your settlements, according to the blessing that your God יהוה has granted you. The impure and the pure alike may eat it, as of the gazelle and the deer (Deuteronomy 12:15).
And also:
כִּי-יַרְחִיב יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶת-גְּבֻלְךָ, כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר-לָךְ, וְאָמַרְתָּ אֹכְלָה בָשָׂר, כִּי-תְאַוֶּה נַפְשְׁךָ לֶאֱכֹל בָּשָׂר–בְּכָל-אַוַּת נַפְשְׁךָ, תֹּאכַל בָּשָׂר.
When God expands your territory as promised, and you say, “I shall eat some meat,” for you have the desire to eat meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire (Deuteronomy 12:20).
In using the language of avat nefesh, of soul desire, the Torah acknowledges a kind of innate desire that people have for eating meat. And we have seen times already when the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness complained of wanting meat (see Exodus 16 and Numbers 11). Those desires aren’t going away once they enter the land.
There are boundaries though. We cannot eat the blood of the animal. Here the Torah teaches that the blood of the animal should be poured on the ground “like water” (Deuteronomy 12:23-24). Later in our parsha, we’ll see a whole list of animals that are fit to eat and others that are forbidden, reminding us that there are boundaries of the kinds of animals we can eat as well.
Desire is not something to be ashamed of or repressed. Here our tradition teaches specifically about desire regarding food – but it applies to so many of our human desires. Holiness emerges when we meet desire with spiritual boundaries and spiritual boundaries with desire. Kashrut (dietary laws) as laid out in our parsha is a way of physically connecting us with our own personal emotional landscape and collective spiritual center. The entire section about kosher animals is preceded by a reminder that we are a holy people, am kadosh (Deuteronomy 14:2).
To be holy, to behave properly in the world, is to notice desire within us and to act accordingly.
The Talmud teaches in Chullin 84a:
ת”ר (דברים יב, כ) כי ירחיב ה’ אלהיך את גבולך למדה תורה דרך ארץ שלא יאכל אדם בשר אלא לתאבון
The Sages taught: “When the Lord, your God, expands your territory…you may eat meat whenever you desire it” (Deuteronomy 12:20). The Torah taught that it is the right way of being in the world (derech eretz) that a person should only consume meat from appetite.
Torah teaches that meat should only be consumed from appetite – from a place of hunger, of desire, and feeling a need to eat it.
Though we in the TBZ community may not live in the biblical land of Israel, we do live in a world of “widened territory,” in a society of great abundance, especially when it comes to food. We have access to not just abundant meat, but to a variety of food that our ancestors never could have even imagined. The abundance should not make us feel ashamed; rather it should make us pause and ask ourselves whether we are eating out of a place of true desire and appetite and whether our choices of what and how we eat are guided by gratitude.
The Talmud teaches that we should take our desire and appetite into account specifically about meat. But whether we eat meat or not, our ability to eat any food comes from goodness and grace bestowed upon us, not from our own merits or accomplishments. This is true of all of the delicious foods that are available to us that we may crave, whether it’s chocolate ice cream or a perfectly ripe and juicy tomato. Food is a blessing, and our inner desire that guides us to eat is an opportunity for connection with God. We don’t need to be in Jerusalem or at Shabbat dinner or at Jewish summer camp to tap into that connection. We have access to it wherever we are, whenever we eat.
Whatever choices we make about what we consume, may we be guided by gratitude for the bounty that we have, for the boundaries of our tradition (however we may apply them in our own lives), and for the inner desire which guides us and allows us to connect with God each and every time we eat.
May this be a Shabbat of peace, of mindfulness, and of comfort. May all those who are ill find healing.
May the hostages be returned to their families and friends. May the leaders of the world prioritize life. And may all those striving for peace be granted strength and courage to continue their sacred work, so we may soon see peace and dignity for all.
Shabbat shalom,
Rav Leah