Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Vayikra
- Shmini
- Family and Society
- The Jewish Household
- Kashrut
This week's parasha expounds at great length upon the creatures which we are and are not permitted to eat. Were it not for the concluding verses of the parasha, one might have thought that the essence of kashrut is focused entirely upon food.
"For I am the Lord, your God - you shall sanctify yourselves and be holy, for I am holy; and you shall not contaminate yourselves through any teeming thing that creeps on the earth. For I am the Lord who brings you up from the land of Egypt to be a God unto you" (Vayikra 11: 44-45).
And, again, in parashat Kedoshim:
"Do not follow the traditions of the nation that I expel before you, for they did all of these and I was disgusted with them. So I said to you: You shall inherit their land... a land flowing with milk and honey... You shall distinguish between the clean animal and the unclean...; and you shall not render your souls abominable... You shall be holy for Me, for I the Lord am holy; and I have separated you from the peoples to be Mine" (Vayikra 20: 23 -26).
In essence, observing kashrut has little to do with food, and everything to do with separating the Jewish people from the nations and enabling us to develop into a "kingdom of priests, and a holy nation." Thus, we see that kashrut observance is yet another mitzva that can only be fully observed in the Land of Israel.
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
fast navigation
Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part I
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Our King on Rosh Hashana, Our Father on Yom Kippur.
Based on Aroch Siach, p. 221 (Rav Shaul Yisraeli)
