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Insights
Meat and Blood
by
Yanki Tauber |
The Jewish
attitude toward material pleasures
Should you desire to eat meat, you may eat meat to your heart's
desire... However, be exceedingly careful not to eat the blood,
for the blood is the life... The blood of your offerings shall be
poured upon the altar of G-d, and the meat you should eat. —Deut.
12:20-27
The Jew's abhorrence of blood
as food is legendary.
Not only does Torah law strongly prohibit its consumption in any way,
it also mandates that no piece of meat may enter our mouths until
its blood has been extracted by a lengthy process of soaking, salting
and rinsing.
On the other hand, however, blood played an important role in the
Temple service: no animal-offering (korbon) was valid until its blood
had been sprinkled upon the altar.
Today, we do not have a Holy Temple in which to offer korbonot, but
the principle that "the blood of your offerings shall be poured
upon the altar of G-d" is no less relevant to our lives.
Chassidic teaching explains that we each possess both an "animal
soul," from which stem the drives and desires of physical life,
and a "G-dly soul," which is the source of our yen and ability
to rise above the material trappings of life and connect to our divine
essence and source.
Concerning the animal in man, the Torah does not prohibit to "eat
the meat" --- that is, to partake of the pleasures of material
life. The "blood," however, must be extracted from the meat.
The heat and passion with which the animal soul tends to pursue its
material desires is destructive, plunging the person into an all-consuming
quest for physical gratification and reducing him to the animal his
animal soul embodies.
The meat you may -- indeed, should -- eat, for your physical self
is the vehicle by which your G-dly self achieves its sanctification
of earthly life. The blood, however, you shall pour only upon the
altar of G-d. Reserve your fervor and passion for your higher, G-dly
drives.
Based on the Rebbe's talks
Reprinted from The Week
In Review Vol V No 47
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