The First Jewish Delicatessen
by Yosef Y. Jacobson
The
menu our father Abraham offered his angelic visitors in this week's
Torah portion seems rather uncharacteristic for a religious Jewish host.
"Abraham fetched some cottage cheese and milk," records the
Torah, "and the calf that he prepared, and he placed it before
his guests. He stood over them as they ate under the tree." (Gen.
18:8)
Sounds
like a cheeseburger with a cappuccino to me. Indeed, exactly
400 years later, G-d refused to give the Torah to the angels because they had
eaten unkosher food at the table of Abraham. The Midrash relates that when G-d
was about to present the second set of tablets to Moses, the angels protested,
saying that the Jews had violated the Torah and G-d ought not to trust them with
His blueprint for life. "Leave the Torah with us,"
the angels exclaimed, "here it shall be safe and sound." G-d
responded: "If anything, it was you who violated the Torah by eating non-kosher
in Abraham's home." Upon hearing this, the Midrash relates, the angels conceded
to G-d and the Torah was granted to the human race. Yet, a
closer reading of the biblical story suggests that Abraham's menu was completely
kosher and would be readily sanctioned by the most ultra-orthodox of rabbis. Let
us reread the verse: "Abraham fetched some cottage cheese
and milk and the calf that he prepared and he placed it before his guests."
In other words, Abraham first offered his guests cheese and milk, and only afterward
did he present the calf's meat, something entirely permitted according to Jewish
law. So why did G-d accuse the angels of eating an unkosher meal? Balancing
the Forces Kabbala teaches that all physical substances
represent spiritual forms of energy. In Jewish mysticism, dairy products are associated
with the attribute of chesed, or attraction, while deli meat products reflect
the attribute of gevura, or rejection. The serene whiteness
of milk and its being a substance that, unlike a solid, flows and expands readily
- are physical features reflecting the emotional energy flow of loving-kindness
and tender nurturing. The redness and toughness of meat are reflections of man's
capacity to create boundaries and walls, to discipline and withhold, to reject
and refuse. Though both elements are crucial in order to maintain
a healthy balance in life, the attribute of chesed must always overpower the attribute
of gevura. One needs to make sure that his acts of loving-kindness outnumber his
acts of harshness and severity. For example, parents need to discipline and rebuke
their children, but their primary enjoyment ought to come from nurturing and creating
close relationships with their children, not from constructing boundaries and
creating a distance. The Wait In
Jewish law there is a principle known as "tata'a gavar", which
states that in the natural order of the universe, the bottom overpowers the top.
Based on this principle, we may understand why following the consumption of meat
one must wait six hours before eating dairy, while one who eats dairy need not
wait prior to eating meat. When man absorbs meat first, the
energy of rejection becomes the bottom substance in his body, so that if he were
to consume dairy immediately afterward, the attribute of rejection would overpower
the attribute of love in his life, based on the principle that the bottom overpowers
the top. Only when six hours have elapsed, during which the rejection energy of
meat is fully digested in his system, and there is no residue of meat left in
his throat, palate or between the teeth, can he ingest and internalize the dairy
energy of love in a healthy and productive manner. On the other
hand, when man consumes dairy first, so that the flow of chesed is the bottom
substance, then he almost immediately may proceed to eat meat. In this case, the
prevailing substance would be chesed, and it would dominate the power of gevura
that came second. Earth Battles Heaven Why
did G-d establish the natural law to be that the bottom substance overpowers the
higher substance? Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi explains that this is because
in the cosmic battle between heaven and earth, earth (the bottom) prevailed over
heaven (the top). When did earth prevail over heaven? As mentioned
above, the angels, the heavenly creatures populating the spiritual universes on
high, demanded that the Torah be granted to them. But it was Earth that triumphed.
Our rock-bottom world, a world which is lowly, insensitive and coarse, became
the recipient of the divine blueprint for life. It is on our soil and within our
frail hearts that the objective of all Creation is implemented. The bottom overpowered
the top. When the angels protested G-d's plan to send the Torah
down to Earth, demanding instead that it remain within the higher realms of existence,
G-d demonstrated to them that they really did not believe what they were saying.
For if they truly felt the Torah belonged above and not below, it would mean that
their perspective held that the top ought to overpower the bottom. But if that
were the case, they would need to wait six hours after eating cheese before they
could consume meat so that the rejection power of meat would not override the
loving power of cheese - all this based on their perspective that the higher substance
overpowers the lower substance. The fact that the angels did
consume meat immediately following their dairy meal demonstrated that they, too,
believed that the divine blueprint for life was reserved for the human race, living
and struggling in a lowly and mundane world. They, too, conceded to the fact that
the bottom overpowers the top. That's why they allowed themselves to consume dairy
and immediately after that eat deli. ~~~~~~~~ Copyright
© 2001 by Yosef Y. Jacobson.
Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson is an acclaimed teacher, lecturer
and writer, based in the New York area. For a copy of his speaking schedule,
or to order his audio tapes or subcribe to his weekly essay, contact:
YYJacobson@aol.com.
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