Re'ei - 4th Portion

Join us as we learn Chumash for Wednesday for the Torah reading of Parshas Shmini Atzeres. Yesterday we learned about not imitating the gentiles, following their ways of following their ways of idolatries as well as the laws as we concluded with the law pertaining a city where everybody in the city is idolatrous. Today we learn continuing that one should not learn from the ways of the gentiles and imitating their ways and set realizing that we are a holy nation and we need to be segregated and separated from the nations of the world. Chapter 14, verse 1. Bnei Yisrael Atem LaHashem Elokeichem, you are God's children. You must not uh you must You must neither cut yourself nor make a bald spot between your eyes for the dead. Rashi Basachem, do not put cuts in your skin. Al Am Mes, for when a person dies, Kederach Amoraim, this was the ways of the Amorites. When they would mourn somebody's passing, they would put slashes in their skin. Ulefi She'atah Bnei Yisrael LaHashem Elokeichem, you are the children of God. Va'atem Re'uyim Lehiyot Ne'imim Ulehiyot Gedolim Ulehiyot Mekubalim, you're supposed to be look beautiful, not pulling out your hair and not causing yourself harm. Bein Eineichem, between your eyes. What does this mean? Beit of where a person puts his tefillin. UveMakom Acher Yomar, in the book of Leviticus he uses the terminology Lo Yikrechu Korcha Ba'Roshchem, do not pull out the hair from your head, meaning that's on the entire head. Lo Asos Kol Rosh Bein Eineichem, that's telling us that the entire head, pulling out hair on the entire head is just like pulling out the hair between the eyes. Verse 2. Ki Am Kadosh Ata LaHashem Elokeichem, because you are a holy nation to God. Uvechol HaGoyim Asher Al Pnei Ha'Adamah Ba'charam Hashem Elokeichem Lihiyot Lo Am Segulah, and God has chosen you to be his chosen nation. Me call I mean from all the nations in the universe I shall pray that around the face of the earth. You have a special holiness that God has chosen you more than your forefathers. And not only that you God not only that your forefathers that you choose but you the Jewish people God chose you that you should be the nation of the world the chosen nation. Therefore you also have laws of what you're allowed to eat and what you're not allowed to eat. You should not eat anything that's an abomination. Rashi called to Ava. Whatever I considered an abomination for you to go in for example. A cut in the ear of a firstborn. >> [snorts] >> So you would think that you can make it now unfit so you should be able to to slaughter it in your own town and this way you don't have to give it to the firstborn. And they double shot after that this is something that I find an abomination. Above the limit cancellation vehicle. Here the Torah continues to say you should not slaughter it and you and eat it on the fact that it has a blemish but you have to wait and allow it to get its own blemish and then you can have it. Another example. If a person cooked milk and meat. It's something which technically the meat on its own is kosher the milk on its own is kosher but God did not like when you mix it together and the moment you mix it together that is something that I considered abomination and you should not be eating it. Verse four. These are the animals that you are allowed to eat. An ox a lamb and goat kids. Verse five. I will be a yacht addition so I was on there. Among the undomesticated animals that one is allowed to eat is deer, gazelle, a fallow deer, an ibex, an addax, a bison, and wild sheep. Rashi Your tells us that the wild animals, undomesticated animals, let's call them, are just like the domesticated animals. For the matter, this teaches us that the height may be more than the height of the animal. That there are more kind of animals and non-kosher animals than kosher animals. So, call mark him that anytime that the Torah enumerates played it as a mood. He will always enumerate that which is minority. The akoy Yala yali sell of who ash ash to back. An akoy is a ibex. An ibex and this is the uh tur the Onkelos calls it yali solat and he over talks about the deers that used to cruise the thing the animals used to climb amongst the mountains. Usa oi This oi over here we call it the addax. I'm sorry, the bison. Tur bala tur hayar is called the ox of the of the forest. Bala yarmulke arami. Rashi just tells us where the Aramaic translation comes from. Verse six. The whole be him and my first is parsa. As well as any animal or every animal that has whose feet are completely uh that has split hooves. And it's uh and it's uh cloves are completely split into two. Milos gaira and as well as a regurgitated cud to choose its cud. By the way, I mean an animal or if it's killed, those are the animals you're allowed to eat. Mafresas the word mafresas parsa saduka it means it's completely split. Who could argue me like the Targum he uses the that terminology. Parsa that's the name of the animal. The hoof of an animal is called the parsa. She says "Chaluka bishnei tzu pernaim." It's split by its two nails. Meaning "She yesh tzduka v'na chaluka b'tzirnaim v'itme'a." There are those kind of animals that have a crack, but it's not completely split. So, those are not kosher. For example, a camel that has a little bit of cut inside of it, but it's not completely split between the two, and therefore it's not considered a kosher animal. "B'b'heima mashma mashnim t'b'heima echol." Meaning, whatever you find within the animal, in this animal, would be allowed to be eaten. "V'chi namru m'here we find sh'shlil nitza b'shchita siman hu." Meaning, that if you find a baby calf in the actual animal while you're slaughtering it, that the actual calf, the baby calf that's found inside the animal, does not have to be slaughtered because it says "B'b'heima." In the animal, whatever's in the animal is already kosher by slaughtering the animal. Verse seven. "Ach azelu teichlu. However, these you must not eat. Mimalei ageder though they chew their cud, "U'mafriz parsa." They may have a split feet. "Hashisu'a that are the cloven one. Es hagomel, the camel, "V'es arneves." And the hyrax, "V'es ashifan." And the hare. "V'eiki maila gedera heima." Though they may chew their cud, "U'mafriz o parsa lo yafrizu." However, they do not have completely cloven feet. "T'me'im heim lachem." Therefore, they become spiritually impure. They become impure for you as well. Verse seven. Rashi, "Hashisu'a b'riya yesh she'sh lo sh'tei gabot u'sh'tei shidrot." There's an animal that has in it two backs and two spines, so to speak. And therefore, it is prohibited from eating. Even though it has some of these signs that are kosher. "Amru Rabbeinu lama nishna b'b'heimot mipnei asher lo Why does the Torah have to repeat?" Because the reason why you're not allowed to have it is because it's not completely split. So he says why by the animals? Because by the animals you have even those that they have a certain element of the kosher signs but because it's not completely therefore it's not kosher. So too by the birds he repeats it as well. Because there's a bird called the raw shall he never the potatoes came in over here you'll notice that when he mentions all the birds he not allowed to eat there's one bird that's not mentioned in the book of Leviticus. Rashi is asking why does he have to repeat the different animals? He already said it in the book of Leviticus. So therefore he's coming to tell us about this extra specie in the animal and specie in the bird as well. Verse 8 as well as the as the pig. Who even though that it has cloven feet completely cloven feet but the problem is it has the but it does not regurgitate its food doesn't chew its cud but some of these cannot eat its flesh one of those to go and you cannot and you should not touch its its carcass. Rashi only say to go the rabbis explained but I got this is talking about on the holidays. A person was obligated to purify himself when it came to a holiday. Therefore when it comes to a holiday a person has to be super extra clean and holy and therefore touching this carcass would make the person impure only when it comes to the holidays. I would think that this would make them impure throughout the year. Therefore [snorts] the Torah will learn from the book of Leviticus tell the corner and what would make them pure if the that this is only for the corner and not for anybody else even if it comes to touching a dead body which is so strict that the corner and was out of any soul that only a corner and has to be careful of not touching a dead body that is not allowed to become impure, but a regular is all right is allowed to come in contact with a dead body and become impure. Tumah metz naveilah, touching a carcass, chamah, which is less strict. Like kosher chicken, how much more so that a person is allowed to come in contact with it than an Israelite is allowed to touch it. So then, why does the Torah tell me here touching the carcass will make me impure? That was specifically for the holidays that they had to take an extra stringency of purity. Verse 9. This you can eat from whatever is in the water. Kol asher lo safek haskashas the chayl, whatever has sins and scales you may eat. Kol asher ein lo safek haskashas, whatever does not have sins and scales, lo se chayl lo yish na itz, tamei hu lachem, it is impure for you. Verse 11. Kol tzippor tahorah tochelu, any any bird which is that does not have any spiritual defilement, you may eat every bird as long as it's in the kosher. What does this mean? What's he telling us here? L'hatir, it's coming to include mushlach as b'metzaded, even though this bird was slaughtered, even though the generally even though in that case the bird that was slaughtered is not allowed to be eaten, the bird that was sent away, remember there were two birds, one that they had to slaughter, one that was sent away, the one that was sent away was allowed to be eaten. Verse 12. V'zeh asher lo techelu, that means any bird is kosher. However, as we mentioned previously, the Torah will mention the minority minority of birds are non-kosher and these are the birds that are not kosher. V'zeh asher lo techelu, these are the birds you're not allowed to eat. Mayhem from them, hanesher, ha'ozniyah, peres, v'asniyah. The griffon vulture, the bearded vulture, and the osp and the osprey. Rashi, v'zeh asher lo techelu, less as shchutah. This is even to tell us the slaughtered bird by the an by the metzayer by the person who has the procedure that you're not allowed to eat it as well. Verse 13. V'hara'ah v'es ha'ayah. The various other species of vultures. V'hadayah l'minah v'es These are all different kinds of vultures. Each one of them they're exactly the same kind of bird. Why is it called the raw if it's a vulture? Because it can see from very far. Why does the Torah give us all different kinds of names of this vulture if it's still the vulture? Reason why the Torah enumerate the different names because people call them different ways the vultures. So a person shouldn't come along and say, "Ah, this is the raw that the Torah says, but I ate the daya. That's the other one." So therefore the Torah gives all the names. Whatever name you got it, whatever name it's called, you're still not allowed to eat it. As we mentioned, Rashi says, "When it comes to the bird, the Torah enumerates in details the ones that are impure to to teach us that there are more kosher birds than non-kosher birds, more pure birds than impure birds. The Torah always enumerates the minority." Verse 14, "V'es kol ayit l'minayhu and every type of species of the crow." This base of verse 15, "V'es bat ya'anah v'satahmas and the ostrich and the cuckoo, v'sahshachaf and the gull, v'sanetz and l'minayhu and all the various species of the sparrow hawk." Verse 16, "Es hakos, the screech owl, v'sayanshuf, the barn owl, v'santinshemes and the bat." Hantinshemes Rashi gives us the translation as kalba and he talks about the bat that this is the type of a bird that does not have eyes and it's like a mouse that flies. So that's what a bat is. Verse 17, "V'hakos, the pelican, v'sarachama and the magpie, v'sashalach and the cormorant." Shalach, what is that type of bird? That is a cormorant. It's a type of bird a shailav dag min ayam that is able to pick out the fish from the sea. Verse 18. Va'achasidah, the stork. Va'anufah and the various lemineha and the various species of the heron. Vaduchifas and the hoopoe. Va'atalef and the atalef. Rashi, Duchifas sutarnagola'bor, that's the type of chicken type of bird that does not live where people are. V'charbalta chifula and it has like a double it's a chicken but it has a not a regular chicken domesticated chicken but its head is like a crown that's double and that's why he calls it a duchifas. Verse 19. V'chol sheretz ha'of tamei hu lachem l'ochlo. And every crawling creature that flies is automatically impure and they therefore may not be eaten. Sheretz ha'of, what are we talking about here? Hem min hachashashim ha'olah, that's these are the small ones that crawl on the ground. For example, zvuvim flies, bugs, grasshoppers and roaches. Tamei'im that are tamei creatures, these are all called creatures. Verse 20. Kol of tahor tochelu. But any you must eat any fowl that does not considered tamei that is not considered impure. What does this come to tell us? V'lo yas tamei but not those that are impure. Even though he mentioned this before, v'lo hayah l'eeten asei l'eisa asah. Here he's adding a positive commandment under negative commandment. By eating kosher, not only are you following not abrogating a negative commandment but you're also following a positive commandment. V'chein b'behemah yishatachalu it says about the animal those you should eat. V'lo b'behemah tameiah, v'lo b'of asei. That's a negative that comes from the positive. Asei, therefore he puts a positive lav b'asei v'lo b'eisa asah. Therefore telling us over here number one, you when a person abrogates it he's going against a positive commandment and a negative commandment as well as observing is a positive commandment and not and being careful of a negative commandment as well. Verse 21, "Do not eat anything of any carcass. Like a you must give it to the resident alien that's amongst you. And he will eat it I'm you are a holy nation there to God and therefore you should must not cook a young animal in its mother's milk. We're talking about a resident alien not a regular convert cuz regular convert was just like a Jew and he's allowed to eat non-kosher as well. We're talking about a person that only accepted upon himself not to serve idolatry and therefore he's allowed to eat something that was not slaughtered. Because you're a holy nation you have to sanctify yourself with things that though you're technically allowed meaning you have to make sure that you stay with things that are permissible but others consider it prohibited. For example for example of somebody who behaves that he does not have any pleasure from a carcass don't try to cause them to eat it but you have to be able to strengthen yourself and meaning that you have to make sure that stay with that custom and also consider it prohibited. This prohibition of not cooking a mother and kid in its mother's milk is mentioned three times in the Torah. Goat is there to tell us the goat is a domesticated animal. This is it tells us specifically the goat because it's an exception to the undomesticated animals the birds and as well to a non-kosher animal that they are not included in the prohibition of mixing of having milk and meat together. That means biblically the biblical commandment of not having milk and meat together is specifically a domesticated kosher animal. However, when it comes to the undomesticated animal or birds, let's say chicken for example, is a rabbinic enactment not to have with milk. Lo s'va shal gidi aser t'aser, you'll notice that this leads on to the next verse which tells us about tithing. So, why the two together and what's the juxtaposition of the two? As we'll soon see as we learn tomorrow why the next Torah reading starts off with telling us about the mitzvah of tithing and tzedakah as well as the three major festivals. This concludes the fourth Torah reading, Parshas Re'eh.