Rabbi's Derasha

The Parasha begins with a stark choice: I place before you blessing and curse.  The binary leaves no middle ground.  It reminds us that there are two types of people in the world: those who divide the world into two kinds of people and those who do not.  

But the binary is not about truth and falsehood, or really any ideology at all.  It is about the possibility of making choices which sanctify or do not.  Most importantly, it insists that anything can be a blessing.  Let’s take a mundane example from one of the Mitzvot in the Paraha, that of eating meat. We don’t have so many meat restaurants nearby.  One can go north or south but there’s not much locally.  [We hope that will change soon but it’s interesting how many people care.]

This Mitzva comes up here as the Jews contemplate their entrance into the land of Israel because it was not relevant in the desert.  Rashi explains that those who needed meat had relatively easy access in the desert.  They could almost always bring an offering to the Mishkan and that would give them the chance to eat meat.  But after entering the land, the Jews will spread out, and it will be hard for those in Haifa or Tiverya to get to Yerushalayim.  So the Parasha offers the possibility of local Shechita and local meat access.  

The Netziv points out that those in Yerushalayim should have remained restricted to the meat of the Beit HaMikdash.  Yet we don’t distinguish in the verse between those a little closer and those a little farther away.  The Netziv answers that we must be speaking about those who are too far away spiritually to handle the loftiness of the meat on the altar.  That could apply to anyone, even those who live in Yerushalayim.

But there is another way to see this.  We heard last week that the dangers of physical enjoyment in the land of Israel as opposed to the desert hinged on another factor.  In the desert, nothing was produced by us.  It was handed to us easily. Under such circumstances, no one gets carried away about what they can accomplish.  But once we enter the land, we can begin producing. Then, and only then, can one start to believe that it’s all dependent on ourselves; we can think that everything we have comes through our own effort without factoring in Hashem’s contribution.  

The satisfaction of meat fits into this dilemma.  In the desert, the meat was clearly not our responsibility.  But once we’ve entered the land, meat production can contribute to our sense that we alone are in charge.    

We tend to think that there are areas of life which are clearly labeled holy and others which are decidedly unholy.  And then we think of things which are neutral. But we learn that from meat, and things like it, that there is a way to make it part of Hashem’s world.  Not just because we follow the laws of Kashrut and Shechita.  Meat, like any other food, can be eaten L’shem Shamayim, for the sake of Heaven.  It can eaten with the sense that it can contribute to the energy and the ability to do holy things.  

The Rambam lays this out in the Shemoneh Perakim (chapter 5) and his language is adopted by the Shulchan Aruch.  Eating, drinking, sleeping, exercise -- it can all be done for the sake of heaven.  This is not a small feat.  The Rambam places such people just below the level of prophets.  But this is the reason the beginning of the Parasha leaves no room for the neutral -- anything can become part of the Beracha of life.

Again, this is an ideal level, a level just below that of prophecy.  But we’re about to begin Elul and we need to have a sense of the ideal.  Otherwise, we don’t know what we are striving for as we approach Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.