“The Torah prohibits pork and other foods because they were unhealthy in ancient times.” So declare people who reject the laws of kosher. The very first (post-Sinai) Biblical verse about kosher, however, explicitly ties these laws – not to health – but to holiness. “And men of a holy calling shall you be unto Me; flesh torn off in the field for food you shall not eat” (Exodus 22:30). Comments Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch: “This reason – ‘men of a holy calling…’ – with which the prohibition of tereifah…is introduced, immediately refutes all the theories that have been – and are being – put forward of dietic, climatic, and contemporary reasons for the dietary laws (with the idea of course of abrogating them).” Rav Hirsch notes that it “is not our bodily health, but our spiritual and moral purity and capability, our kedushah – our being ready, our becoming ready, our remaining ready, for everything that is godly and pure – which is the expressed object of the Lawgiver of these [kosher] laws.” In his commentary to Parshas Beshalach, Rav Hirsch undercuts enough popular “explanation” of a Biblical prohibition – this one related to Shabbos. According to this explanation, when the Torah forbids working on Shabbos, it has in mind performing strenuous labor, not engaging in simple activities like writing or carrying outside. And yet, what does Moshe prohibit the Jews to do on Shabbos the very first time he speaks to them about this day (in Exodus 16)? Gathering mon, carrying it home, and preparing it to be eaten. All these, Rav Hirsch sardonically notes, are deeds that “Sabbath-reform gentlemen would declare as ‘not contradictory to the sanctity of the Sabbath.’” Evidently, then, the rationales behind the laws of kosher and Shabbos have little to do with physical health or physical rest. Rather, they are much more spiritual and symbolic in nature (and are explored by Rav Hirsch at some length in several places in his oeuvre). Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888) – head of the Jewish community in Frankfurt, Germany for over 35 years – was a prolific writer whose ideas, passion, and brilliance helped save German Jewry from the onslaught of modernity. Elliot Resnick, PhD, is the host of “The Elliot Resnick Show” and the editor of an upcoming work on etymolog ical explanations in Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch’s commentary on Chumash. ...
