Parashas Re'ay
29 Av 5768
August 30, 2008

Daf Yomi: Gitin 50

Guest Author:
Rabbi Shimon Silver     

Young Israel of Greater Pittsburgh, PA      

 

 

While each mention of the prohibition against consuming blood comes to teach something additional, the number of repetitions is noteworthy. Furthermore, the Torah tells us: ‘Just be strong to avoid eating the blood …’ Why is this mitzvah singled out for ‘chazak?’  One opinion is that the people had become steeped in a practice to eat blood. Some say that this was connected to certain idolatrous practices. This would help them divine the future, and it was exceptionally tempting. Therefore the yetzer hara for it was strong. Another approach is that actually blood is unattractive. The Torah highlights how strong a yetzer hara can be. Even to avoid blood one needs to ‘be strong’ [Rashi, Ramban.]

 

How could there be a debate that seems to center on whether people have a natural aversion to blood? How could people be steeped in a practice that makes the pull to consume blood so strong? Does this apply to us nowadays?

  

The reward for refraining from eating blood carries on for generations. Kli Yakar explains: blood is inherently vulgar. Consuming it breeds vulgarity. This trait would be passed down through generations. Rashi cites the mishna at the end of Makos. If this is the reward for refraining from that which man naturally finds disgusting, then the reward is all the more so for refraining from that which one finds attractive! But didn’t we just say that this sin requires strength because it is more tempting?

 

At the end of Parshas Kedoshim, Rashi cites Toras Kohanim: One should not say ‘I am disgusted with the meat of a pig! I am unable to wear shatnez!’ Rather one should say ‘I am able to do these things, but what can I do? My Father in Heaven decreed, forbidding them for me!’… ‘Your separating from these sins should be for My sake. One should separate from the avairah and accept the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven.’

 

The version in Toras Kohanim is: ‘I am unable to eat pig meat!’ Why does Rashi change it to ‘disgusted?’ In fact, in the Torah, Tanach, and throughout Chazal, we find that the pig is the ultimate example of something disgusting.

 

Evidently, when HaShem created the world, He created a natural disgust in the human for certain things. When HaShem forbade us to consume them, He meant to drive home the idea that we are to elevate ourselves and to refrain from doing disgusting things. Evidently, He also created within us the temptation to do these things. This is no contradiction. HaShem created man with animalistic tendencies. Man is then empowered to be able to overcome these tendencies with a little work. He is also empowered to lapse into an animalistic lifestyle, in which he does not feel shackled to a higher standard. One can become steeped in this way of life, even nowadays! Indeed, consuming these things breeds animalistic tendencies! Man has the free will to follow either path. ‘Normal’ avairos, like stealing, do not require forethought and preparation, but are impulsive. Behaving like an animal requires a little preparation. One needs to fight the natural urge to behave at a higher level. However, once in this frame of mind, the temptation to do the things that a human would otherwise find disgusting is extremely strong. It is more tempting than other avairos.

Thus, on the one hand resisting this temptation requires strength, once steeped in it. On the other hand, if one is told to be strong here, where naturally one is not tempted impulsively, it must mean that temptation is powerful at all times. Impulsive temptation is even more powerful. If one is so rewarded for overcoming less impulsive temptations, all the more so is he rewarded for overcoming the powerful temptations.

 

Do not say ‘I am unable to eat meat of the pig’ because ‘I am disgusted by it,’ therefore ‘I am not tempted anyhow!’ ‘I am unable to wear shatnez, because I would not be tempted to do something that gives me no benefit but to rebel!’ Rather say ‘I am able to do this. There is indeed a way I can bring myself to want to do it. It would actually be a lot of fun then. But what can I do? My Father in Heaven has decreed that I control myself!’ ‘Accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven’ means behaving in a controlled human way, as HaShem decreed, rather than like an unfettered animal.

 

The reward for this behavior does indeed carry through the generations. It is really a spiritual consequence, rather than a reward in the traditional sense. By refining oneself spiritually, one has an impact on his entire person. These refinements become part of the spiritual genes that go on to create finer people. How much more so when the person is already behaving on an elevated level! Controlling one’s more human temptations must refine the person even more. The spiritual genes must be even greater.

 

Shabbat Shalom.