This past Pesach my family joined thousands of other Jews in a modern, but widespread, Pesach tradition, and went to the zoo. If we didn’t comprise a majority, I suspect Yiddish was the most spoken language at the zoo other than English on Monday and our Sefardi brothers and sisters made a strong showing as well..
The pandas have returned to the zoo after a brief hiatus. And when we were there we got to watch a panda acting as if it were ordered from panda central casting as it rolled around outdoors and munched on a long bamboo branch. It was cliched and it was also absolutely adorable. I also found myself staring into the eyes of a gorilla who was staring back at me, wondering what it saw when it looked at me as I looked at it looking at me.
I did have a thought while marveling at the Jewish diversity on display at the zoo: How does the Torah want us to relate to the panoply of creatures we encountered there? What feelings should they inspire? And does the Torah offer us a way of responding to the natural world beyond simply sorting animals into those we can and cannot eat?
After the lengthy list of animals, fish, and birds that we are allowed to eat and that we are prohibited from eating, the Torah, in Parashat Shimini, offers a summation:
לְהַבְדִּ֕יל בֵּ֥ין הַטָּמֵ֖א וּבֵ֣ין הַטָּהֹ֑ר וּבֵ֤ין הַֽחַיָּה֙ הַֽנֶּאֱכֶ֔לֶת וּבֵין֙ הַֽחַיָּ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֖ר לֹ֥א תֵאָכֵֽל׃
“These are the instructions concerning animals, birds, all living creatures that move in water, and all creatures that swarm on earth, for distinguishing between the unclean and the clean, between the living things that may be eaten and the living things that may not be eaten.”
That sounds like there is a strong negative valence to the non-kosher animals which not only should not be eaten but are “tameih” or “impure.”
This is also implied by the repeated language of “sheketz”
וְשֶׁ֖קֶץ יִהְי֣וּ לָכֶ֑ם מִבְּשָׂרָם֙ לֹ֣א תֹאכֵ֔לוּ וְאֶת־נִבְלָתָ֖ם תְּשַׁקֵּֽצוּ׃
“Deteset them…”
There is a Chabad tradition to protect children from exposure to images or toys of non-kosher animals. When our son Noam was very young, a cousin enthusiastically gave us a copy of “Llama Llama Red Pajama” because her own grandchildren were being raised according to this Chabad practice and llamas, as we all learned this morning, are not kosher.
But, there is not a necessary negative valence to “tumah” in the Torah. Rather, tumah is the necessary result of an embodied life that we live out in the world. Within this way of thinking, associated with Rambam and others, the purpose of the Torah’s entire system of Tumah v’Taharah, the purity laws that occupy fully one sixth of the Oral Torah, is to require preparation and intentionality before entering the sanctuary but not to claim anything negative about the sources of tumah in nature or in our bodies.
I cared that the snacks sold at the zoo were not kosher. But the animals themselves did not feel off-limits or troubling and I don’t think anyone else experienced them that way.
Kashrut draws boundaries around consumption, not around appreciation. God filled the world with animals and plants and birds and fish. We can marvel at all of them, even as we are permitted to eat only some.
While I was at the zoo I was thinking about a halakhic topic I have been researching regarding Birkat Ha’Ilanot, the springtime blessing that is said once each year when we see a flowering fruit tree in blossom.
In the language of the Shulhan Arukh, the authoritative 16th century code of Jewish Law:
היוצא בימי ניסן וראה אילנות שמוציאין פרח אומר בא”י אמ”ה שלא חיסר בעולמו כלום וברא בו בריות טובות ואילנות טובות ליהנות בהם בני אדם
One who goes out in the month of Nisan and sees trees that have put forth flowers says, “Blessed Are you….who has not left anything lacking in the world and who has created good creations and good trees from which people can benefit.”
The most convenient way to participate in this annual mitzvah of appreciation and praise is to recite the blessing when seeing the blossoming apple trees in the front lawn of the shul. The trees are covered in beautiful white blossoms this week and the trees do produce edible fruit, but the trees are also orlah – in the first three years after being planted and it is forbidden to eat the fruit of these trees.
Can the blessing be said for the blossoms of a tree that cannot be eaten? Come back for Se’udah Shlishit when we will have an opportunity to learn some primary sources about this question, but the question turns on a simple but profound issue.
The blessing expresses our praise of God for creating the world with good trees that human beings can benefit from and this orlah tree produces fruit, at least this year, that is forbidden. A number of poskim, halakhic scholars, offer strict rulings on this question for precisely this reason. Our neighborhood is filled with pretty flowers, this blessing was established for flowers that will produce edible fruit. And for a Jew making a blessing, edible fruit means kosher fruit that is not orlah.
We are all familiar with birkhot ha’nehenin, “benefit blessings” that we say before eating or smelling something. You can’t say a borei ‘prei ha’etz blessing on an apple that you will not, or cannot eat.
On the other hand, other poskim note that this berakhah is not a “birkat ha’nehenin”said before eating something or smelling something. It is a blessing of praise and it is possible to praise God for creating beautiful flowers that produce edible fruit that is tasty and refreshing and a source of undeserved joy – even if this particular tree is not yet kosher. Once the tree is no longer orlah, I can say “borei peri ha’etz” and eat the fruit itself. In the meantime, the blossoms are an opportunity to praise God for a world filled with beauty and sweetness which I can appreciate even at moments when I am unable to directly benefit.
This second approach can open us to a way of being in the world which is more sustainable and more conducive to happiness. Instead of evaluating the world on the basis of what benefit I can derive from each tree, flower, animal, or person, I can evaluate the world as a limitless opportunity for cultivating wonder at God’s creation and gratitude for being able to witness some of that beauty and splendor.
Rabbi Dovid Silber has pointed out that one of the recurring patterns in Tanakh, a paradigm for sin, is the dangerous collapse between seeing and taking. In Genesis 3 the woman sees the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and then takes it. In Genesis 6 the bnei elohim see the “daughters of men” and take them. In Genesis 34 Shechem sees Dinah and takes her. In Joshua 7, Achan sees the spoils of war and takes from them. In II Samuel 11, David sees Batsheva bathing on the roof and takes her.
The Torah’s corrective is recited twice each day in the third paragraph of the Shema: וְלֹֽא־תָת֜וּרוּ אַחֲרֵ֤י לְבַבְכֶם֙ וְאַחֲרֵ֣י עֵֽינֵיכֶ֔ם “do not follow after your heart and after your eyes…” We are told to break the connection between seeing and taking.
Another way to do that is to admire the non Kosher animals that scurry across our lawns, soar in the sky above us, slither in the ground beneath our feet, and frolic at the zoo.
Kashrut limits what we may take. The Shema teaches us to respond with discipline to what we see. Birkat Ha-Ilanot teaches us that even when we cannot take, we may still be allowed to bless.
These are difficult times for so many: neighbors here in Washington, friends and family in Israel, and millions of others enduring unspeakable suffering. At times, it has felt incongruous to marvel at springtime blossoms, birdsong, and beautiful weather in our neighborhood of gardens, while knowing how much suffering fills the world. We can learn from Birkat Ha-Ilanot even on an orlah tree that it is right to acknowledge God’s benevolence, even when we cannot experience it right here and right now. We can appreciate the goodness inherent in Creation, even as we struggle mightily to bring that goodness to every one of God’s creations who cannot yet experience it.
A life of Torah and mitzvot is not a life lived with eyes shut. It is a life where our open eyes inspire us to open our hearts in compassion, but also to appreciation. A life of Torah and mitzvot is a life where our open eyes inspire our hands to reach out to support and to embrace, and also inspire our mouths to open in praise.
It is a life of praise and gratitude beyond direct benefit. It is a life of seeing without taking.
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 