Parshas Shemini: Looking for a Sign?

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The parashah is divided up into two parts.

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There's the first half, the first act, which features the consecration and the finishing up of the partying and the beginning of the passing over of the keys from Moshe the high priest, to Aaron the high priest.

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The Kohanim now begin their avodah.

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It's a really joyous day, bayom Hashmini, the eighth day.

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Then calamity, disaster strikes Another of an aviyu bring, a foreign, alien fire that ends up getting them killed.

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The commentaries are all grappling to figure out what exactly was their sin.

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But the second act is the oldest story, the oldest book.

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It's a play that features halachos that you're probably very familiar with.

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It's all about the laws of kashrus, what's kosher and what's not kosher, certain signs that we need to look for as Jewish people that will indicate that an animal is permitted for consumption and other signs that will prohibit the said species from consumption.

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Very interesting simonim, interesting signs that will prove the animal's purity, interesting signs that, or the lack thereof, that will make the animal impure.

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A couple more halachas about how to deal with these situations, what to do about the impurity that may prohibit even touching certain things, certain items, certain creatures, and the giving over of the mesorah Of which animals are permitted and prohibited and it can become well unentertaining Old haq, as they say, and coming across the laws of kashas again.

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Because, let's say it as it is, it's not exactly our nesayon kosher and non-kosher.

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Well, I hope that when we walk past a Burger King or a McDonald's, not all of us find that to be the place where we struggle.

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Should I go in and get a Big Mac a Whopper and get a Big Mac a Whopper, or does the low-end meat and the fake cheese kind of already gross you out? And that's not exactly where our struggles are.

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So to talk about Kostras will hardly keep attention, but to talk about the signs of Kastris and to understand the depth and the kindness that Hashem gave us, that he did and bestowed upon us ways to be able to discern Kastris, now that's got something very, very serious behind it.

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Because we kind of take it for granted that split hooves kosher Kind of odd.

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Why does that make something? Kosher? Fins and scales kosher.

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The exact mesora on certain birds given over those are kosher.

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Chewing its cud, chewing on its food an animal, spitting it back up into its mouth and chewing it again kosher, doesn't it bother you, make you wonder why that makes something kosher? Why doesn't a animal that walks on two feet be kosher? An animal that doesn't have tusks? Maybe that would be kosher.

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Very unique signs.

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Why two signs? Why the lack thereof of these signs creates Tumma or Tyra.

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And behind all of this, we are undoubtedly going to have to get into some Kabbalah to figure out why exactly there is the specific body makeup and shape of all the animals and why these are the kosher and non-kosher signs, and we'll touch on that.

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But more importantly, we're going to get to a Yisod and understanding a foundational teaching from the great Miram Ashkiach, rabbi Yeruchim L'Voviz Dechetzadik V'Kadosh Livrocha, the holy Miram Ashkiach, during the Roaring Twenties.

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That shows us a bigger picture and shows us that from Pasha Shmini and the laws of kosher and the laws that you thought you knew there lies, therein lies, the trick to stay pure and protect your body and soul and to address the first thing first the chewing of its car and the split hooves.

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Those are Zohars and rambans that you can find here.

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They actually get into detail about how the chewing of the cud represents the constantly going over something and ruminating upon it.

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Your sustenance depth about understanding how what I have and wanting more.

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Wanting more may make me feel like I'm lacking, but if I am continuing to chew on what I do have, it will bring me towards more recognition and more gratitude and more happiness.

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More Kabbalah is used in depth to understand the split hooves and the nature of feet and the regal and why, when it's divided into two, but only in a very sharp way, is it divided into two with some sort of hoof that is cloven.

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Only that that represents something a bit more mystical, deep lessons that are really growths of kosherness.

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But Rebbe Rocham asks the following question about the root of signs of kosher, about O-U Chaf K and, in case you didn't know, the O-R thing, that's the registered trademark that isn't a kosher symbol.

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But the Pazuk says the following things there's exact signs.

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The Torah tells us Look for the signs of kosher and let's clear a hakira If you've never been to yeshiva.

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That's part of the brisker parlance, of understanding the root, the basis of a certain topic, understanding why or what does a sign represent.

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And Rabbi Ruchem points out that isn't it odd that all of the non-kosher animals that walk on four feet, they all seem to have the same lacking of the kosher signs.

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And isn't it odd, isn't it a strange coincidence that all of the kosher animals have the exact same makeup as each other to be deemed kosher.

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They all have the split hooves, they all have the barfing up of its food into its mouth and chewing it again.

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And because the simone tahara and the simone tumma the signs of kosher and impure.

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They aren't what create the animal into being kosher or not, but rather the opposite.

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They are outgrowths, they are a product of the impurity that resides in the animal, that something that is born and intrinsically pure.

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It births and gives off kosher signs.

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It's part of the chesed of the world, part of what Hashem gave us to be able to notice, to be able to notice places we can go, things we can eat, things we can do, because we notice what lies inside, based on the simonim on the outside.

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Just hear this Ze yesoit ve'klaladvarim.

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The following is the teaching, it's the foundational thing, the summarization of the whole matter.

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Le'tumah ve'tahara yeshnan, simonim To all purity and impurity.

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There are signs For purity.

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You need all the signs and if it's missing, you're missing one.

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You're gnawing on a viper, consuming a hyrax, a bat or a toad, totally impure.

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The idea is not to be boxed in only in the category of fish, meat and chicken, but our entire life.

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We can apply this concept of looking for signs.

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We decide thousands of times a day what we will eat, where we will go, what we will do, who we will see.

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There are simonim to be able to help us find our ways.

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It's very easy in restaurants you look for the OU.

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Very easy on a package of Lay's chips you look for the OU, maybe you look for the Star K, maybe you look for the Haimisha Hexer.

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But the same thing happens even in people, that if a person should nullify, degrade, mess himself up because of some certain sins, there are outgrowths, there are seras and white leprosy splotches that could grow on the skin.

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That's not a sign that this person is now impure.

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It's not a causation, but rather he is impure.

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You are a walking sin, god forbid and therefore it protrudes out like a cancerous tumor.

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It lets you know what's inside.

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We call a koan immediately for some help when a person walks down the street.

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You don't have to enter into stores to be able to pick up on what's going to be inside.

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There are simonim.

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When people get really good at looking for signs in life, things get easier.

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Progress is had very, very swiftly, immediately, when something comes your way that you're not interested in, you can sniff it out, you can smell it.

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I see the sign.

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I would never invest with that person.

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It just there's a sign on him.

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I noticed that when he was doing this, walking this way, seeing this thing.

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It's not a good investment.

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There's a sim in there.

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It doesn't define the person, but rather it's birthed and it's produced by the thing, by the inside and the DNA and the makeup of the item.

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Person or creature, people see colors and that can be enough for you to be tipped, to be let in on the secret that come very close to this and embrace this item, or to hold your nose and step away.

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People see blue and you can think of that's a simon of Tahara, of Kedusha, of Tzitzis, of Tcheles, of Kisei HaKovid, and you can see red, the corner of some immoral cloth or a edge of a green dollar bill, and that's enough of a simmon for you to know everything else that lies therein.

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It's a simmon and a gift from Hashem, because simone tumav, etaira, yeshnon there are.

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They tell a great story about two Bachram who came to try to take an entrance exam to get into Yeshiva Slabotka.

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One student was a brilliant scholar, the other an average student.

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The brilliant student everyone assumed would be the one to get in, for there wasn't much space, the altar probably wouldn't accept both.

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And the student that was of average intelligence, better luck next year.

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They both were given their faherz entrance exams.

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Both sat outside, waited for each other and they left and, shockingly, the altar then gave the message that he was going to only allow the boy of average intelligence into the yeshiva, but the brilliant boy, no, he would not going to accept him.

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Why?

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One, of course, asked why the interesting decision? He said well, they're coming to take a faher for the coming zaman, the coming semester, and we just finished sukkahs.

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They want to come for the winter.

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And I noticed, as the boys were walking in.

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I peered out the window and saw that the brighter boy.

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He walked right on top of some old tzach that had fallen on the floor and didn't really show the proper love for Torah and mitzvos and the other boy.

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I noticed that he walked around, he didn't step on it and he even pushed it off to the side a little bit, showing that kovid, that honor for the mitzvos, even though it's no longer sukkahs.

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That's a simon, an outgrowth, an action that is an OU symbol or a symbol of treif on the person in and of themselves, and therefore the simon etahara and simon etumah was very clear to the elder.

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It's a skill that we have to be able to develop so that we do not engage in harmful practices before we recognize that it is harmful.

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You got to know that something's a green light or a red light.

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The tuma v'tair, simone m'yesh baham.

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It goes as far as to say that the Gemar, ne'erim Chaf Amar Aleph, tells us that if you don't have any bashfulness, you don't have any sort of embarrassing quality meaning not that you have embarrassing poor skills in a certain area, type of qualities but if you are just so brazen and you could walk around without that Jewish midah of hiddenness, of pleasantness.

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Rather, you are grub, you are outgoing, in such a way that you do not care about anything, striding through the streets without clothing.

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The Gemara says be a dua.

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It is known shilloh umdu, a voice of al-Harsinai.

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We know that your grandparents didn't stand at the foot of Harsinai, that from that sign it shows us what's inside, but the DNA isn't even from a Jewish person.

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So impactful, so telling and revealing are simonim, the laws of kashrus.

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People are sick, they get green.

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People that are engaged in inappropriate behavior, immorality, promiscuity, they get bad breath.

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The Rambam says.

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The Medrash tells us from all the different animals there's certain references to certain cultures, because the certain actions of the animal is so telling and so revealing about certain continents, certain communities.

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There are simonim that are so deep that it isn't just by chance, but it is telling that the laws of kashius, that you must look for the OU, for that tells you what's inside and whether it's Tomei or Tar.

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The beauty is that there are simonei, kedushah.

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When you find a person, when you find the Jewish person, that he has the three signs when a person is bashful, he's merciful, he's going like a southern and giving acts of kindness.

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Those are the telling and revealing signs that you're from the children of Abraham Isaac and Jacob.

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And there are very precise halachos, very, very precise ways to go about the noticing of kosher and non-kosher signs.

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You know, it's interesting that the Torah points out, says the Kliyakar, that the pig that's really known the chazir, the freser, the ultimate symbol of impurity, actually does have one pure sign that the pig, while it does not chew its cud, it does have split hooves.

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That's how a pig sleeps with its hooves out to try to show off, look, I am kosher.

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But it's the ultimate hypocrite, the ultimate liar of the pig, for it's not kosher, rather it's rolling around in the mud, in the impurity.

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The chazir says the kliyakar, and when something's actually impure, then even another sign, that is, of something that's pure, like chewing of its cud.

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It doesn't fight back but rather it gets sucked into tumma and it increases and fans the fire of impurity.

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That's what the Kliyakar says.

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So it's doubly as impure because of the pure sign.

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For the pure sign is almost like lighter fuel to the one impurity, the one cancerous tumor of the non-chewing of its cud.

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So we must be very, very keen in our assessment of what we let into our lives, homes and personalities.

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We must have foresight.

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To pick up on colors, to pick up on shapes, to pick up on even the mere surroundings of an item will tell you often at times whether or not this is something that a Jew should be in close proximity with.

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And while we do have a slight problem that it can be hard for us to know exactly what's on the inside, we may not have those spiritually gifted eyes, but it's for that reason it would seem and it isn't hard to imagine that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave us Chazal.

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They gave us great sages that are called our Einayim, that are called the eyes of the nation, the Enei HaEda, that the rabbis sit above the corn maze of life and they're able to say iceberg dead ahead and steer the boat away just by seeing the tiniest little tip of the iceberg.

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But just think of how many new inventions come the Jewish people's way and how sharp and quickly we must, as a congregation, understand whether it's pure or not the Haskalah, what's the problem with becoming a little bit more enlightened? But from the brilliant stages they're able to pick up on sniffing it out, understanding the surroundings, seeing the color and understanding that this is nothing more than a rotten weasel.

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The stages of Matis Yo Solomon, able to pick up on the beginning of social media and the internet and how unfiltered devices this could be the downfall of Klaal Yisrael.

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Because of his clear-seeing eyes, he saw the Simone Tyra, simone Tumah, and he was able to adjust it and encourage Klaal Yisrael to make the right adjustments to protect itself from the treacherous waters that lie ahead.

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New technology is constantly coming out to make our Shabbos lives easier.

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A Shinoi, a secondary Shabbos switch that would make electricity permitted on Shabbos.

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What's the problem? There's no halachic issue.

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But sages will understand and sniff out a simon as this, tuma or Tahara, tame or Tahar.

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What about the same thing On a elderly person's walker that may electronically help them to go somewhere? Electronic wheelchair maybe it's allowed there.

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You have to have that brilliant and very keen sense.

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A professional knows for these things Kosher light switch, the kosher lamp, some of these things.

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The rabbi said Tahar slap an OU, because in their brilliance they understood that this would help and enable Jewish people to fulfill the word of God and not bring us further away from that.

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Every single day there seems to be new inventions away from that.

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Every single day there seems to be new inventions, new entities, creatures and items that will either bring us closer to Hashem or pull us away.

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What do we do about changing winds of philosophy, certain individuals with large voices promoting certain ideas? What do we do with the new technologies, the new artificial intelligences? You have to be able to understand and see with the laws of Kashris as best as we can from our own eyes.

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But if we can't, then we look to the Enei Ha'edah that can say that's kosher or that's not.

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That's for this and this alone, the separation that God brought us out of Egypt.

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Hama'a lo'eschem, god raised us up out of Egypt and we don't get near the eating of those gross lobsters, the bottom feeders, the claws, the tentacles, who else? Whatever's going on in there, why we have a very, very rare condition called the elevated soul, and the elevated soul can't exactly consume McDonald's and Wendy's.

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And it's a very, very minute and exacting procedure in deciding this Because, as Rashi tells us, tells us, a mere centimeter of the shchita, done incorrectly, lies between as the slight difference of whether something's kosher or not.

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It's a game of centimeters In a magnifying glass.

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You need to be exacting and precise, so you gotta be smart.

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You need a magnifying glass, you need to be exacting and precise, so you got to be smart.

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You got to remember that you have a very rare condition, a condition that you're part of A very rare group of fellows, a fraternity of Kedusha, and because of that, swarms of locusts, gross teeming creatures on the ground, crabs, hyraxes and pigs are not part of our diets.

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And you got to keep your eyes up to see into the future and understand from just a small sign.

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Is this going to grow into some infection? Is this magazine, this culture, this idea, this person, this word, is it going to turn into tzaras v'hiskadishtem? Make yourself pure ve'yisem kidoshim and look out for the simonim, because by the grace of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, we have been given a clear way to understand whether or not something based on its signs is fit for consumption for the holy Jewish nation.

Parshas Shemini: Looking for a Sign?

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