This week's Dvarim review of things previously shared with the Israelites covers information about the Temple and what should be sacrificed there, reminders to not follow false prophets, the laws of kashrut, and the mitzvah of tzedakah, including loan forgiveness and the shmeitah year, plus a rundown of the Shalosh Regalim.
I am always amazed how a whole lifestyle of eating kosher grows out of a few lines in the Torah.
I know that some people take issue with that, feeling like the rabbinic laws that grew from these verses are an overreach (I am looking at you, people who think you should be able to eat chicken with milk because there’s no way you could be boiling a “chick” in its mother’s milk) For me, I am intrigued by the way that something that is so fundamental to my expression of Judaism grew and developed over time. So two of my menu items focus on the details of the kashrut laws mentioned here.
For a main dish, we’d have lamb chops. They happen to be a favorite in my house, but I chose them because of the animals specially listed as permissible, very few of them are actually ones we eat, but lamb is on that list. The only other one we eat is beef, which could be from an ox (listed) or cow (not specifically listed) “These are the animals that you may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat; the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, the mountain sheep, and any other animal that has true hoofs which are cleft in two and brings up the cud—such you may eat.”
(Dvarim 14:4-6)
Keeping in the theme of kashrut, we are told in this parsha that while you can eat these animals “you must not partake of the blood; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.” (Dvarim 12:23) So, while a little graphic if you think too hard about it, I would make raspberry bars that resemble following that rule.
Here’s one option for this (just sub margarine or Crisco for butter, because KASHRUT, of course):
Finally, I love that there’s an accommodation for reality in this parsha when we are instructed that if you live too far to bring your own goods directly to the Temple to sacrifice, you can sell your goods “you may convert them into money. [i.e. sell them] Wrap up the money and take it with you to the place that your God יהוה has chosen” (dvarim 14:25). So I would make carrot coins as a side. Another option is a veggie filled “beggars purse.”
B'tayavon and Shabbat Shalom!
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