Parsha_Push, Parshat Achrei Mot – Kedoshim

Many educators discuss the significance of food within the framework of parent-child relationships and educational practice. A child learns to trust their parents as they satisfy the most basic need of nourishment; as they grow, they learn much more through questions of boundaries and education in manners. Much of the family connection that also emphasizes values and the family narrative revolves around the dining table. Once this was self-evident, but today many need to reinforce the importance of a shared family meal.
The first connection between humans and God was also through food – God provided the fruits of the garden for humans, and also limited what they could eat. The first rebellion was connected to food, when humans ate from the forbidden tree. Therefore, it is not surprising to find food throughout the story of Israel’s wanderings in the desert, while it also holds a central place in the Torah’s commandments.
One such commandment has received various and diverse interpretations from the sages – “You shall not eat over the blood.” The continuation of the verse “and do not practice divination or soothsaying” led commentators to understand this within the framework of the prohibition against pagan customs, as a type of sorcery. Perhaps due to the similarity to the verse “Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor,” Rashbam interpreted the prohibition as referring to a meal eaten over the grave of the deceased. This may be the reason that the sages derived from this verse that one does not make a consolation meal for those executed by the court, and also that the Sanhedrin who executed someone must fast. But there are additional interpretations. Based on the story of Saul’s warriors who rushed to the spoils after a day of battle without eating and “ate over the blood,” some interpreted it as a prohibition to eat from the meat before the soul has fully departed, or before the blood is sprinkled on the altar. Others understood that this is the prohibition that the rebellious son violates – he eats (too much) and pays for it with his blood and soul.
Through the Midrash we can identify the element common to all interpretations, as the Midrash notes the prohibition of orlah (fruit from young trees) that appears immediately before. The prohibition of orlah requires a person to wait (three years!) before eating. Similarly, the other prohibitions derived from the prohibition of eating over blood (blood of the animal, blood of the slain, blood of the person eating) relate to a person’s ability to exercise restraint, to show sensitivity and the ability to delay gratification.
It is no coincidence that this appears together with additional prohibitions under the heading “You shall be holy.” As we learn from the ‘marshmallow test,’ the ability to achieve accomplishments, and in this case spiritual accomplishments, begins with the capacity to delay gratification, to lift one’s eyes for a moment from the here and now, and thereby acquire the virtues that will enable a connection with holiness and with eternity.