Using our Material Gifts to Sanctify the World
The 8th Day of an Animal’s Life
Parshat Emor should be familiar to us, because we read a section of it twice over Sukkos and once over Pesach. We do so because the parsha contains a discussion of the Mo’adim, the Jewish festivals. The paragraph that precedes the Mo’adim (22:26-33) tells us a series of laws having to do with bringing animal sacrifices. It begins by telling us that when a newborn animal is born, it must first be seven days with its mother. Only from the 8th day of its life may it be brought as a korban. The next sentence teaches that two animals that are parent and child may not be slaughtered on the same day. The paragraph concludes by teaching that abiding by these and other sacrificial limitations will help to avoid a Chillul (desecration of) Hashem and will create a Kiddush (sanctification of) Hashem.
Why is it necessary to wait until the 8th day of a calf’s or lamb’s life before bringing it as a korban? How does obeying this mitzvah create a Kiddush Hashem? And why is this the prefatory paragraph to the Mo’adim?
Compassion For All Creatures
The Midrash and the Zohar debate as to why one must wait until the 8th day. The Midrash (Devarim Rabbah 6:1) compares this law to the mitzvah of sending away the mother bird before taking its eggs (Kan Tzipor). Hashem is compassionate to all creatures, and wants a calf to have its strength before subjecting it to traumatic slaughter. Similarly, Hashem is compassionate to a newborn infant boy and wants us to wait until the baby’s 8th day before his bris, so that the child will have sufficient strength to endure the procedure. In short, the Midrash portrays this mitzvah as one of compassion that Hashem has upon His creations.
As Rav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk explains (in Meshekh Chochmah to 22:26), the entirety of the Torah is designed to engender within man a sense of compassion and kindness, unlike some of the ancient idolatrous rites, which called upon its adherents to act cruelly and violently when offering both animal and human sacrifice. The commandments of waiting until the 8th day of an animal’s life, as well as the commandment to not slaughter a parent and child on the same day, help man become more sensitive to all of God’s creatures. This in itself creates a “Kiddush Hashem,” in that the world sees that the adherents to Hashem’s Torah are compassionate and kind, just like the Torah’s author.
Embracing Spirituality Through Physicality
The Zohar (Emor 91a-b), however, sees it differently. The mitzvah of waiting until the 8th day, both for an animal being brought as a korban, and a child having his bris, is based on the requirement that both the animal and the infant experience a Shabbat before being brought for Divine service. Apparently, a full weekly cycle imbues the newborn with some kind of spiritual endowment that primes the animal for its sacrifice and primes the baby for his bris.
Here’s one way of understanding the Zohar: The objective of the Torah is to connect heaven and earth, the transcendent with the physical. We are meant to view the physical objects of our existence as tools to spiritually elevate ourselves and everything around us. This is not an obvious point; Plato and his followers viewed the spiritual and physical realms as being in perpetual opposition to each other. This dualist view, that the soul is the ideal state of man, and that his body is forever pulling him away from that ideal state, also finds support in some Jewish writings which discuss the need for man to eschew “gashmiyut” (physicality) and embrace only “ruchniyut” (spirituality). And yet, the very means of embracing spirituality in Judaism is through physical acts, which involve using the very same material world that Plato rejected.
Ultimately, by placing us in this physical world, Hashem indicates to us that we’re not supposed to try to escape the physical realm, but rather to elevate it. Instead of living as hermits and ascetics, we’re meant to embrace the amenities and comforts of the material world, and utilize those items as a means of showing gratitude and love to the Giver of those amenities.
Being “of” This World
This is the message of the Zohar. In order for an animal to be usable as a korban, it must first be “of” this world. It has to go through a full weekly cycle, including a day of Shabbat, so that it can live through and absorb the essence of the physical world. It needs to go through a Shabbat in particular, because Shabbat is demonstrative of how time, which is the fourth dimension of our physical existence, can be sanctified. Similarly, in order for a male child to undergo a circumcision, which represents his spiritual elevation, he must first become a part of the essence of the physical realm before having his physicality “elevated” through his bris.
This is how we sanctify God, or make a Kiddush Hashem. By taking the objects that are already a part of this world, and elevating them through their use in spiritual rites, we confirm Hashem’s objective in creating us as part of this physical realm. The world understands through our observance of the mitzvos what Hashem wishes for all of humanity: instead of rejecting one’s physical aspect, instead of fasting and self-flagellation, Hashem wants us to enjoy the physical life He gave us so that we may appreciate our lives and our Sustainer. Every time we make a bracha on a piece of food, every time we make a Shehechiyanu on a new garment, we affirm this Divine plan.
Being Real
There is one caveat, of course: We need to sincerely mean it. Giving lip service to the idea but then indulging for the sake of indulgence accomplishes the opposite of our goal of elevating the physical. Many make a point of purchasing special clothing or special foods for Shabbat and Yom Tov (See Shulchan Aruch 242). I love the phrase that some people say before taking their first spoon of chicken soup Friday night (from the teachings of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Rimanov and others): “L’chavod Shabbat Kodesh!” – “This is in honor of the holy Sabbath.” By making a verbal declaration, we remind ourselves that our enjoyment of Shabbat is to exalt Hashem, not to fill our stomachs.
Taken in this light, we might better understand why this paragraph about waiting until the 8th day acts as the preface for the Mo’adim. We are charged with sanctifying holy days on the calendar. We are supposed to take all of our hard-earned bounty from the fields and use those gifts in the service of Hashem. We take unleavened bread and use it for Matzah. We take the first barley harvest and use it for the Omer offering. We take loaves of bread and multiple animals from our livestock and offer them to God on Shavuot. We take four plants from our fields and wave them on Sukkot, while sitting in the Sukkah that is adjacent to our homes. In short, we use the physical gifts of our lives to sanctify the physical world.
The Mo’adim: Indulgence of the Physical
We suggest that this is how the Mo’adim figure into the book of Vayikra, which is all about creating holiness. The commandment to “be holy” is subject to multiple interpretations. Lest one think that being holy requires us to merely remove ourselves from the pleasures of the physical world, the Torah presents us with the Mo’adim as a way of reminding us that sometimes the highest form of holiness is found within the indulgence of the physical.
There is truth to both the Midrash and the Zohar. The mitzvot are meant to engender sensitivity and kindness, even to the smallest of God’s creatures, as per the Midrash. As society increasingly recognizes the evils of “factory farming” and the cruelty to animals that takes place in these large egg, milk, and meat producing plants, we should be part of the societal voice that calls for greater compassion in the treatment of animals, even when we can justify using them for food. The mitzvot also remind us that despite the pitfalls of overindulgence, this world is a gift from God, meant for us to harness in making ourselves holier beings. May we appreciate these messages of kindness and holiness as we continue the perpetual effort at arriving at the ultimate Redemption, bb”a.