Bl – Ritually Clean and Unclean Beasts 11: 1-8

Ritually Clean and Unclean Beasts
11: 1-8

Ritually clean and unclean beasts DIG: How is this chapter an extension of the principles in the previous one (to see link click Bh – The Death of Nadab and Abihu)? What was the only justification that God offered for the dietary mitzvot? What was their moral mandate? Individually, and nationally, why was it important for the Isrealites to eat kosher?

REFLECT: In Dani’el 1, we see where strict adherence to such dietary mitzvot helped strengthen God’s people and establish His purpose. However, in Acts 10:9-23, the mitzvot concerning ritually clean and unclean animals was lifted. Why do you think this is? In what sense would the removal of these mitzvot help to spread the Gospel?

Ritual impurity is the biblical concept that a person can be in a state which, according to the Torah, prevents the person from having any contact with the Tabernacle or Temple and its sacrifices. God was in the process of teaching His people a critical spiritual reality (to see link click Bk – Ritually Clean and Unclean Animals).

We have now come to the third major section of Leviticus. The subject matter is changed from the priests to the people; from offerings to God to food from man; from worship before God to the walk in this world. The change is made from the sacred to the secular without any change of pace or level. There is no thought that this is anything different. Today we make a false distinction between the sacred and the secular. We think if it is in the Church, it is sacred. Even gossip in the Church seems to be regarded as sacred (especially if it is couched as a prayer request!). If gossip is outside the Church, then it is secular. Friends, we can’t make that distinction. Why? Here, God moves right from the sacred to what many would call secular, but He makes no distinction. Neither should we!¹⁶¹

A moral mandate: There was a purity component to their observance: animals were classified as either ritually clean or unclean, and handling the carcass of some unclean animals rendered the eater unclean. But the dietary mitzvot were also primarily about holiness. At the end of Leviticus Chapter 11, ADONAI declares the dietary bans as an issue of holiness, and He commands Isra’el to keep them on the basis of the imitation of YHVH Himself. For I am ADONAI your God; therefore, consecrate yourselves and be holy, for I am holy; and do not defile yourselves with any kind of swarming creature that moves along the ground. For I am ADONAI, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. Therefore you are to be holy, because I am holy (11:44-45).

The only justification He offers for the dietary mitzvot is that He is the LORD who brought the Israelites out of Egypt; therefore, He has the right to tell them what to eat. By keeping the dietary mitzvot, the Israelites were set apart, in other words, holy. In that sense, they would be imitating deity: be holy, for I am holy (11:45). The same reason is offered to explain why we are not to eat the flesh of torn animals, “You are to be my specially separated people. Therefore, you are not to eat any flesh torn to pieces by wild animals . . .” (Exodus 22:31). So too, we are commanded not to eat the meat of any animal that has died of natural causes because we are a holy people to ADONAI your God (Deuteronomy 14:21). Therefore, the dietary mitzvot are about holiness. When Peter exhorts us to be holy, he offers us no other standard of holiness than the one provided in the Scriptures, saying: follow the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in your entire way of life, since the TaNaKh says, “You are to be holy because I am holy” (First Peter 1:15-16).

Dear Heavenly Father, Praise You that you are both 100% love and 100% holy. Your love and holiness always work perfectly together. It is very comforting to know how great Your love is. It is also a comfort, though in a very different way to know You are holy. Your holiness means that You will never tell me to do something that is not the very best for me. You are always watching over me as my perfect Heavenly Father. Your holiness does not diminish with age. You are just as holy and wise now, as you were when Abraham was living.

Thank you for Yeshua being the lamb of God (John 1:9) and bearing our sin so that you could give your holiness to those who love and follow you. He made the One who knew no sin to become a sin offering on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21). Please help us to remember that loving You does not mean that Your gift of righteousness can be taken by someone grabbing it. Receiving the gift is a two-way street. You did everything to create the gift, but we need to receive the gift by our love (Matthew 22:37).

Receiving the gift makes us new creatures in You, “in Messiah.” Therefore if anyone is in Messiah, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (Second Corinthians 5:17) and therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Messiah Yeshua (Romans 8:1). Being “in Messiah” means thinking and acting like You. Because You are perfectly holy, our being “in Messiah” causes us to strive with all our heart to follow You in holiness. Your holiness is Awesome! In Yeshua’s holy name and power of His resurrection. Amen

This makes sense. Remember that being holy is not the same thing as being righteous. To be holy is to be set apart. Keeping the dietary mitzvot certainly sets one apart, but it didn’t really make anyone righteous. Our righteousness comes to us through faith in Messiah. Keeping the dietary mitzvot is a different thing. Those B’rit Chadashah believers who choose to follow the dietary mitzvot (see below), live a holy life in conformity to the righteousness Messiah has already given them.

For those Jews living in the dispensation of Torah (see the commentary on Exodus Da – The Dispensation of the Torah) there was a moral aspect to the dietary mitzvot because they are YHVH’s mitzvot. The same God who said: Do not commit adultery, said: You are not to eat meat from these or touch their carcasses; they are ritually unclean for you (11:8). He made no distinction between His mitzvot. He did not relegate some to moral categories and others to ceremonial categories. The Israelites needed to obey them (not for salvation, but as their blueprint for living), so that their lives would be blessed.

The Hebrew word for the dietary mitzvot is kashrut, which is from the word kosher, meaning fit or proper. All through Leviticus 11, the Torah describes which animals are fit and proper to be eaten, and which are not. They are regarded as positive commandments numbered among the 613 mitzvot of the Torah.¹⁶²

Land animals: ADONAI said to Moshe and Aaron, “Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘These are the living creatures which you may eat among all the land animals: any that has a separate hoof which is completely divided and chews the cud — these animals you may eat’ (11:1-3).” Only mammals that both chew the cud and have a split hoof were considered permissible for consumption. These animals are characterized as herbivores possessing four stomach compartments and two-toed hooves. Examples include cattle, sheep, goats, buffalo, ibex (wild goat), gazelle, deer, wild ox and giraffe.

Mammals which do not possess these characteristics are regarded as ritually unclean. The Torah lists four examples of animals that possess one kosher characteristic but not the other. But you are not to eat those that only chew the cud or only have a separate hoof. For example, the camel, the coney and the rabbit are ritually unclean for you, because they chew the cud but don’t have a separate hoof; while the pig is ritually unclean for you, because, although it has a separate and completely divided hoof, it doesn’t chew the cud (11:4-7). The camel and the pig are offered as examples of ritually unclean animals. The camel and the rabbit chew cud, but do not have a separate hoof; while the pig has a separate hoof but does not chew cud. From a casual observance, a pig appears to be kosher. It has cloven hooves, but it does not chew cud. The rabbis teach that the pig is symbolic of hypocrisy. One who puts on an exterior show of righteousness is likened to a pig. “When the swine is lying down it puts out its cloven hoofs, as if to say,”I am clean” (Gen Rabbah 65:1).¹⁶³

Although the Torah says: You are not to eat meat from these or touch their carcasses; they are ritually unclean for you (11:8), and you are not to make yourself ritually unclean by touching them (11:43), these prohibitions have always been understood with respect to the violation of entering the Tabernacle/Temple while in a state of ritual uncleanness. The sages understood this as applying only to the pilgrims entering Jerusalem and the Temple for the festivals. This is made clear in the Talmud as follows: Rabbi Yitzchak said, “A man should purify himself ritually for the pilgrimage festival, as it is written: You shall not touch their carcasses (11:8). It has been taught in the same regard concerning where it says: you are not to make yourself ritually unclean by touching them (11:43). I might interpret the verse to mean that ordinary Israelites are cautioned not to touch the carcases of unclean animals. Therefore, it says in another passage: Say to the priests, the sons of Aaron . . . cautioning them against becoming ritually unclean from a corpse (21:1), but other Israelites are not cautioned. May we not then argue form the lesser to the greater (kal v’homer)? If in the case of serious ritual uncleanness, like corpse contamination, the priests are cautioned while the common Israelites are not cautioned, how much less are the Israelites to be cautioned in the case of an insignificant ritual uncleanness, like, for example, contamination from carcasses! So how should I understand the commandment that says: You shall not touch their carcasses (11:8)? I understand it to mean that you shall not touch their carcasses on the pilgrimage festivals when the common Israelite must enter the Temple compound (Rosh Ha’Shanah 16b quoting Leviticus 11:8, 43 and 21:1). Rabbi Yitzchak’s explanation may skirt the issue to some degree, but his logic formed the standard of the halachah.¹⁶⁴

In the final analysis, today Messianic Jews and Gentiles have the freedom in Messiah to choose whether they want to eat kosher or not (see the commentary on First Corinthians Bm – The Weaker Brother or Sister).