Apr 22/06 - Shabbat Shemini

Commentary by Chazzan Aníbal Mass

The Midrash in Bereshit Rabá (8, 11) says that when God created man, He was inspired as much by the angels as by the beasts. He looked at the angels and said: “Man will stand, will speak, will understand and will look as the angels.” And then, looking at the beasts, He said: “Man will eat, will drink, will perform bodily functions, will procreate and will die as the beasts.”

We are a unique creation. We have something of angels and something of beasts. We know that we are only dust and ashes compared to the immensity of God. But, at the same time, we know that our intellect places us above the beasts.

We know that humankind is very close to being able to create robots with a human appearance. We already have new materials able to replace the human skeleton. A set of motors, pulleys and devices will be able to imitate the muscular system. A complex system of cameras and sensors will be able to offer the robot a minimum capacity to feel.

But how can we make a robot understand that a soup needs more salt? How can we make it be not only practical, but creative and intuitive? How can we plant in its rusty heart the seed of humility, the spirit of improvement, the devotion to God?

It’s probably impossible. A robot could win a chess game with Garry Kasparov, but it couldn’t get up in the morning and spontaneously read a Psalm to God for having all its gears in the right place. Nor could an animal do it...

Humankind was created with all these gifts that inhabit our inner being in the form of small seeds. It depends on each one of us whether or not those seeds bear fruit.

Parashat Shemini speaks to us about Jewish Dietary Laws—Kashrut—mentioning a long list of forbidden and permitted foods. We could ask: “Why can’t I eat anything I want? Am I a bad person if I eat a ham sandwich?”

The answer is no. There are good people who eat ham sandwiches and there are bad people who only eat kosher pastrami sandwiches... That’s not the goal of the norms of Kashrut.

We are not angels...but neither are we beasts or robots. Beasts eat according to the dictates of their instinct. Kashrut is a form of expressing our devotion to God, doing what He indicates to us instead of doing what our bodies indicate to us. It’s the tool that our tradition offers us to go beyond our instinct. Even though we know that we are not angels, we can become closer and closer every day to being like them.

Shabbat Shalom.