To seek or not to seek

Question 1

Why SHOULD we seek reasons for mitzvot? 1

Answer 1

Better understand - motivation!

{2- we’ll miss the point}
{3- enhances}

Question 2

Why SHOULD we seek reasons for mitzvot? 2

Answer 2

We’ll miss the point if we don’t have a reason.
ex: sukkot, shabbat,

{1- better understand}
{3- enhances}

Question 3

Why SHOULD we seek reasons for mitzvot? 3

Answer 3

Enhances our Ahavat Hashem

{1- better understand}
{2- we’ll miss the point}

Question 4

Why should we NOT seek reasons for mitzvot? 1

Shlo

Answer 4

If we don’t like the reason or think it doesn’t apply to me, I might ditch the mitzvah.
Shlomo didn’t follow the king laws because he didn’t agree with the reasons/ didn’t think they applied to him cause he was so wise- he made peace an excuse

Question 5

Why should we NOT seek reasons for mitzvot? 2

Q

Answer 5

Questions Hashem’s authority

Question 6

Why should we NOT seek reasons for mitzvot? 3

Arr

Answer 6

If Hashem didn’t give a reason, who are we to give a reason for his decree? We can’t speak for Hashem that way. It’s arrogant to assume we know Hashem’s reasons.

Question 7

Methodological reason for keeping kashrut.

Answer 7

Action oriented nature of Jewish philosophy

Being a jew is essentially a matter of behaviour

Sanctification of life through the act of eating

We are more about actions than beliefs

Question 8

Philosophical reason for keeping kashrut.

Answer 8

Higher spiritual objective of the physical benefit from the beautiful physical world and reach a spiritual height.

Question 9

Psychological reason for keeping kashrut.

Answer 9

Remember God by applying religious standards to eating, which is one of our most basic needs. Spiritual mundane.

Question 10

Sociological reason for keeping kashrut.

Answer 10

Kashrut is a unifying factor amongst Jews that prevents assimilation.

Question 11

Kashrut is what kind of law?

Answer 11

A חוק- there’s no moral or ethical reason given

Question 12

Three things people might say to which you must respond by shutting them down.

Answer 12

Thanking God only when something good happens

Saying thank you, thank you, as it may seem that he is thanking more than one God

Saying that in Shiluach HaKan, we send the bird away to show compassion.

Question 13

When one says that in Shiluach HaKan, we send the bird away to show compassion, we must shush him. Why?

Answer 13

If you say it’s for compassion, it will incur jealousy from all the other creatures.
He is doing mitzvot for a compassion reason, rather than because it is simply a decree, a law. We have no choice but to follow it, compassion or not.

Question 14

RamBam - why keep kosher?

Answer 14

Kosher is healthy.

[“The food which is forbidden by the Torah is unwholesome. There is nothing among the forbidden kinds of food whose harmful character is doubted.”]

Question 15

RambAN - why keep kosher [birds]?

Answer 15

The common factors among forbidden birds is that they are all raptors, i.e. predators.
Eating only kosher birds keeps us from becoming evil by eating “evil” birds.

Question 16

Seventeen types of non kosher food

דאוריתא

Answer 16

בהמה טמאה | דג טמא | עוף טמא

נבלה | טרפה | דם

שרץ | חלב | גיד הנשה

טבל | ערלה | חדש

אבר מן החי | יין נסך | בשר וחלב

כלאי זרעים | כלאי כרם

Question 17

בהמה טמאה

Answer 17

We may not eat a mammal that does not both chew its cud AND have split hooves.

Pigs, hyrax, rabbit, camel each have one sign but not the other and are all listed in the Torah, and we have never discovered any other animals other than those listen that has one sign and not the other.

Question 18

דג טמא

Answer 18

We may not eat a fish that does not have both scales and fins.
Therefore, we may not eat a fish that has fins and no scales.
[There is no such thing as a fish with scales and no fins]

Question 19

עוף טמא

Answer 19

Birds that are NOT kosher are listed in the Torah

Also, if there is not a tradition/mesora for eating a kind of bird, we don’t eat it.

Question 20

נבלה

Answer 20

A kosher mammal or bird that is not shechted properly

Question 21

טרפה

Answer 21

A kosher mammal or bird that had a blemish or defect; or a disease, especially a disease that would have killed within a certain period of time.

Question 22

שרץ

Answer 22

We may not eat invertebrates [insects, worms, the works, EXCLUDING a type of grasshopper], reptiles, or amphibians.

So no crawly swarming animals that are bugs or frogs or lizards and such.

Question 23

דם

Answer 23

We may not eat blood.

We must soak and salt meat to extract the blood.

If liver is the desired food, you must cook it extra to remove the extra blood.

Question 24

חלב

Answer 24

We may not eat some specific fats that were burned on the mizbeach.

Question 25

Glatt - literally

Answer 25

Literally smooth lungs.
Absolutely no blemishes.
meaning that there are halachikly acceptable blemishes, but even those blemishes are not present so they don’t have to spend time determining if the blemishes are acceptable.

Question 26

“Glatt” kosher

Answer 26

Now used to say absolutely completely kosher.

Question 27

גיד הנשה

Answer 27

We may not eat the sciatic nerve.
Therefore, we cannot have filet minion [unless that nerve is removed].

Why? Yaakov’s fight with an unnamed man - a long night, injury fighting suffering, but in the end,
we prevail.

Question 28

נקור

Answer 28

The removal of forbidden fats

Question 29

טבל

Answer 29

We may not eat produce that grows in Eretz Yisrael that have not had Trumah and Maaser separated out from it.

Question 30

ערלה

Answer 30

We may not eat fruit from a tree until after it has grown for three years.

Question 31

חדש

Answer 31

We may not eat wheat spelt barley oats or rye planted after the 16th of Nissan until the next year.

We may, however, eat Yashan. [Winter grain.]

Question 32

אבר מן החי

Answer 32

We, as human beings, may not eat a part of an animal while the animal is still alive.

This is one of the seven Noachide laws.

Question 33

יין נסך

Answer 33

We may not drink wine that may have been used for libations for idol worship.

Question 34

בשר וחלב

Answer 34

We may not cook, eat, or derive benefit from kosher meat [that has been cooked] with kosher milk.

Question 35

כלאי זרעים

Answer 35

We may not plant fruit/vegatables in Israel near grains that will create a new mixture/species.

Question 36

כלאי כרם

Answer 36

We may not plant OR EAT vegetables and grain so close to grapes that they could create a new species. Applies everywhere.

Question 37

Rabbinic Prohibitions

Answer 37

Fish+meat
חלב עכו״ם
גבינת עכו״ם
סתם יינם
בישול עכו״ם
פת עכו״ם

Question 38

Why no fish+meat?

Answer 38

Because used to think it was physically dangerous to eat them together [later disproved], so since it’s a danger, they made a takana.
Still follow this.

Question 39

עכו״ם?

Answer 39

עבודת כוכבים = non Jews

Question 40

חלב עכו״ם

Answer 40

Concern that is not supervised, might really be a non-kosher animal’s milk.
Nowadays FDA regulations say it must be cows milk, so not an issue.

Question 41

גבינת עכו״ם

Answer 41

Rennet [is in cheese] is made from the lining of a calf’s stomach
so cheese needs a kosher version of rennet

Question 42

סתם יינם

Answer 42

Wine handled by a non-Jew is prohibited unless the wine is mevushal, to make sure the wine wasn’t used for avodah zara.

A Takanah to prevent assimilation.

Question 43

בישול עכו״ם

Answer 43

Food cooked exclusively by a non-Jew is prohibited

A Takanah to prevent assimilation.

Question 44

פת עכו״ם

Answer 44

Food Baked exclusively by a non-Jew is prohibited.

A Takanah to prevent assimilation.