Making the Short List - Re’eh/Elul 5784

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Long winded lessons.  Lectures that go on and on.  Repetitious and boring sermons. Sound familiar? You may have heard the story of the Rabbi at the pulpit, and one of the congregants in the front row started snoring.  The Rabbi asks the guy sitting next to him to wake him up.  “You put him to sleep, “answers the congregant, “you wake him up!”  I think it’s safe to say that this is not the most effective way to teach.  But would you believe that the Torah addresses this?


One of the subjects in this week’s Parsha is kosher.  The Torah tells us the signs to determine a kosher animal - if it chews its cud and has split hooves. The Torah then lists all the kosher animals.  For birds, the Torah simply gives a list of non-kosher birds.  For fish the kosher signs are given - fins and scales.  


(As an aside, it is interesting to note that the Torah definition of scales is different from the English definition.  There are fish that have “scales” but are not kosher.  There are two types of scales - those that scrape off easily and those that are embedded in the fish.  The former are kosher, the latter are not.)


Reading the Torah’s lists of animals and birds, two questions arise.  First, if we know that all animals that chew their cud and have split hooves are kosher, why list the animals at all?  Any farmer would know which they are.  The other question is, why does the Torah list the kosher animals but the non-kosher birds.  Either give both non-kosher lists or both kosher lists?


The Sages of the Talmud (Chulin 63b) learn a fascinating lesson from this, answering both questions together.  It turns out that there are many more non-kosher species of animal than kosher, but kosher birds greatly outnumber the non-kosher birds.  The Torah gives us the shorter list, the Talmud explains, to indicate that a person should always teach in a concise way.  That’s why the shorter lists of each type are given.  


So the Torah goes out of its way to list the kosher animals, even though we would be able to discern them by the signs, in order to teach us the best way to educate people.  It is a lesson in education and a lesson in human nature.  This is one example of many, where the Oral Torah shows us how seeming redundancies in the Torah are actually important lessons in our day-to-day life.  


As we approach the month of Elul, which begins Wednesday, I wish you a sweet new year.  May the coming year bring many great blessings for you personally, the Jewish people and the  entire world.  May the war end with all hostages returned home and the terrorists vanquished completely.  May we merit to start the new year with the Holy temple rebuilt and the coming of Moshiach.


Elul is the time for us to prepare for the Holy Days that are approaching.  The first day of Elul (Wednesday, September 4) is the day that Moshe went up to Mount Sinai the third time for 40 days and nights.  Over the previous 40 days he had achieved atonement for the Jewish people for having worshiped the Golden Calf, and now he was receiving the Torah in a state of Teshuvah, repentance.  These days culminated in Yom Kippur, when he brought down the second set of Tablets.  Elul is therefore the time for Teshuvah, a time when Hashem’s 13 attributes of mercy are revealed.  Chassidus tells us that during Elul Hashem’s intense love for the Jewish people is felt, and Hashem is ready to accept everyone with a “smiling countenance” and fulfill our wishes and prayers.


May we use these days well, with increased Torah study and observance, Tzedakah and good deeds, and realistic resolutions for growth and positive Jewish development in the new year.


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