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©
2018 John D. Brey.
Rabbi
Hirsch says: "The purpose of the tefillin is that `the teaching of God
may be in your mouth.' For that reason they must be made מן המותר בפיך, from
substances `permitted to your mouth.'" (Collected Writings III,
p.152). His statement and what follows (in his Collected Writings) is
extremely baffling on a number of counts. In trying to make sense of it I
listened to a lecture at Chabad.org called: The Baffling Bloody Ban.
The
ban on drinking blood is indeed baffling on a number of counts. It was good to
see an educated rabbi recognizing the strangeness of the ban on drinking blood.
It’s likely he understood on a deeper level than he let on why the ban on
drinking blood is so baffling but didn't want to open a can of worms by going
there. . . We of course will go there.
Symbols may be misinterpreted as
external forms so that the symbol is considered to have performed its function
as soon as it has been produced. We might then come to regard the tefillin
as amulets and the mezuzah as a charm to protect us against bad luck,
and think that we have satisfied the requirements of the Law if we have
commissioned the writing of a beautiful Torah scroll and have prepared a
fitting cover and a fine Ark prepared for it.
Ibid.
Rabbi Hirsch is patently clear that
neither the mezuzah nor the tefillin (not even the Torah scroll and Ark itself)
are intended merely to be taken as "external forms," i.e., external
ornamentation:
Instead, the very material from
which a Sefer Torah, tefillin and mezuzah is prepared and upon
which its passages are written should comply with the order that God addressed
to Ezekiel (3, 1,3): המגלה הואת אכול את "Eat this scroll!" בטנך תאכל
ומעיך תמלא את "Nourish your body with this scroll and fill your inner
parts with it." In other words, תורת הי תהיה בפיך! Let the Teaching of God
enter your mouth! The Torah in its entirety and in its individual parts is not
intended for you as a means of external, physical protection but as spiritual
nourishment to be absorbed within you. The Torah has achieved its purpose only
if its contents and the ideas to be conveyed by its symbols have been absorbed
into our flesh and blood, giving strength and nourishment to our minds and
emotions.
Ibid.
The soul [sic] purpose of the
tefillin and the mezuzah is that the "soul" (the teaching on the scroll)
and not the body (the shel rosh) be
put into your mouth and absorbed into your own soul. And yet the body (the bayit) is kosher, you can eat the outer
body of the tefillin, while the soul, the scrolls, can't be put in the mouth
nor ingested, since they clearly represent the blood, or soul, where the life
of the teaching resides? In the very symbolism of the tefillin, the shel rosh, the outer home, bayit, represents a kosher animal, its
body, so that the scrolls, put into the
bayit, put inside the body of the tefillin, clearly represent the blood,
the soul, the life, of the tefillin.
But since the tefillin is an edible kosher animal, the scrolls inside are the soul, or blood, of the animal, which according to this baffling ban, can't be ingested? Rabbi Mendel Kaplan says loud and clear that if the flesh of the animal is kosher, can be eaten, why wouldn't the blood be kosher? -----When Rabbi Hirsch speaks of "giving strength and nourishment to our minds and our emotions" he's using the same terminology used to describe what the animal blood does, but in order to describes what the contents of the tefillin and mezuzah do to the one who absorbs it into their flesh and blood by "eating the scroll."
But since the tefillin is an edible kosher animal, the scrolls inside are the soul, or blood, of the animal, which according to this baffling ban, can't be ingested? Rabbi Mendel Kaplan says loud and clear that if the flesh of the animal is kosher, can be eaten, why wouldn't the blood be kosher? -----When Rabbi Hirsch speaks of "giving strength and nourishment to our minds and our emotions" he's using the same terminology used to describe what the animal blood does, but in order to describes what the contents of the tefillin and mezuzah do to the one who absorbs it into their flesh and blood by "eating the scroll."
In his lecture,The Baffling Bloody Ban, Rabbi Mendel Kaplan says (starting at
37:50):
"Never eat the soul in the
meat" . . . What do you mean soul? I don't even know what a soul looks
like? How do you eat a soul? . . . [he paraphrases a sage] you are what you
eat, and there's a temperament in the animal which is going to become absorbed
into you and since the animals have a cruel nature about them . . . you may
acquire the animalistic tendencies [from ingesting the soul, the blood].
He
goes on to imply that the pagans drink animal blood precisely to acquire the
emotions, intuitions, and strengths of the animal, whose soul is in their
blood. ------Rabbi Hirsch concurs. He teaches the same thing in his Chumash about ingesting the animal
blood. . . Which is where we get into the "baffling" aspect of the
prohibition on eating the blood of kosher animals since Rabbi Hirsch claims the
tefillin must be made from kosher animals precisely so that not only can it be
eaten, but the scroll inside must also be ingested.
But the "soul" of the kosher animal (its blood) can't be eaten. So why does the symbolism of the tefillin make the scrolls the soul of a kosher animal that can't be eaten?
Rabbi Mendel Kaplan even explains how blood is absorbed into the flesh and blood of the one drinking it better and more efficiently than the flesh of the animal, implying that drinking blood is the quickest most efficient way to "absorb" the soul tendencies that exist in the blood. What are the "soul tendencies" of the kosher animal that's the "home" (bayit) of the tefillin scrolls? ------It's clearly the teaching on the scrolls. -----They're the "blood," the "soul," the place the "life" of the tefillin resides.
The tefillin is made of animal materials. The scroll is literally sealed by the hair of a kosher animal. Everything about the "external" home (bayit) represents the flesh of a kosher animal that can be "placed in the mouth" and "eaten." -----And yet the soul of the animal is in the blood. The flesh (the bayit) is merely the "home" of the soul (the scrolls).
But the "soul" of the kosher animal (its blood) can't be eaten. So why does the symbolism of the tefillin make the scrolls the soul of a kosher animal that can't be eaten?
Rabbi Mendel Kaplan even explains how blood is absorbed into the flesh and blood of the one drinking it better and more efficiently than the flesh of the animal, implying that drinking blood is the quickest most efficient way to "absorb" the soul tendencies that exist in the blood. What are the "soul tendencies" of the kosher animal that's the "home" (bayit) of the tefillin scrolls? ------It's clearly the teaching on the scrolls. -----They're the "blood," the "soul," the place the "life" of the tefillin resides.
The tefillin is made of animal materials. The scroll is literally sealed by the hair of a kosher animal. Everything about the "external" home (bayit) represents the flesh of a kosher animal that can be "placed in the mouth" and "eaten." -----And yet the soul of the animal is in the blood. The flesh (the bayit) is merely the "home" of the soul (the scrolls).
This
contradiction would be glaring enough for a Jew (and it is, ergo the lecture
from Rabbi Mendel Kaplan). . . but just think of the problem for the Christian
who respects Jewish teaching but who takes Jesus at his word when in total and
utter contradiction of the very prohibition against drinking the blood of the
animal he says that unless you drink the blood of the kosher lamb sacrificed
for your sin you have no place in the Kingdom of God.
Jesus says you must eat the flesh, the bayit, and drink the blood, the scrolls (found in the four chambers of the shel rosh thus representing the heart, where the blood is pumped), if you intend to be received into the Kingdom of God. Jesus clearly implies that "Shaddai" (the Name engraved on the tefillin and mezuzah) is not just any kosher animal placed on the doorpost, but that it's the Name of the lamb of God whose flesh is fit for eating, but whose blood, whose soul, whose teaching, is just as kosher. -----And in fact more so, since it can be ingested and incorporated into the soul of the hearer even faster than the flesh can.
Jesus says you must eat the flesh, the bayit, and drink the blood, the scrolls (found in the four chambers of the shel rosh thus representing the heart, where the blood is pumped), if you intend to be received into the Kingdom of God. Jesus clearly implies that "Shaddai" (the Name engraved on the tefillin and mezuzah) is not just any kosher animal placed on the doorpost, but that it's the Name of the lamb of God whose flesh is fit for eating, but whose blood, whose soul, whose teaching, is just as kosher. -----And in fact more so, since it can be ingested and incorporated into the soul of the hearer even faster than the flesh can.
So why is blood never
kosher? Why the baffling bloody ban. And technically, it might be more correct
to say blood is kosher, but terefah,
since the sacrifice must be wounded to get to the blood and the blood is
flowing out of a living animal. Even meat taken from a living animal is
prohibited from being eaten. A kosher animal is prohibited from being eaten
(i.e., is quasi-unkosher) if it's terefah,
or if the animal is alive when the flesh is taken. So blood is probably kosher
in a kosher animal until it leaves the body of a living animal (through the sacrificial
cut). Which is kind of pointed out by Rabbi Mendel Kaplan at the link.
The kosher meat is taken
after the animal dies from the kosher-cut so that it's not terefah. But the sacrificial blood is flowing from a wound in a
living animal which probably makes it
terefah. Rabbi Hirsch is clear that the point of the tefillin is to get the
life and soul of the Torah inside your own body, which requires you to drink
the blood of the tefillin (the scrolls), which is unlawful since the Torah
makes drinking the blood of a kosher tefillin unlawful.
Jews eat the body only after
draining the soul. That's what smart rabbis are bothered about. . . . Jesus
said if you don't eat the body ---and--- the soul ---the Torah isn't really in
you. You're merely a poser. You wear the blood as an outer garment or ornament
(dress to impress) and eat the doorpost.
The metaphor Rabbi Hirsch
gives is of eating the teaching on the scroll so that it enters into the
"inner" parts of your flesh and blood; it's absorbed (once eaten)
into your flesh and blood to nourish the mind. Within the metaphor Rabbi Hirsch
establishes, the teaching of the Torah, on the scroll, is, for some strange
reason, placed in a metaphor/symbol/emblem of a kosher animal? -----What's the
Torah scroll doing inside a kosher animal? --------Why that metaphor?
Rabbi Hirsch implies that
the point of the tefillin (the teaching placed inside a kosher animal) is that
the tefillin (metaphorically of course) provides the vehicle, the means, for
getting the soul of the Torah-teaching (on the scrolls, that are inside the
kosher animal) into your mouth, and then into your flesh and blood, to nourish
you "spiritually."
Where's Rabbi Hirsch getting
this metaphor for eating a kosher animal in order to digest the soul of the
Torah-teaching?
Rabbi Hirsch says the point
of the tefillin is not to get the flesh of the Torah into your mouth, but the
blood. The heart and soul of the Torah . . . We don't need to eat the doorpost,
or try to swallow the "house," the
bayit. -----We just need to take a very sharp knife, with no nicks in it,
make a very gentle slice on the neck of the tefillin, without causing it pain
mind you, and drink the contents that spill out of the tefillin; the contents
on the scroll pumping through the four chambers of the heart of the tefillin,
the shel rosh.
In Christianity, Jesus is
presented as the heart and soul of the Torah. Chagall paints him juxtaposed
against the Torah scroll and then implies the woman with the blue face (Yellow
Crucifixion) has just drank his blood, and is feeding it to her child, so
that like she, he, her firstborn, will be entered into the heart and soul of
the covenant not by merely eating the kosher part of the scroll, the animal
flesh, but by drinking the blood of the Torah in order to know who and what is
at the true heart of the text.
At [15:10], Rabbi Mendel
Kaplan says human blood is not prohibited by Torah law, only rabbinical law,
and only because it could be confused with animal blood.
Therefore drinking Jesus' blood isn't prohibited by Torah law.
At [34:10], he says not understanding why drinking blood is a prohibition is like a crack in the very foundation of our entire understanding of Torah. And he claims he doesn't personally understand why there's a prohibition on drinking the blood.
[42:30] drinking animal blood gives the person animal sensory perceptions. Can see like an animal, intuit like an animal. The blood transfers the mental nature of the owner of the blood.
[49] Harshest prohibitive
language for just two things: drinking blood and offering children to Molech.
[50] Why is this mitzvah the
be all and end all of God’s purpose?
[55:55] food has to be
digested. But blood is already blood. It goes right into the bloodstream.
