Yom HaShoah and Parashat Shemini: Are we human or are we animal?

In this week’s Torah portion, Shemini, we learn about which animals are kosher and which are not (for example, the stork), but we are not given a reason. Throughout history Jewish scholars have
contemplated and debated the reasons. The Midrash discusses Adam's experience of naming all of the animals at the time of creation, and the Gemara (Talmud) explains how he chose names based on the essence of the animal itself.

Rav Yehuda said: The hasidah is the white stork. And why is it called hasidah? Because it shows kindness [hasidut] to its companions. (Hullin 63a)

Many commentators including Abravanel, Sforno, and Ramban say that the reason certain animals are not kosher is because they hurt us spiritually when we eat them as we take on their personalities and behaviors. According to Ramban, the non-kosher birds are forbidden because they are cruel, therefore, we should not eat them lest we also become cruel. This is in contradiction to what the Gemara taught us about the stork, which was that the chasida is kind and shares its food. Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Alter, author of the Chidushei Harim, solves this apparent contradiction. He explained that the chasida (stork) is considered a non-kosher animal, because despite being kind, it is only kind to its own.

This past week we observed Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day. On this day, many of us, myself included, listened to survivors of the Shoah speak about their horrendous experiences. I could not help but reflect as I listened on how inhumane the Nazis were in their treatment of Jews. They were not only behaving like animals with no knowledge of the holiness of life, they also treated their victims as if they were animals.

It was quite timely then, that I came across the piece of Gemara on our parasha about the chasida. Jewish texts have long identified animals with human qualities. Some of those qualities are good-others are bad. It is not a black and white situation-- even within an animal such as the chasida, there are moments of generosity as well as moments of greediness, hoarding, and cruelty. If an animal can show such subtlety of spirit, how much more so a person. Like the chasida, we have all heard stories of Nazis who were otherwise kind people to their own families and friends were monsters when it came to those not their own. Like the chasida, the Nazis expressed cruelty to anyone outside their circle, becoming animals themselves.

My mind has been absorbed lately with the news coming out of Syria about the gassing of civilians and it is not difficult to make the mental connection with the gassing of Jews in the death camps. We say never again—but do we mean it? Do we mean it only for Jews, like the chasida cares only for its own? Or do we mean it for others too-outside our circle? There are no easy answers to how we can address the situation in Syria. My prayer this Shabbat is that the stories we heard this week from survivors will inspire us with true chesed—both to our own and beyond. And that we will always remember how otherwise kind people can look the other way or even participate in violence against others. I pray that we will never be those “otherwise kind people.” 

I don’t know whether keeping kosher can help us develop positive character (I myself am a vegetarian), but I do know that we can all learn from what our sages taught about our parasha as well as from the brave survivors that suffer through telling their stories to us so that we can truly say “never again.”