Originally published in the Jewish Journal · Table for Five
Trader Joe’s carries some really juicy kosher ribeye. After barbecuing it, I drain the red juice and leave the fat on my plate. Not out of observance of the injunctions in this verse, but because I never liked this part of meat.
Yet, it called my attention to how unnecessarily insistent this verse is.
Look at the redundancies that give this verse mysterious force. It’s completely overdetermined. First: “It’s a statute forever. “ Then: “in all your generations.” And: “Wherever you live.” Finally: it’s a chok, something that cannot be completely parsed by reason.
So what’s going on?
There are layers of Kabalistic and halachic explanations. But beyond these, the verse has foresight, a prophecy repeated throughout the Torah anticipating when Jews will be scattered and exiled from the Holy Land.
What will bind them together? This verse formulates the phenomena that’s coming into play today
First. It binds us to observe entailments of a ritual sacrifice performed in the Temple even after it was destroyed . We are held in suspense between nostalgia for and continuous aspiration for the Temple. And it binds us as a people in the diaspora wherever we live to each other and to Israel.
Trace the ligatures back to this ineffable commandment and you find the source, the supernal source, of the shared fretful pain, resilience and support that is ensuring our survival after October 7.
