Mindful of the Meat

Parshat Acharei Mos is a like a sandwich. On one end, there is the description of the Yom Kippur service and the ceremony of the scapegoat, and, at the other, there are the prohibitions of immoral relationships. Tucked in the middle is chapter 17, which states that anyone who slaughters a field animal and does not bring it to the Tent of Meeting will have a blood guilt, and anyone who offers a burnt offering and doesn't bring it to the Tent of Meeting will suffer karait. The chapter also includes a reinforcement of the prohibitions of consuming blood and of eating "what has died or has been torn by beasts" (17:15).

Imagine if (or perhaps better, when) the modern world meets the ancient world - hosting a barbeque would require a trip to the Temple to get your meat properly shechted with the necessary parts going to the altar. There is, herein, the obvious question: did people go vegetarian if they lived far from the Temple? That's a different discussion, but the basic answer is no because the difficulty of the distance was recognized by halachic authorities. 

The chapter (in verse 7) goes further to explain that the rule of bringing the animals to the Tent of Meeting would stop people from making offerings to demons in the field. Judaism believes in demons but not in making offerings to them. It is hard to relate to the concept of demons in the field, to be honest, but following the holiday of Pesach and all that meat over the holiday, this is a good time to connect it to the context of mindful eating. Every time a person desired to take the life of an animal for personal use, they had to take the animal to the priests. They had to consecrate it and give some of it to the Divine service. These rules were another decisive reminder to the Jewish people that we are a spiritual nation, primed to remember the Divine in all of our acts and especially in our most animalistic acts. 

We have no Mishkan or Temple today, but we do have brachot. May these thoughts on these pasukim be inspiration for making more mindful basic brachot before eating. Saying brachot before one eats is such a simple thing to do, and yet it is one that many people (for sure, me) tends to rush or mumble or do without thinking. If the Children of Israel could bring their cattle and sheep to the Tent of Meeting before preparing their food, the extra second it takes to properly pronounce the blessings is the least that we can do.