Think the Noahite Way About:
Eating Blood, Living Limbs and Kosher Meat
*
Rabbi Zvi Aviner
To be a Noahite means to accept Noah’s Seven Laws.
The q is: why you call yourself after Noah?
Why not After Adam, like the Children of Adam?
Are we not the descendants of Adam and Eve?
So what exactly separates Noah from Adam?
The answer is, that Adam received Six Comm in Eden,
Whereas Noah received the Seventh, one more than Adam.
Does one more Comm justify a new name?
The answer is Yes. One more Comm from Hashem
Is extremely meaningful. It signifies a new level of Commitment.
It is a “game changer,” a higher level of expectations from us.
Thus although we are all descendants of Adam and Eve,
As well as the descendants of Noah and Naama,
but our spiritual commitment is at the level of Noah rather than of Adam.
What then is the new Seventh Comm of Noah
that Adam and Eve had not known?
It is the prohibition to eat a limb torn from a living animal,
And the prohibition to eat Blood.
These two prohibitions come in the same verse that says:
:
“But flesh with its soul, its blood,
you shall not eat” (Genesis 8: 4)
Here the verse speaks about two issues
- Flesh with its soul – which is still alive,
- The blood which keeps that flesh alive.
Hence the two prohibitions:
(a) Eating a living limb,
(b) Eating the blood which keeps the flesh alive.
Since the two come in the same verse, they are interconnected
Carrying the same message.
Where is the verse appear in the Torah?
It is a part of Noah’s revelation after the Flood.
Hence, it applies to all Noahites.
What about Israel?
The Torah repeats it to Israel 5 more times
In Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
By that repletion, the Torah makes the prohibitions
relevant to
both Noahites and Israelites,
However, since it is repeated 5 times to Israel, I
srael should keep very strictly,
above what is considered OK for Noahites, as we’ll see.
To understand the difference,
let’s considered what constitutes a Limb,
and what sort of Blood is prohibited.
The Detached Limb.
The Talmud debates what is considered an halachic limb.
It concludes that a limb should comprise of
bone, tendon and flesh.
It does not have to be a complete limb, like a whole leg.
A detached limb
Is forbidden once it contains the three components.
What about
flesh torn from a living animal without bones?
It falls under the category of a “Living Flesh,”
and It is included in the prohibition to both Noahites and Israelites
though, perhaps, under a lesser severity of retributions from Heavens.
To Israel, that Living Flesh is also forbidden under a separate Law.
What animals are included?
Cattle, Beasts and Poultry, But not Fish or insects.
The most likely reason is that Fish and Insects were not included in the Flood.
Let’s talk about
The Prohibition of Eating Blood
As stated above, it is derived from the same verse –
But flesh with its soul, its blood, you shall not eat (Genesis 8: 4)
What sort of blood is included to Noahites and Israel?
Here we consider three types of blood that comes out of the slaughtered animal:
- Blood that flows out of damaged arteries and veins,
taking the animal’s life away.
- Blood that continues to ooze out of inner organs,
- Blood that is trapped inside the organs,
- Blood of the soul
- Blood of the organs
- Trapped Blood
To Noahites, out of the three, only the first kind is included:
the blood of the soul that keeps the animal alive.
To Israel, the second type – Blood of the Organs – is also included,
yet with a lesser severity. While eating Blood of the Soul
carries the death penalty by Heavens
eating the Organ Blood is punishable
by lashes in the human court.
The 3rd category of trapped blood inside the organs
is not included in the prohibition
either to Noahites nor to Israel.
From here comes Israel’s practice of
salting the fresh meat
to extract any of the Organ Blood that can be washed off.
Trapped blood inside an organ that can’t be extracted
is not included in the prohibition.
It is customary to roast the organ, such as liver.
To Israel, there is another Comm saying
“Thou shall not eat over blood” (Leviticus 19)
Implying that we should not eat any food
while there is blood on the ground.
Obviously, there are more demands by the Torah
To make meat kosher for Israel,
Such as the type of the animal and the way it was slaughtered.
No such practices are imposed on Noahites,
Note – When wounded, the first spurt of oozed blood
is not a part of the prohibition,
Since the animal life is not dependent on it.
Now, what is the logic behind those prohibitions?
Most commentaries offer explanations that are
either mystical or based on medieval superstitions.
For instance – it is believed that
Blood is forbidden because of its
usage in the sacrifices of the holy Temple.
Or that it was used for idol worshipping and witchcraft.
Or it is unhealthy, or not digested properly,
Or that it carries the soul of the animal, and so forth.
All these explanations come from focusing on the verses
in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, where the context is
eating meat in general.
All those explanations do not refer to Noah.
The Sefer Hachinohe, 13trh century, however,
writes that the prohibition comes to teach us to be less cruel.
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88382663400?pwd=vXHUbXMAc7J0nUuQbVGqIcUiC2yIDX.1
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88382663400?pwd=vXHUbXMAc7J0nUuQbVGqIcUiC2yIDX.1
But the truth is that
since the prohibition appears the first time
within the Rainbow Covenant of Noah,
we need to go there to understand its meaning,
why was it given and how.
Here is the Rainbow Covenant as it appears in the Torah text:
Noah built an altar
and offered burnt offering
“And YHVH smelled the sweet aroma, and YHVH said to His heart,
I shall not again curse the ground any more for Adam,
For the drive of Adam’s heart
Is evil from his youth,
Neither shall I smite
Again living
Creature”
“And ELoKiM blessed
Noah and his sons and said to them,
Be fruitful and multiply, and filled the earth,
But flesh, with its soul in its blood, you shall not eat
And surely the blood of your life shall I require from the hands
Of every beast, and from the hands of man, from the hands of man
I shall Require the blood of man, whoever shed blood of man, by man
will his blood be shed For in the image of ELoKiM He made the Adam…
My Rainbow
I’ve placed in the clouds
Here we identify the prohibition of eating blood,
inside ELKM’s Wing of the Rainbow Cov.
It is a part of ELKM words to Noah after the Flood
Giving the Laws of Bloodshed in details,
never given before to Adam.
Moreover, the Laws of Bloodshed are given here to Noah
in an ascending order,
going from killing animals to killing people.
The Seventh Comm of eating Blood is just the first step
in that ladder of BLOODSHED Laws.
As if saying
Don’t drink blood,
Don’t eat a detached living limb
So that you would not ascend on the ladder of killing people!
Let’s look at it closely.
First, ELKM permits Noah to eat Meat,
implying it had been forbidden to Adam.
Noah and his descendants are henceforth
permitted to consume meat,
no different than consuming the grass of the field.
Implying, that in the eyes of the Torah, being vegetarian
would not hold people back from murdering other people.
Look at Cain and his vegetarian offering!!!
BUT EATING BLOOD WOULD LEAD YOU TO KILLING PEPLE
Yet, this concession to Noah to eat meat,
is given on condition,
Do not consume the Blood of the Soul,
Do not consume a Limb from a living animal.
Having discussed killing animals for food,
ELKM turns to killing peoples.
He presents to Noah the Laws of Bloodshed in
A calculated, ascending fashion,
going from a person killing himself – suicide,
to murder people by indirect methods, such as
by hunger, vicious beasts, or by hired human mercenaries.
Then ELKM turns to direct, pre-meditated murder including Abortion.
Thus, to understand the prohibition,
We’ve identified its location within
ELKM’s Wing of the Rainbow Covenant,
Where ELKM did something not known to Adam before Noah –
He spelled out to Noah the BLOODSHED Laws in details,
enhancing Adam’s Third Commandment of Bloodshed.
And that is another change from Adam
We need to learn
BLOODSHED LAWS IN DETAILS,
MEANING LEARNING TORAH.
NOAHITES ARE MORE MATURE!
(you do not specify a law in details to a child!)
Since Noah’s generation had failed over all the Comm,
especially with BLOODSHED, ELKM is saying
Keep my Bloodshed Laws in details, so that the Flood would not return!
You can say –
the Food had shown that Knowing a Comm as a VAGUE headline
Would not suffice to hold Mankind from murdering.
To be effective, a Commandment must
be learnt and digested time and again,
In details, meaning by learning Torah.
.
NOW that is not the whole story.
ELKM’s Wing is only one aspect of the Bloodshed law.
ELKM’s Wing is preceded in the Covenant by YHVH’s Wing.
Which sheds its own perspective on the prohibition of eating Blood.
(Slide Y aspect)
To understand YHVH’s words, Let’s focus on the first line –
“YHVH smelled the aroma,” referring to the background scene
where Hashem was talking to Noah.
Hashem was referring to the aroma of the burning flesh ascending to Heavens from Noah’s Altar on Mt. Moriah.
Obviously, She liked not the smoke but rather
Noah’s prayer associated with it.
What is the story?
We recall, that
After the Flood Noah was spiritually devastated.
Although ELKM had ordered him to exit the Ark
and start procreating, re-build civilization,
Noah did not comply and remained with his family inside the Ark.
One Rabbi in the Talmud is quoted saying in wonder:
Why didn’t he go out? If it were me, I would have jumped out immediately!”
Thus, the Midrash says, the water had already receded,
the Dove had already returned with an olive leaf in its mouth,
yet Noah stayed inside the Ark.
Why? What kept him in?
The answer is given in the text. Since as ELKM continued to press,
Noah and his family did exit, yet but males apart and females apart,
Inferring they were still reluctant to procreate and start civilization.
The verse does not tell us explicitly what was on his heart,
but we can derive this from his immediate actions.
First, he took his family from Mt. Ararat (in todays’ Turkey) to Mt. Moriah near Jerusalem,
where he and his three sons erected a square stone altar,
from remining stones of the old Altar that Cain and Abel had built on that site.
And he told his sons, according to the Midrash,
On that site BLOODSHED started,
and on that site BLOODSHED will vanish.
Then he took animals from those species that went into the Ark as groups of seven,
Like sheep, goats, and rams, and offered them as burnt offering on the new Altar.
The Talmud explains that in a burnt – offering the owner does not speak out a word,
But simply pour his heart silently to Hashem.
As if saying You Hashem can read my heart, see my tribulations.
The Rabbis said that this silent petition was so important
That the shape of the new Altar, a square of sones filled by dirt,
And the ram ascending on it from the south,
Would become the protype of all kosher Altars to be built on that spot,
And the silent burnt offering would be the only offering that Noah descendants would bring here,
And for Israel, the only kosher animals approved for consumption would be
Of those animals offered by Noah as his silent petition.
Using animals that had entered the ark in samples of seven,
What was on his mind?
The Torah is silent about it, as if it was an intimate petition.
But then, Noah had a revelation, where the Heavenly Court
passed by him, first YHVH followed by ELKM,
ach Attribute addressing his petitions from its unique perspective.
YHVH addressed the evilness of the human heart,
While ELKM addressed the BLOODSHED Laws.
From Hashem’s answer, we can derive his petition,
learn what was on his mind.
And we can see that in his despair, after the Food,
Noah was fearful that the Bloodshed he had witnessed so much in his generation,
That Bloodshed which had brought upon them the Flood,
would return on his own descendants.
During the Flood he must have had ample time to ponder
About the reasons for the drastic downfall of his generation.
He feared that his descendants would repeat the mistakes of the past, and
that BLOODSHED would fill again the Earth and that the Flood would return.
If so, why should he procreate?
He recalled that the Bloodshed of his generations had started with IDOLATRY.
It had started with Enosh who worshipped Mercy and neglected ELKM,
Followed by Cain’s Children who worshipped ELKM but neglected Mercy.
Since Mankind was born to withstand the IDOLATRY trial,
Mankind is bound to withstand the same challenge again,
And soon his own descendants would split agsain along
the line between the Attributes, forming a camp that follows Mercy
and a rival camp that follows Allah,
both camps violating Oneness.
Looking at the past, Noah could tell that the split along IDOLATRY
Would be followed by violating the Second Comm, ADULTERY
As it was in his generations,
As it is said that they took women for themselves as they wish,
whether married or not.
And then, having transgressed IDOLATRY and ADULTERY,
His descendants would surely slide into terrible BLOODSHED and WAR,
Committing heinous crime shamelessly, under the watching Sun,
as Tubal Cain’s ferocious gangues had committing,
Thereby causing the HC to bring back the Flood.
If so, why should he procreate?
Moreover, from Hashem’s answer to him we can derive
That Noah had a deep suspicion that
the real cause of Man’s BLOODSHED
Is our, BLOODSTHIRSTY animalistic heart.
Man would always find an excuse to kill and go to war,
regardless the brand of his religion.
Had not both camps, those who followed Mercy and those who followed Allah
Drifted to killing with so much passion?
Doesn’t it show that what drives us to BLOODSHED and War
is a drive hidden in our psyche, only covered by logics and excuses?
If so, he was adamant: he and his sons would not procreate,
would not start civilization again,
Unless the HC has promised him a double change –
A change in the human heart, becoming less bloodthirsty,
And a change in the HC heart, showing us more Mercy and less Judgment!
So that if we mess up again, the Flood will not return as fast as before!
The Torah says that as the heavy smoke of burning flesh
ascended over the Mt Moriah,
Noah had a revelation, an answer to his petition.
The HC passed by him, like a train, as shown in the text,
First YHVH then ELKM, each Attribute addressing Noah’s tribulations
From its own perspectives.
While YHVH focuses on the heart,
ELKM gives Noah the Laws.
.
That is not incidental, since the Merciful YHVH wishes to dwell in our hearts.
After all, that is the purpose of creating Adam, as seen in Genesis CH.1.
In YHVH Wing, first it says that YHVH spoke TO His heart,
Showing Noah that Mankind too Should speak to our bloodthirsty heart
And control it. A murderer should not say in defense
I could not control my feeling, the rage overcame me…
Here Hashem is saying that every person can marshal enogh free will
To hold back his rage and hold himself back from killing.
Unless he or she is an evil person.
Here in Her words the term “evil” isas seen
in the eyes of YHVH, the Attribute of Mercy.
Evil is an emotional feeling against something that She hates.
And nothing the Merciful Attribute hates more than
people who take life away with cruelty.
.
.
She also informing Noah that “the evilness of Mankind is from his youth,”
Implying that the evilness is bound to dimmish as
Mankind continues to grow and mature.
AND IN HER OPINION, NOAH HAS ALREADY MATURED OVER ADAM.
YOU DON’T ENTER A COVENANT WITH A CHILD
YOU ENTER A COVENANT WITH A RESPONSIBLE PARTY
After all, Mankind is born with a charter to improve ourselves,
As it says Let Us Make an Adam, an Ideal Adam,
An Adam whose heart is less bloodthirsty.
Mankind can achieve that by talking to our hearts
And by abiding by ELKM’s BLOODSHED Laws
In particular, the Seventh Law of Noah.
Thus, the new, Seventh Commandment of Noah,
Came to support Adam’s Third one of Bloodshed.
By “support” we mean treating the BLOODSSHED LAWS in more mature way.
By learning Torah.
Another change –
Having more YHVH’s Mercy in the world
Paints all the Comm with a new aspect of MERCY AND COMPASSION
More than to Adam
Henceforth,
Not only Killing,
But also IDOLATRY is evil the eyes of the Loving, Merciful YHVH
Also ADULTERY is evil and disgusting in the eyes of YHVH
And so is Injustice – so evil in the eyes of YHVH that Israel would go to exile b/c of it, as seen in Jeremiah.
AS THE ATTRIBUTES FINISHED SPEAKING,
a rainbow appeared the first time in the sky,
As if to remind the HC of its commitment to Noah’s Covenant,
the first kind in the Bible.
The Midrash says that as the Rainbow appeared in the sky
The harsh aspect of ELKM settled above the Rainbow,
Whereas the more moderate aspect descended bellow the Rainbow to rule Earth.
And ever since Noah’s prayer
The HC has shown humanity less Judgment and more Mercy.
Being more patient with us.
That was in the right direction of history.
Because
As chapter one shows, YHVH wishes to enter more into our Universe
while ELKM longs to abstain completely from His work and enter the Sabbath.
So as we progress in history
We will see more Mercy and less Judgment as we approach the Sabbath.
.
In fact, a burnt offering is done without a word,
Where a person pours out his heart and tribulations silently,
Talking from his own heart directly to Hashem’s heart.
After accepting the aroma of his offering,
Hashem informed Noah that the evilness of the human heart,
which was his concern, is only transient, seen only in Mankind youth,
But as Man matures, either as individual or as a a member of the human species,
our heart is bound to become less evil and less bloodthirsty.
A day will come, YHVH promises,
That Mankind will mature and be able
to overcome our animalistic drive for BLOODSHED,
that we have inherited from Nature.
Yes, animals must shed blood of each other to survive,
But Mankind has the option to avoid it
Or at least shed the Blood of the Souls when killing the animal.
That, combined with ELKM’s Bloodshed Laws of the Rainbow Covenant
Would change Man’s heart to become less evil and less bloodthirsty.
No other comm csariies such a weight,
Our whole future depends on abiding it
Noah faught Bloodshed bt melting …
Isaiah seeing the Messaiah …
1
2
r
.
.
Indeed, the prohibition is a part of
A simple look at the text shows that the prohibition told to Noah
Is a part of a series of other prohibitions told by ELKM to Noah,
All of them concern the issue of killing and bloodshed.
The series begins with eating blood of an animal, while killing it,
Then it goes on to discuss killings oof human being,
From a person killing himself,
Than to a person killed indirectly, by placing him in front of beast or by denying food oof medications
Than it goes up the ladder to discuss indirect murder by mercenaries
Than by intentional premediated killing including abortion.
Thus the prohibition of eating animal blood or a torn limb
Is just the start of the entire series of laws regarding murder.