Parshas Reeh
Positive First
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Shabbos!
"But this shall you not eat from among those that bring up their cud or
have completely separated split hooves: the camel, the hare, and the hyrax,
for they bring up their cud, but their hooves are not split — they are
unclean to you; and the pig, for it has a split hoof, but not the cud — it
is unclean to you" (14:7-8)
The Torah's listing of kosher and nonkosher animals, which seems somewhat
technical, contains many lessons beyond the mere details of what we may and
may not eat.
Rav Noach Weinberg, Rosh Yeshivah of Aish HaTorah, who was directly
responsible for bringing tens of thousands back to Yiddishkeit and an
exponentially larger number through his students, would point out (based on
a Gemara in Chullin 60b) that there is proof that an all-knowing God wrote
the Torah from the verses listing the animals that chew their cud but do not
have split hooves, and the animal that has split hooves and does not chew
its cud. Would a human put his credibility on the line by predicting that at
no point in the future would a single animal that is not on that list be
found somewhere in the world?
And indeed, some three millennia after the Torah was given, and with all the
searching science has done for unknown species, not a single such animal has
been found!
Aside from strengthening our faith, however, these verses also teach us a
lesson in how to view, and relate to, other people.
The point of the verses listing the animals that have only one kosher sign
is to teach us that they are not kosher. It would seem appropriate, then, to
list the sign that causes them to be nonkosher first. Yet we see that the
Torah lists them as the camel, the rabbit, and the hyrax, which chew their
cud but do not have split hooves, and the pig, which has split hooves, but
does not chew its cud.
Why does the Torah list the kosher signs of these animals first if the
non-existent signs are the only ones we really need in order to label these
animals nonkosher?
A Midrash explains that the Torah is trying to teach us that even when
something is not kosher, we should find a way to mention something
praiseworthy about it first. Even something as treif as chazir (pig)
deserves to have its positive trait pointed out.
If the Torah does so for nonkosher animals, how much more do we have to
learn to have this consideration with regard to people?
Bosses, employees, children, students, coworkers, and neighbors will
invariably have some negative traits. It might be our job, from time to
time, to deliver a negative message.
This Midrash is teaching us that even when we have to deliver a negative
message to others — to tell them that they are "nonkosher" in some way — we
should always find a way to point out their positive attributes or qualities
first.
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