Of eating dog's liver

Since arriving in Israel I have processed an incredible amount of information. It's truly amazing what the mind is capable of doing. At the school I am studying at, Mayanot, there are two learning tracks available and I, a complete masochist, chose the Yeshiva track. I'm admittedly not learned enough to be in this classroom and I'm surprised they let me in, but G-d willing I will be able to rise to the occasion. In a sink or swim situation, as Darwin told us and as my own social observations have convinced me, we must do one or the other, sink or swim. Luckily, my earliest childhood memory was being thrown into a body of water by my father who said "Swim"…and so at the moment I am desperately treading (but in a good way).

So what the heck does one do when they are "Studying in Yeshiva?...this is the million dollar question that I once pondered over when first hearing the concept of people spending years of their life studying at these places. Even scarier, a person can study Torah for the rest of their lives and never be finished, and still have more to study. So this blog entry is my attempt to explain what I am in fact doing here…besides eating falafel.

The Yeshiva track means that we are translating, studying, analyzing and deriving meaning from Jewish texts. The texts I am referring to are a combination of the actual Written Torah (known to some as the Old Testament) and the Oral Torah.

Quick and simplified background and vocabulary lesson: We believe that the Oral Torah was also given to Moses at Mt. Sinai and was orally passed down from generation to generation from Moses to Joshua to the Elders to the Prophets and finally to the Men of the Great Assembly (Beit Din) who, out of necessity and the risk of loosing this valuable information, recorded the oral Torah in the 2nd Century into a 63 Volume document known today as the Mishna. During the generations of oral transmission, the Mishnas were recited as concise, easily memorized sentences that are said to a catchy little tune. Nevertheless, these simple sentences were loaded with meaning. The future generations were not as intelligent and couldn't understand the wisdom in the mishna, in response commentary was added to clarify. The commentary is called the Gamara. The Mishna and the Gamara together are referred to as the Talmud. From the Written Torah and these other texts, we derive the laws regarding Jewish observances. These laws are called Halacha.…….still following?

So back to the matter at hand: These texts are studied today in order to understand the reasons behind the Jewish laws that on the surface may seem silly and impractical. To my surprise, the logic behind these rules are actually quite sensible and relevant in everyday life…and whether or not one agrees with the actual Halacha, it's still a fun exercise and springboard for discussion and debate.

With all the background information, let us have a little Talmud class. The topic at hand is Who is obligated to fast during Yom Kuppur…the Jewish holiday coming up next week. I'll do the hard part for you and translate the sentence from Hebrew to English (no worries, it was only the most painful thing I've ever done since it's a combination of ancient Hebrew and an extinct language called Aramaic). When reading the question below, try to derive some type of meaning out of it. The key word is “try”

"If a person is bitten by a rapid dog, can you feed the victim the dog’s liver"

From first glance, I thought to myself…wtf, this is disgusting and dogs aren't even Kosher. Maybe I translated this wrong? But then after reading through the sources, I learned that back in the day, it was common practice that if someone was bitten by a rapid dog, eating the liver of the dog was thought to cure the rabies. This method was very similar to homeopathy's philosophy of treating like with like. So how is this relevant to fasting on Yom Kippur and how is this relevant today when we have something called a rabies shot?

We know that on Yom Kippur we fast; however if a person is sick they are allowed to eat. So the question derived from the above is actually:
“Are you allowed to break the fast in order to treat an illness with a medical remedy that is not proven?” In other words: Is alternative medicine, although not clinically proven, allowed to be administered if a person’s life is at jeopardy if it means breaking the rules of the fast? Although not so intuitive, from this sentence we derive the entire debate about the use of alternative medicines in the Jewish world. This piece of Talmud is cited both for and against the use of clinical cancer treatments, homeopathic medicine, acupuncture and more. The debate still reigns.

If you actually read this entire blog entry, and I am not sure if it was even coherent, you probably want to know the answer to the question of whether or not one can eat the liver of a rapid dog during the fast of Yom Kippur. However I forgot to mention your last vocabulary word of the day: machlochus, which means there are two different Rabbinical opinions on the matter and the debate still reigns. And that, my friends, is the beauty of Talmud. Yes, the laws are important, but what’s most important (at least in my opinion) is the act of engaging in study, exercising the mind, thinking a subject through, making arguments for your case, and taking a stance on a subject because, through your own cognition, you find something to be true.

This may have been confusing and completely uninteresting, but I just wanted to give you a little sample the learning I am doing and introduce the logic behind Talmudic rational. I really like this, I find it fascinating and riveting. I am going to stick it out, heck, I hear it even starts to get easier. Fortunately, my studies are nicely balanced between this type of learning, which connects to my intellect, and another type that feeds my spirituality, connecting to my heart. That’s the really good stuff, that’s the coat your soul with honey and scream Hallelujah stuff, but that is for another day.


* For the Talmudic scholars who receive this blog, please don't flinch at all the information I left out. I am merely trying to paint a broad picture, however I encourage you to supplement with comments.