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Thoughts on the Parsha ~
Parshas
ACharei MOs
Vampires and Blood Poisoning
By:
Daniel Listhaus
וְאִישׁ אִישׁ מִבֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל וּמִן
הַגֵּר הַגָּר בְּתוֹכָם אֲשֶׁר יֹאכַל כָּל דָּם וְנָתַתִּי פָנַי בַּנֶּפֶשׁ
הָאֹכֶלֶת אֶת הַדָּם וְהִכְרַתִּי אֹתָהּ מִקֶּרֶב עַמָּהּ
“Any man
of B’nei Yisroel and of the proselyte who dwells among them who will
consume any blood – I shall direct my face upon the soul consuming the blood,
and I will cut it off from its people.”
-Acharei Mos 17:10
The passuk[1] warns
us that it is forbidden to consume blood. Even the blood from a perfectly
kosher animal which was properly shechted (slaughtered) is prohibited to
eat. This is the reason for the thorough salting process with its accompanying
complex halachos. However, the way the Torah warns about this particular
commandment is very different from what we find by other negative commandments.
Regarding the prohibition of consuming blood Hashem says in the Torah, “I shall
direct My face upon the soul consuming blood…” Rashi[2] explains
that with this rare expression Hashem is saying, “I will direct My attention
and turn aside from all My concerns and deal with him [the transgressor].”
This Rashi
and really the passuk itself are difficult to understand. Certainly we
could understand that transgressing on a commandment is a serious matter but
why is it that such a strong expression be used by warning B’nei Yisroel not
to consume blood? This explicit expression in the Torah of Hashem directing His
attention, so to speak, to deal with one who transgressed a negative
commandment is quite uncommon; and when it is used it is in reference to those
who transgress on horrible aveiros, such as offering one’s children to Molech
– a form of avodah zarrah which involved passing children through fire.
There is no doubt that an aveirah as atrocious as simultaneously
committing avodah zarrah and sheficas damim of children would
demand Hashem’s immediate attention, but how could we consider consuming blood
on the same level? We are not solely dealing with vampires who are digging
their teeth into people they find on the street and sucking all the blood out
of them, the prohibition of consuming blood extends even to an individual who
eats the blood of a kosher animal which was properly shechted. How could
we understand why such a rare and strong expression reserved for the worst aveiros
would be used by the consumption of blood?
Interestingly,
the Torah itself over the following couple of passukim gives the reason
why consuming blood is so horrible. The passukim[3] state: “For
the soul of the flesh is in the blood and I have assigned it for you upon the mizbe’ach
to provide atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that atones for the
soul. Therefore I have said to the B’nei
Yisroel, ‘Any person from among you may not consume blood; and the proselyte
who dwells among you may not consume blood.’ ” Seemingly, the Torah is telling
us that because the soul is contained in the blood of an animal, we are
forbidden to consume it.
This
however presents a difficulty. After all we are permitted to eat the animal itself,
so why would we not be able to consume its blood? The blood should be “kosher”
having come from a kosher animal which was properly slaughtered. In such a case
the animal is dead, its soul already departed. What could possibly be so bad
about eating the blood? Moreover, Rashi[4] takes
this point a step further and explains that the Torah cannot mean that the soul
is literally housed in the blood of an animal because the soul is a
non-physical entity.[5] Rather the
Torah means that the soul depends on blood to keep it alive in the body. According
to this it comes out that the reason the Torah is giving for why it takes the
consumption of blood so seriously that Hashem will turn aside from all His
concerns to deal with such a person is because he is eating something which
supports the soul of an animal. How could we understand this?
The Ohr
Ha’Chaim[6]
in the midst of a longer piece writes that that we as members of B’nei
Yisroel – the top of the human race – each have a special connection with
Hashem. Our neshamos and nefashos are tethered to a higher source
and connected directly from there to our body command centers. When we eat
blood and allow the “nefesh pechusa” (lowly soul) of animal into
our systems we sever the connection that Hashem has with our nefesh and
therefore requires Hashem’s immediate attention to cut it off.
Learning
this Ohr Ha’chaim together with the aforementioned Rashi we
realize that it’s not that we are accepting the actual nefesh of the
animal into ourselves, rather merely its support system which allows it to
remain alive. It follows that by simply allowing the support system of a weaker
nefesh into our bloodstreams our nefashos are no longer able to
retain their high quality connection; the base is too weak to maintain it like
an LTE connection trying to run on a 2g network. This is why consuimung blood requires
Hashem’s “immediate attention. When a person eats blood and allows the foreign
substance into his bloodstream, his blood becomes mixed with blood created with
a bandwidth only capable of handling low quality service, not the high standard
that a connection with Hashem demands. Therefore, the wire must be cut.
If this is
true in the physical sense regarding the soul which is a spiritual matter, then
how much more so must this be true in a spiritual sense. Performing activities,
or even talking or thinking improperly to the point that our spiritual base gets
corroded and weakened by a low quality support system and can no longer sustain
the Holy connection which uniquely connects B’nei Yisroel to Hashem,
that connection must unfortunately be cut off.
May Hashem
help us internalize the mitzvah not to eat blood in order that our
bodies remain strong enough physically and spiritually to upkeep the maintenance
required to be worthy of being tied with B’nei Yisroel to Hashem.
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