Leviticus comes in groups of laws spread about the parashot. The first ten chapters of Leviticus mostly discuss how to sacrifice. Later in Shemini (this week's parashat), Moses receives a few more commandments about the way priests should lead their lives. Finally, God speaks to Aaron giving him a majority of the Jewish food restrictions, the Kashrut. The Kashrut discussed in Shemini include what not to eat that walks on land, flies in the sky, swims in the sea, or soars the air in swarms. On land, Jews abstain from eating animals that do not have both parted hoofs and chew their own cud. The most famous of these restrictions would be the pig. When it comes to birds, there are just a number of arbitrary restrictions including all kinds of hawks and ostriches. Seafood is alright as long as the food has fins and scales. This excludes all kinds of shellfish, eels, and calamari. Although there are a few exceptions, most bugs are excluded from the Jewish diet plan. Modern Kosher Jews wash their produce very carefully to make sure no insects stuck on from the farm. It is indeed a busy parshat filled with laws of sacrifice, priesthood, and diet!
Contrary to the focus of dietary laws in Shemini, a passage about being in the Kohanim (priesthood) particularly caught my interest this week. This law made me question how services are run every single week. According to Shemini rabbis and priests are commanded to, "drink no wine or other intoxicant, you or your sons, when you go into the Tent of Meeting, that you may not die. This is a laws for all time throughout the ages, for you must distinguish between holy and profane, and between unclean and clean" (Lev. 10:9-10). Since when has a member of the clergy not been able to drink at a temple? Last time, I checked rabbis drank wine every week at Kiddush. They also drink 4 cups of wine at Passover and a glass usually goes with each festival day. I would say that wine would be exception if the commandment did not specify wine with other intoxicants. Another peculiar specification is how this law is particularly everlasting. We assume that all laws are binding for eternity. Why does this law include that it stands for all generations? If this law specifies that it is for all generations, why do we Jews break it every week?
Once I examined the law long enough, I found a couple of interpretations. Rabbis can always go with the loopal to the Kiddush factor. Grape juice is just as valid a Kiddush product as wines, but is not intoxicating. Most times, grape juice is used for the Bar or Bat Mitzvah at my synagogue anyways. What about Passover and other festivals? Maybe this law is a not a commandment regarding whether or not a rabbi can drink or not, but it restricts how much a rabbi can drink at temple. Rabbis can not be drunks. A drunk rabbi would justify why the law's reasoning is that "you may not die" (Lev. 10:9 ). One glass of wine would not kill a person. Also, one glass of wine does not make one profane or unclean.
Too many a people, alcoholism is a very sensitive subject. Like most life issues, rabbis must be there for the relatives of an alcoholic. The rabbi must be a listening ear and offer his or her advice. A superlative rabbi will give his or her congregants their full effort. Drinking to excess will inhibit a rabbi's ability. Rabbis must lead by example. If their congregants see them drinking, they drink. Perhaps the thought behind this was to eradicate alcoholism from the world. When the leaders would stop, maybe the people would stop.
From most stand points, drinking is nopt great. It may relax the mind, but it causes more harm than help. I do not think highly of drinking because I personally could not bear to lose my ability. Could I say I am going to not drink alcohol in my lifetime. No, I can not make that guarantee. Will I be careful? Yes. Will I drive? No. Remember that ancient Israelites lived in a world of drinking without driving. They still thought it was wrong. In ancient myths from all over the world (especially Greek), drinking was used a way of tricking people. Personally, I believe the world's alcohol habits are improving. Then again I said to a high schooler, "What are you going to do the first two years of college when you can not legally drink?" She said, "You really think people don't drink?"
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