A matter of choice

"Look (re'eh)", said G-d "I am giving you a choice: blessing or curse, life or death, good or evil. Choose well."

Centuries later, J.K. Rowling repeated that sentiment when she had Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry explain to Harry Potter "It is our choices, Harry, that shape what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

We can choose to obey G-d or ignore His commandments. We can choose to be nice to our family or nasty to everyone around us. We can choose to give tzedaka or turn our back on the needy. We can choose... oh, everything and anything. Everything we do, every moment, every decision, it's all about choice. And G-d has given us that gift. The freedom to choose. 

What happens in real life, though, is that most people love that freedom of choice and then forget the next part: The consequences. Because no matter what your choice is (and no matter what the issue is), there are always consequences. Always.

So G-d, in His infinite love for us, is trying to make it easier by providing hints and clues to serve as reminders. Naturally, there are the actual laws, spelled out more or less clearly, but He also provides memory aides. 

Like the eating of meat. Much of this week's parasha deals with meat. That which is to be sacrificed and that which is to be eaten. Eating meat is a choice. We don't actually have to do it. We eat meat because we like it and it tastes good. Or we don't eat meat because we don't like it or we think it's wrong.

The Torah provides guidelines for meat eating. You can only eat meat that has been properly slaughtered by the priests as part of a sacrificial ceremony. That was fine in the desert when everyone had easy access to a priest and the altar. What will happen when they enter the land? (remember, D'varim is all about getting ready to enter the land.) Eventually, there will be a central place of worship and there will be a problem in reaching a priest every time you want a piece of brisket. While Israel is not all that big, it is big enough that you can't possibly travel to Jerusalem whenever you crave fried chicken.

So the new rule is that you can slaughter and eat meat anywhere you want but if the meat is meant as a sacrifice, you can only slaughter and eat it at the central place of worship. Fair enough.

Of course, not every animal is allowed as food. And not every part of an animal. And you still have to slaughter it in a certain way. And prep it in a certain way. And we haven't even talked about draining and discarding the blood yet.

What's with all these restrictions? What is the Torah trying to say? In chapter 12, verse 20, the Torah mentions meat eating as an urge. Using a similar Hebrew word (ta'ava) as is used for sexual desire. The same word that is usually used to describe inappropriate behavior. The Torah, on the whole, takes a dim view of people giving in to their baser natures and acting out of physical urges without the gentling, humanizing process of working within the mitzvot. Judaism acknowledges that we have urges, but expects us to be in control of them (hence, our brain power and our ability to have morals.) 

And here is the Torah listing meat eating as an urge. You can almost hear the resigned sigh as G-d says "Fine, if you want meat so much that you cannot control your baser nature, go ahead and eat meat, but under these restrictions." It's like that famous advice parents get to "choose your battles" (there's that matter of choice, again.)

Rav Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook was a vegetarian. He saw this very verse (D'varim 12:20) as an indication of the Torah's wish for us to be vegetarians and he said that when Moshiach comes, we will all be so spiritually advanced that we will all be vegetarians.  http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/ravkook_veg.html

Rav Kook, however, knew that this time has not come yet (like, duh) and so he ate a small piece of chicken once a week (on Shabbat, of course) to show that we are not yet advanced enough for the Moshiach. 

We can try to be, though. We can start with Meatless Monday. We can add more days when we don't eat meat. We can decrease the amount of meat we eat when we do eat it. We can choose to eat only meats from companies that respect the life of the animal that gave its life up for us (free range chickens, cruelty free beef, no veal, etc.) We can choose. We can remember that our actions define us more than our abilities and certainly more than our urges.

And in all things, we can stop before we eat and say a b'racha. Honoring the life we are taking. A life that came from the same source as our own. From G-d who gave us the right to choose.

Meanwhile, we can eat symbolic amounts of meat. This recipe comes from my long ago neighbor Debbie Longo. Debbie is not Jewish so I never tasted her version of it but I wrote it down and replicated it in my kitchen and it is so good we find it hard to eat only symbolic amounts of it. Perfect food to learn to control our urges with, no?

Chicken in lemon sauce

2 Tbs olive oil (extra virgin is best but any oil will do)

2 garlic cloves, minced

4 slices of chicken breast (1/4 inch thick) - you can pound them thin, if you wish, I have no mallet so I skip this step and the results are perfectly fine.

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

pinch black pepper

1/4-1/2 cup lemon juice

Mix flour, salt and pepper. Dip chicken in this mixture (both sides).

In a large frying pan, heat oil over medium-high heat and cook garlic for one minute (no more, or it will brown and turn bitter.)

Add chicken pieces and cook for one minute on each side.

Add lemon juice (amount depending on how much sauce you want and how much you like lemon.)

Bring to a boil, lower heat to very low, cover tightly and cook for 10 minutes or until chicken is ready. Turn chicken halfway through.

Makes four servings (unless you give in to your urges and eat the whole thing yourself)

Optionally, I like to toss thinly sliced zucchini in the leftover flour mixture and add them to the pan along with the chicken.

If you wish to make larger amounts of this, you can cook the chicken in batches, then return all the chicken to the pan before you add the lemon juice.