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My wife Phyllis is a fine cook and an absolute master of desserts. One of her specialties has always been pareve chocolate mousse, whose key ingredient is Hershey’s Special Dark chocolate. Many years ago, it was announced that Hershey’s was changing the formulation and the chocolate would now be dairy. What’s a baker to do?
One possibility would be to give up this dessert. But for Phyllis – and for our guests who looked forward to this dessert – this was impossible. So instead we purchased a freezer full of Special Dark pareve chocolate and for many years enjoyed “bootleg” pareve mousse. It’s was as unique as Joel Brown’s kosher shrimp. (As a footnote, you can use Special Dark Cocoa powder today).
Our sages recognized this difficulty as well. In this week’s portion, Re’eh, the Torah states, “But whenever you desire, you may slaughter and eat meat in any of your settlements, according to the blessing that your G-d has granted you. The impure and the pure alike may partake of it, the gazelle and the deer.” (Deuteronomy 12:15) This represented a sea-change. In the book of Leviticus, the slaughter and consumption of meat was permitted only at the Temple in Jerusalem. (Leviticus 17:9). To eat meat anywhere else was considered the gravest of sins, subject to the penalty of karet, being “cut off” via premature death. What would be the motivation for the concession that the Torah now offered of eating meat at home?
In Deuteronomy Rabbah 4:6 (8th century CE), we read:
- The rabbis say: there are many things that the Holy One, blessed be He, prohibited in one place and then permitted elsewhere. The Holy One, blessed be He, prohibited the Israelites to slaughter and eat meat until it was brought to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. The Torah states: (Leviticus 17:9): "And (the person who) does not bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, to offer it to the LORD, that person shall be cut off from his people." …But here, He permitted it to them, as it is written (Deuteronomy 12:15): "However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, whatever you desire, according to the blessing of the L-RD your G-d which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it,". From where? From what we read on the matter: "When the L-RD your G-d expands your border.”
In other words, G-d recognized that the Israelites, as travel to Jerusalem
became more difficult and time-consuming due to ever-expanding borders, would come to the Temple less frequently. They would never be able to give up meat fully between visits, so a concession was made to accommodate the new reality.
Because it would have been as hard for them to give up meat between visits as giving up pareve chocolate mousse.
- Rabbi Scott Hoffman
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