To Eat or Not to Eat, That is the Question

I came into the world as an SOB. I am living my entire life as an SOB, and I will die an SOB… son of a butcher! I am very proud of my father, who was also an SOB, and his career in the meat and food industry. This status, bestowed on me from birth, gives me a little insight into the issue of filet mignon. Is it kosher or not? I will get back to that later.

This week’s Torah portion, Vayishlach, finds our patriarch, Yaakov, in a mysterious wrestling match, a “battle royale” of sorts, if you will. Needless to say, the outcome and lesson(s) of that contest are more significant than those of any WWE steel cage match or mixed martial arts bout we can watch on Pay Per View.

Yaakov was finally returning home after being away  34 years. The circumstances under which he had left home were less than optimal. His older brother, Esau, had become enraged with him at that time. Following his mother Rivka’s plan, Yaakov usurped the blessing their father, Yitzchak, wanted to bestow on Esau. That event in turn brought to Esau’s mind a much earlier teenage incident between the brothers. Esau, despairing of his life at that time, sold his birthright as the firstborn to Yaakov. 

Overhearing Esau’s murderous intention now, to kill Yaakov sometime in the future, Rivka and Yitzchak tell Yaakov to leave home and go live with his uncle, Laban, his mother’s older brother. There he should find a wife from his family. On his way to his uncle’s home in Padan Aram, Yaakov stops off and enrolls in graduate school, the Yeshiva of Shem and Eiver. He studied there for 14 years before continuing to his uncle’s home. While living with his uncle in Padan Aram for 20 years, Yaakov married Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, and Zilpah who collectively bore him eleven sons and one daughter. Now, after all this time, Yaakov was finally returning home. 

In fear, the night before Yaakov was to finally reunite with Esau, the Torah tells us, that he took his family and possessions and brought them back across the Yabok River. Then the Torah says, “And Yaakov was alone, and a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn.” (Bereisheit, 32: 23-25) A simple yet annoying question begs to be asked. If Yaakov was alone, how could there be a man there to wrestle with him? Was he alone or was he not alone?

 Furthermore, the Torah tells us that at the end of this encounter, Yaakov suffered an injury to his hip or leg that made him limp for a while. As a consequence of the outcome of this event, a strange mitzvah resulted. “Therefore, the Children of Israel may not eat the sinew in the hindquarters of an animal… until this day.” (Bereisheit 32:32-33). Note, it is the sinew that is prohibited to be eaten, not the meat.

An aside here in the Dvar Torah. This is where my status as an SOB is relevant. This prohibited sinew, the sciatic nerve and adjacent prohibited fat, runs through the hindquarters of the steer or lamb in the “tenderloin” area. This area of muscle is not used much during the animal’s life. So, while it is very lean, it is also very tender. This section of the animal comprises only about 2-3 % of the animal’s meat, thus making it an expensive non-kosher cut, filet mignon.

The kashering process whereby this sinew and surrounding fat are removed is called “nikkur,” meaning “tunneling.”  The process is labor intensive. Until more recently, when the art of removing the prohibited sinew and fat has become more efficient and common place, filet mignon was never kosher. Good news! Though somewhat pricey, kosher filet mignon is available on the market today. Google Bakar Meats and watch Rabbi Jonathan Benzaquen, a former student of mine specially trained in the nikkur process, demonstrate a delicious recipe for preparing filet mignon. 

Now, this encounter of Yaakov  needs explanation. Furthermore, what important lesson(s) is being conveyed? While there are many explanations, let me share one  that I heard years ago from my principle teacher and Rosh Yeshiva, HaRav Yisroel Chait. 

 In fact, Yaakov was alone. On this night, the night before Yaakov would finally face Esau, he could not sleep. Yaakov was wrestling with himself. He was confronting his own internal conflict, one that he knew had to be worked out before seeing Esau again. Even though Yaakov sent Esau gifts, prepared for war, and prayed to God, he still had to work out issues within his own personality. Only then would his former way of relating to Esau be permanently changed and improved. Only then would this meeting and all future encounters with Esau not provoke hostility toward Yaakov. 

What does this event have to do with us today? Our rabbis relate that before Rabbi Yehuda the Prince, the author of the Mishnah, would meet with his Roman counterpart, a descendant of Esau, he would study this specific Torah portion in depth. Successful diplomacy demands that our leaders, then and now, prepare themselves both intellectually and, as importantly, psychologically for the encounter. The condition of our fellow Jews: those held hostage, those in Israel as well as Jews here in America and around the world, the security of Judaism’s future existence may well hang on the success of these encounters. Our destiny then was riding on how Yaakov would resolve his internal issues with Esau. Our national standing at this very moment and into the foreseeable future is, no doubt, weighing heavily on the minds and shoulders of our Jewish leaders as they meet and negotiate with both friends and foes. 

Considering this explanation,  it is now not strange that this encounter of Yaakov with himself should produce a mitzvah. In fact, this mitzvah serves as a constant reminder for each of us to look at our individual behaviors and interactions with others in perhaps a new and improved way. When attempting to make reconciliation, do not look to find the fault lying with the adversary as much as to look at our own personality. What must I do, for example, to change my own behavior that will produce a positive outcome with whomever I am engaged? Such introspection may produce painful but necessary internal changes of one’s personality that lead to the positive outcome sought in the negotiation.

As an additional benefit of overcoming internal obstacles, greater metaphysical knowledge may be attained. New philosophic vistas may emerge once certain psychological blocks are removed. Sometimes an emotion or false sense of self may mislead a person into thinking something is true when it is not or may prevent intellectual investigation into certain areas of knowledge. In short, internal conquest of our personality can remove intellectual barriers as well as emotional barriers.

At the end of the narrative, we are told that an angel changes Yaakov’s name to Israel. “No longer will it be said your name is Yaakov, but Israel, for you have striven with the Divine and with man and have overcome.” (Bereisheit 32: 29) This new name indicates that Yaakov also made important metaphysical advances in his knowledge and relationship with God once his internal conflict was resolved. The mitzvah not to eat the sinew of the hindquarter of a kosher animal serves as a constant reminder of this necessary, very personal, perfecting human process. The individual rewards and gains are great and far reaching. Hashem should grant each of us the strength and ability to engage in and endure this process.

It is the prayer of us all that Hashem continue to protect Israel and the IDF and bring home safely all those  still held hostage by the ruthless Hamas and their compatriots. May the haters of Israel and Jews worldwide, together with their names and memory, in the future be erased and obliterated with all the Amalekites throughout history, who seek the annihilation of the Jewish people in every generation. עם ישראל חי!

 Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Robert Kaplan
Rabbinic Dean