The Book of Vayikra has two main themes which are essentially one - Holiness and Temporality, Taharah and Tumah. These two concepts are probably among the most misunderstood ideas in our vocabulary due to the influence of misconceptions of other religions on our language.
Machines generally have two kinds of parts - those that maintain the machine and those that do the function that the machine was created for. Bringing the World to it's ultimate perfection similarly requires two very different functions to be fulfilled: that which brings about the sanctification of Hashem's name, and that which maintains the physical world till that goal is acheived. In this process the Jewish nation is seperated from the other nations of the world. The Jewish nation accepted upon itself the yoke of seperating themselves from being limited to corporal beings and elevating themselves to the point of merging with The Eternal. This is the meaning of the word 'Holiness'. The nations of the world were never called upon to perform this function (although they may if they so desire), but only to participate in the maintenance of the temporal backdrop of this Drama of Eternity. This function is termed by the Torah 'Tumah', which implies an inherent limitation of the subject to this temporal World, divorcing it to some degree from its relevance to The Eternal.
The most critical aspect of this endeavour of seperation from the world of mundaneness lies in the seemingly most physical of actions, eating. Although there is no physical harm in eating all types of animals that were created to strengthen the spirit in its creative drive, the Torah enlightens us to the special spiritual characteristics of certain animals that promote a connection to the upper worlds - whose bodies actually reflect this potential - and these alone were perscribed as the diet of the Holy Nation.
In the Animal Kingdom for example, two indications are required for an animal to be called Tahor. These signs are not poetic symbols, but indications of the innate spiritual characteristics of these animals as they express themselves even in their physical structure: The capacity to channel the Divine Blessing down to this World is the first sign, represented by hooves (Malchus) that were completely cleaved, making a channel of transmission of Mayim Duchrin down to their fruition in the physical World. The other sign was the repetitive digestive process, which by calling attention to the act of chewing, generates an understanding that there is a constructive function to the consumptive process. Eating is a means and not an end; the goal being more awareness of the Creator, thereby raising the Sparks of Holiness that the animal elevated from the vegetable all the way up to their spiritual Source. Such animals call us to raise our heads and look Upward, and are the ones suitable to be consumed by a Nation devoted to Holiness.
Based on Rabbi Moshe David Vali's book on Vayikra. More about the concept of Tahara in the next weeks. Questions can be mailed to:
the Yeshiva