On the eighth day of the dedication of the Mishkan, Aharon, his sons, and the entire nation bring various korbanot (offerings) as commanded by Moshe. Aharon and Moshe bless the nation. Hashem allows the Jewish People to sense His Presence after they complete the Mishkan. Aharon's sons, Nadav and Avihu, innovate an offering not commanded by Hashem. A fire comes from before Hashem, consuming them and stressing the need to perform the commandments only as Moshe directs. Moshe consoles Aharon, who grieves in silence. Moshe directs the kohanim regarding their behavior during the mourning period, and warns them that they must not drink intoxicating beverages before serving in the Mishkan. The Torah lists the two characteristics of a kosher animal: It has split hooves, and it chews, regurgitates, and re-chews its food. The Torah specifies by name those non-kosher animals which have only one of these two signs. A kosher fish has fins and easily removable scales. All birds not included in the list of forbidden families are permitted. The Torah forbids all types of insects except for four species of locusts. Details are given of the purification process after coming in contact with ritually impure species. The Jewish People are commanded to be separate and holy — like Hashem.

PARSHA INSIGHTS

“Who Created God?”

“Whatever has a split hoof, which is completely separated into double hooves, and that brings up the cud—such you may eat.” (11:3)

Science is built on cause and effect. Every phenomenon must have a prior cause. Trace anything back far enough, and you arrive at its origin. But when we reach the origin of the universe itself, the question becomes unavoidable:

What caused it?

The discovery that the universe is expanding shattered the old idea of an eternal steady-state cosmos. If the universe is expanding, it must have begun. And if it began, it must have a cause. Scientists like Robert Jastrow admitted that this conclusion leaves science standing at a kind of intellectual precipice—compelled to accept a beginning, yet uneasy with what that implies.

Let’s be honest. This is not only a problem for science. It is equally a challenge for the believer.

If your faith is based on ‘because I believe…,’ it is vulnerable to intellectual challenge – like ‘Who created God?’ If everything has a cause, then what caused the First Cause?

But Belief is not a leap in the dark. Belief is not at loggerheads with Intellect, or Science; it is a natural and inescapable continuum.

The Rambam, at the very opening of Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah, writes: “The foundation of all foundations and the pillar of wisdom is to know that there exists a First Existence.” Not to believe—to know.

What does it mean to know that there is a First Existence?

It requires a shift in how we think about existence itself.

There are things that come into being—physical entities bound by time and space. These must have causes. But there are also things that do not come into being.

Like two plus two equals four.

Mathematical realities do not begin. Two plus two did not suddenly become four at some specific moment in time.

It is a truth that simply is. It neither starts nor ends.

The Chazon Ish explains that this distinction is the key. The error lies in assuming that everything is like a physical object—something that must be brought into existence. But not all realities are like that.

Hashem is not a being within the system of cause and effect. He is not one more link in the chain. He is the ultimate Reality that does not begin, does not depend, and therefore does not require a cause.

“Whatever has a split hoof, which is completely separated into double hooves, and that brings up the cud—such you may eat.” (11:3)

The Reform movement’s excuse for cancelling Kashrut was to claim that it was just a primitive means of hygiene, now obsolete with the advent of super-duper refrigeration, modern conditions of sanitation, inspection….

But Kashrut was never presented in Torah as a health system. The Torah frames it as kedushah (holiness)

“You shall be holy…”

Holiness is something – like two and two equals four – that exists above time and place.

The Torah lists the signs of kosher animals—split hooves and chewing the cud. These are not ‘reasons’ why animals are kosher. The cow did not become kosher through any external force, or at any particular moment in time. It is kosher because that is what it is.

There is a fundamental difference between something that is defined externally and something whose reality is intrinsic.

Much of the world is like that—defined, shaped, and explained by external causes. But there are things whose existence is not imposed from outside. Their reality is inherent.

The laws of kashrus remind us that not everything is the product of a process. Some things are rooted in a deeper reality that simply is.

Emunah is not a retreat from intellect. It is its culmination.

To recognize that behind all that begins, there must be That which never began.

That existence itself points to Something that simply is.

And always was.

And always will be.