Sermon: Shemini – The life is in the blood

Written by Rabbi Hannah Kingston — 12 April 2021

Over the past week our news has been filled with stories about blood. Following 79 reports of blood clots after the first dose of the Astra Zeneca vaccine, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), has said those aged 18-29 in the UK will be offered an alternative vaccine.

 

At the same time as this hitting our news, our Jewish ritual lives have also been concerned with blood. We have just finished reading the story of Pesach, where blood plays a role of great symbolic importance. As the rivers turn to blood and the Egyptians face a lack of accessible fresh water, we are taught of bloods power to kill. Later in the narrative, as the blood of sacrifice is painted on the doors of the Israelites, we are taught of bloods power to save.

 

Blood becomes our life force. As a consequence, the laws of Kashrut, which we begin to read this week, forbid us from consuming the blood of any animals, for the life of that animal is in its blood.  Kashrut encourages us to think about how we consume animal products, including the ruling about the ingestion of blood.  When the eating of meat was originally only as part of ritual sacrifice, following the slaughter of an animal in the temple, we need the laws of kashrut to help us consider how we eat meat in a way that is thoughtful and considered.

 

The renowned anthropologist, Dame Mary Douglas, in her book Leviticus as Literature, observes that through the act of kashrut  the body of the worshiper is made analogous to the sanctuary. Anything that will render the altar impure will render the body of the worshiper impure.

 

Using this approach, all fruits and vegetables, seeds and grains, are pure. But meat needs to be of the same species to which the Israelites had access. And as it is no longer sacrificed as part of temple ritual it needs to become a food made ritually special in a different way.

 

As we continue to explore the rules of kashrut next week, we are told that when slaughtering an animal we must spill out its blood and cover it in dust. Shechita, the ritual slaughter of animals, has become the process of bloodletting, equivalent to the sacrificing of animals in the temple. Just as the temple ritual included the scattering of blood onto the floor of the altar, an animal killed by shechita releases blood onto the floor, to spill out and be covered in dust as we read in Leviticus.

 

Our recreation of the temple ritual is not just done through our ritualised slaughtering of animals but is also enacted on the bodies of our young. As Mary Douglas argues, both the body and the altar are places where God is encountered. Through keeping Kashrut, we encounter God through the food that sustains our bodies. Through circumcising our sons, we encounter God through enactment of covenant.

 

The earliest guides on circumcision are found in the Kelalei ha-Milah, the 13th century work by Rabbi Jacob ha-Gozer.

Here, the ritual itself preserves the ancient notion that the deity desires the sacrifice of the whole child, but is appeased by the offering of a portion. Circumcision, therefore, is not about the removal of foreskin but about the act of ritual sacrifice and the shedding of blood.

 

Traditionally the words from Ezekiel are offered at the ritual of circumcision:

“When I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you “Live in spite of your blood.” I said to you “live in spite of your blood””.

 

The repetition in this verse is examined in Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezar. Here the act of circumcision is likened to the sacrifice of the Paschal lamb. We read:

By the merit of the blood of the covenant of circumcision and the blood of the Paschal lamb you shall be redeemed from Egypt, and by the merit of the covenant of circumcision and by the merit of the Passover in the future you shall be redeemed at the end of the fourth kingdom.

 

In the ritual of circumcision, just as in the ritual of temple sacrifice and of modern day shechita, blood is scattered. These moments of bloodshed, made important by the rituals overlaying them, are community forming moments, demarcations of our peoplehood.

 

Our ritualistic blood brings us closer to the ways of our ancestors. It enables us to make even the most mundane activities holy. It helps us to maintain our distinctness as a culture and a religion, so that we can preserve the continuity from the Judaism of the past.

 

The idea of blood as our life force is one that permeates our tradition and our psyche. It binds us together in such a powerful way that the punishment for consuming it is karet – being cut off from your community. Blood ties us together. It dictates the food we eat, it physically marks our young. It is able to sustain us, to clot and heal our wounds.

 

This is why the threat of our blood not working as it should can feel so terrifying. We read every morning, ‘Blessed are You our Living God, who formed human beings in wisdom, creating within them openings and vessels.’ We are made intricately aware of the danger that we face were one of our openings not to open as they should, for ‘it would be impossible to remain alive and stand before You.’

 

So, as many of us are called for our second vaccine, or as some of us embark on our first, how do we deal with the news that has filled us with concern about the properties of our blood?

 

Blood clots have the potential to kill. But when thinking about the covid vaccine I am not worried about the physical blood clots and the effect on our bodies. Rather I believe the power of these blood clots is in the mind.

 

Dr June Raine, the chief executive of the MHRA stated that the risk of this type of rare blood clot is about four people in a million who receive the vaccine.

When this is compared to a risk of 1 in 1,000 for those in pregnancy, of 1 in 2,000 for taking the contraceptive pill, of 1 in 5000 those going on flights lasting over four hours, the risk is small.

 

Yet, the threat of blood clots stopping our successful vaccine programme in its tracks, is truly threatening the health and wellbeing of thousands.

 

 

 

If we do not vaccinate ourselves we are not just putting our own lives at risk, but also the lives of our community. And we also live at risk of being karet, cut off from those we love, unable to return to normality due to the potential implementation of vaccination passports.

 

We have a duty to one another and to ourselves. To protect our life force and to protect that of others.

 

May we accept our vaccine graciously, knowing the communal benefits outweigh the risks. May we listen to our bodies, tuning in to their needs and marvelling at their ability to withstand so much. And may we see the vaccine as a beacon of hope, one that brings us together and perform such wonders.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יהוה. רוֹפֵא כׇ֯ל־בָּשָׂר. וּמַפְלִיא לַעֲשׂוֹת: