Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto’s talks are known throughout the Jewish world. They combine chassidic teachings and philosophy, along with tips for a better life. We have collected pearls from his teachings that are relevant to our daily lives. This week he comments on the Torah section of Parshat Kedoshim.
“You shall not eat over the blood. You shall not act on the basis of omens or lucky times." (Lev. 19:26)
The Gemara in Tractate Berachot (10b) learns from this verse “You shall not eat over the blood” that a person is forbidden to eat until he prays. Only after he has prayed, he may eat. A person has to start the day with the Almighty. Prayer has an immense and unparalleled holy power, and nothing comes close to it. A person who eats and drinks and only afterwards prays, is called “one who eats over the blood.”
The verse continues, "You shall not act on the basis of omens or lucky times." There is a person who wakes up in the morning and lets the evil inclination right away enter and take over his life. He begins to worry about how the day will go, whether it will be good or not. If a black cat passes by - of course it will not be a good day. If he gets stuck in the elevator - the whole day will be no good. If he was walking and suddenly slipped - another bad sign. He drove on the road and almost ran someone over - the whole day will be a disaster. All these wrong assumptions are implied in the commandment "You shall not act on the basis of omens." Why did this person imagine that one glitch was a portent? Because he got up in the morning and didn't pray properly. That's why he slipped up into attributing significance to these omens.
If he would have woken up and prayed before anything else, he wouldn't have attached any importance to these omens. If he would have prayed, he wouldn’t have asked, “Why did this mishap happen to me here?” and “Why did that bad omen happen to me there?” As soon as a person prays, God saves him from difficult and ominous things.
King David says "Give strength to God" (Psalms 68:35). Our holy sages say that a person who gets up in the morning to serve God, observe the Torah and commandments, and pray to God properly, is as if he gives strength to God. He strengthens the heavenly entourage and gives power to the heavens. When a Jew commits sins and behaves inappropriately, he incapacitates the heavens, and causes them to lose power.
If a person undermines a king, the king hates him. If a person empowers a king, the king loves him.
How much God must love a person who empowers God and His heavenly entourage! The commandment "Be holy because I am holy" teaches that a person can add to and increase God's holiness. If, God forbid, a person doesn’t behave as he should, he is undermining the Almighty’s power. That is why a person should be careful to follow the holy Torah’s admonition, “You shall not eat over the blood. You shall not act on the basis of omens or lucky times." A person should not eat before praying, less he come to believe in omens and lucky times.
We may add that “You shall not act on the basis of omens” (in Hebrew “lo tenachashu”) is related to the word nachash, snake. The Gemara says in Baba Kama (16:1) that if a person didn’t bow down to the Almighty when reciting Modim, seven years after his death his spine becomes a snake. Why does it become a snake and not something else?
The snake was cursed by the Almighty "And you shall eat dust all the days of your life" (Genesis 3:10). Whatever the snake eats, whether it is meat, fish, or vegetables, it all tastes like dirt. Why was it cursed with this?
It can be compared to a king who had two sons, one beloved and one hated. The king said to the beloved son, “Visit me every day and I will give you the money you need for that day.” To the hated son, the king said, “Come to me once a year and I will give you in advance all the money you need.”
The beloved son asked his father, “Why do I have to come every day to ask for my allowance while you give my brother his entire allowance for a year?” The king told him, “I love you and I want to see you. By me giving you your allowance every day, I get to you see daily and receive your thanks for it.”
The snake does not thank God. Whatever it gets, it all tastes like dust so it feels there is nothing to thank for. But a person who knows how to thank God for what he gets, is a person who lives day by day with God.
That's why the Torah says "You shall not eat over the blood" - Make sure to pray and give thanks before you eat. “You shall not act on the basis of omens” - Make sure you don’t end up like a snake who feels that everything it eats is like dust and it doesn’t need to thank God for what it has.
"Do not consider lucky times" can be interpreted to mean that a person should connect everything he does to God because truly everything is His. “I eat so I will have the strength to serve God.” “I am going on vacation to recharge myself so I can learn Torah and keep commandments better.” When a person does everything for God, he becomes a pious individual.
We can learn from the above a powerful spiritual remedy. A person who wants to buy a house, should look for a house with a sukkah, and say, “I want to buy a house so I can keep the commandment of a sukkah.” Because he wants a sukkah, God will bless him with a whole house. When a person wants to do something or achieve something, he should link it to God and he will thereby attain the status of a pious person. The Gemara says that if a person wants something and hasn’t received it so far, he should go to a pious person and ask him to pray for him. If you are the pious person who links everything to God, He will give you everything.
One can achieve great things by means of his power of prayer and worthy actions both generally and particularly. Everyone should strengthen himself in this realization and live it minute by minute. In this way all of our lives will change for the good and be blessed.
This article was written in cooperation with Shuva Israel