Commento su Levitico 19:26

לא תאכלו על הדם YE SHALL NOT EAT ANYTHING על הדם — This text is interpreted in many different ways in Treatise Sanhedrin 63a: It is taken as a prohibition of eating the flesh of the sacrifices before their blood has been sprinkled; and as a prohibition addressed to him who eats of the flesh of a non-consecrated animal (חולין) before life has entirely left it; and many other interpretations are there given.

YE SHALL NOT EAT WITH THE BLOOD. “This passage has been explained in many different ways in Tractate Sanhedrin.”¹⁶⁹Sanhedrin 63 a. See “The Commandments,” Vol. II pp. 401-2, where all these various interpretations are listed. This is the language of Rashi. Now the conclusion of that discussion in the Talmud is that all those interpretations [of the verse before us] are Torah-ordained, since Scripture included all manner of “eating with the blood” in one negative commandment. And if so, that which Scripture states in the case of Saul, Behold, the people sin against the Eternal, in that they eat with the blood,¹⁷⁰I Samuel 14:33. means that they transgressed one of the prohibitions included in this negative commandment, since they were eating of an animal [slaughtered properly] before its life had entirely left it. It is with reference to this that Scripture states there, And the people flew upon the spoil,¹⁷¹Ibid., Verse 32. like a bird of prey that tears its victim and eats it, and they took sheep, and oxen, and calves, and slew them on the ground; and the people did eat them with the blood.¹⁷¹Ibid., Verse 32. Because of the abundance of spoil of cattle [that they had taken from the Philistines], as soon as [they were slaughtered properly and] their blood was spilled on the ground, they tore off their limbs and ate them before life had entirely left the animals.
In line with the plain meaning of Scripture, this seems to have been a kind of witchcraft or divination, since [the meaning of this passage] may be deduced from its context; [i.e., from the second half of this verse which states, neither shall ye practice divination nor soothsaying, we may deduce that the first half of the verse, Ye shall not eat with the blood also refers to some form of witchcraft, as will be explained]. Thus they used to spill the blood [of the cattle] and gather it in a hollow, which was then attended, according to their opinion, by the satyrs, and they¹⁷²I.e., the satyrs. Having assembled around the blood, the satyrs would then be present at the meal, at which time they would inform the people of future events. All this was part of this particular kind of witchcraft. would eat at their tables to tell them future events. Now when the Israelites were at that time camping with Saul, they were very much afraid of the Philistines, and Saul did nothing except for inquiring of the Urim and Thummim,¹⁷³Exodus 28:30. See Ramban there (Vol. II, pp. 480-484). as it is said, Let us draw near hither unto G-d,¹⁷⁴I Samuel 14:36. while the people were inquiring of the satyrs or of witchcraft to know their way and what to do, and they were eating with the blood in order to perform that craft [mentioned above]. It is for this reason that Scripture there states, Then they told Saul, saying: ‘Behold, the people sin against the Eternal, in that they eat with the blood.’ And he said: ‘Ye have dealt treacherously,’¹⁷⁵Ibid., Verse 33. meaning to say: “Behold, G-d has wrought for you this day this great salvation, and you inquire of no-gods! It is treachery!” I will yet explain the prohibition against soothsaying and enchanting.¹⁷⁶Deuteronomy 18:9.

לא תאכלו על הדם לא תנחשו ולא תעננו, all of these practices were commonplace also among the Israelites who were desperate to gain advance knowledge of what was in store for them individually. Such practices had to be eradicated if the people were to progress from an overall environment of spiritual morass, רוח טומאה, to spiritual bliss, רוח טהרה ונבואה, spiritual purity and prophetic spirit.

לא תאכלו על הדם, "You shall not eat with the blood;" Bereshit Rabbah 21,7 say that the reason that this commandment appears next to the prohibition of ערלה is an allusion to Adam who had eaten from the tree of knowledge before its period of being ערלה had expired. [the other trees had been expressly permitted by G'd so that that prohibiton was overridden. Ed] According to the Midrash, all Adam had to do was to wait until the advent of the Sabbath. He would have been permitted to recite the benediction over wine; [according to the view that the fruit of the tree of knowledge were grapes. Ed.] This is the mystical dimension of the statement in Sanhedrin 38 that אדם מושך בערלתו היה, that "Adam was pulling at his ערלה." The word refers to the as yet not permitted fruit; Adam was too impatient. This is why the Torah writes next to the commandment וערלתם ערלתו, "do not eat with the blood," i.e. "do not eat of the fruit of the tree which is still ערלה because of the blood," i.e. all bloodshed in the world originated when Adam ate from that tree prematurely. We may extrapolate from this that had it not been for Adam's failure at the time there never would have been such a prohibition as the one described in our paragraph. Neither plants nor animals would have become restricted to man at all, either temporarily or permanently.

לא תאכלו על הדם, according to the plain meaning of the text this is something we can derive by merely reading the context in which it has been written, i.e. while the blood of the slaughtered animal has not yet been removed.

לא תאכלו על הדם, “do not eat over the blood.” According to Rashi there are numerous interpretations offered for this verse, one of them being reflected in Samuel I 14,33 הנה העם חוטאים לאכול על הדם, “here the people commit a sin by eating over the blood, etc.” [The people ate from the loot of the battle while the slain had not yet been buried, etc.] Nachmanides writes that according to the plain meaning of the text the Torah warns against adopting the practice of the sorcerers who used to gather around blood they had spilled and preserved in a bowl, and foretell the future, relying on the demons that would gather around to foretell them the path of future events. When the Jewish soldiers were with their King Sha-ul in camp and they were very much afraid of the Philistines their enemies, Sha-ul would not do anything without consulting the urim vetumim, as we know from above chapter in Samuel, verse 36. To his consternation, on this occasion the priest did not receive a reply to his enquiry, something which prompted Sha-ul to enquire which sin the people could have been guilty of that would deny them access to the word of G’d. As a result, it was found out that his own son Yonathan had violated his father’s command not to taste any food on the day of the battle, and he had, while being unaware of the prohibition, tasted some honey. The people, not wanting to accuse Yonathan, had phrased it as if all of them had been guilty of a trespass, i.e. eating prematurely on the day of the battle. [Prior to the battle, the people had not asked via the urim vetumim, but engaged in sorcery regarding the continuation of the war, something which Sha-ul considered a grievous act of treachery against G’d. Also, they had started to enjoy the spoils of war without giving thanks to the Lord by means of the blood of the appropriate animals being presented on an altar. Ed.] The reason why the Torah wrote the legislation of ערלה, the restrictions applying to the fruit of the tree during its first three years, immediately after the above legislation is to show that here too before enjoying the fruits of defeating an enemy, first we must express our gratitude to Hashem Who has made us victorious. Seeing that in periods when private altars were forbidden this might represent quite a hardship, the rule was enforced only when there was a legitimate altar in the vicinity.

לא תאכלו על הדם, “You shall not eat over the blood;” here too the Torah warns about Jews not indulging in pagan practices which were current at the time the Torah was given. People used to dig a hole and pour blood into it and the demons would congregate around such holes. While in the company of these demons they would consume their meal. Seeing that they fraternized with the demons the demons would reciprocate by revealing future events to the people eating there with them. This was a wide-spread practice amongst the Egyptians and the Israelites had learned from them until they too began to believe in the power of these demons and they would seek out their company. In order to wean the Israelites of such idolatrous practices the Torah forbade eating a meal in the presence of blood (which had not been covered up, buried or poured out).
Our sages (Berachot 10) understand this verse as a warning not to eat breakfast before one has recited the morning prayer. They phrased it thus; “do not eat before you have prayed concerning your blood (guilt).” [i.e. have asked forgiveness for your sins. Ed.]
They also used this verse to arrive at the ruling that capital offenses must not be judged except during the morning hours of the day (Sanhedrin 63). The judges were not allowed to try such cases after they had already filled their stomachs so as not to approach the accused’s fate in a smug manner. Seeing that they could not be expected to fast a whole day and not be affected by their hunger pains or a desire to prematurely conclude their deliberations in order to have a meal, the sages ruled that such trials must take place in the mornings. When the Torah decreed that we fast on the Day of Atonement this may also reflect that our lives are at stake on that day. If we had eaten already when commencing to pray we might not relate to the day with the appropriate gravity of mind that it deserves. We are more likely to repent sincerely and throw ourselves on G’d’s mercy when we have deprived ourselves of customary creature comforts such as food. If one is commanded to be careful to be in a fit state of mind when judging others, how much more so must one be in the right frame of mind when one’s own life hangs in the balance, such as on the Day of Atonement! This is what Solomon meant when he wrote (Proverbs 6,32) “he who causes his own life’s destruction will do it” (commit the aforementioned crime of adultery; i.e. sinning is like self-destruction). There was perhaps no need to stress this point when it concerns life and death decisions; but even when matters of monetary values are at stake they should be dealt with during the morning seeing we have a verse in Jeremiah 21,12: “render just verdicts morning by morning; rescue him who is robbed from him who defrauded him.” We have a saying: “he who ate and drank should not pronounce judgments or rulings on religious matters.” [Rabbi Chavell cites a Zohar Mishpatim 122 that “anyone who passed judgment after he ate and drank did not pass a true verdict.” Ed.]

A mole. [To interpret] their cries or meeting them for good or for bad. Eliezer, Avraham’s slave, and Yehonasan did not rely on this thing [omens]. Eliezer relied on Avraham’s merit as I explained above (Bereishis 24:14), and Yehonasan the son of Shaul said this in order to encourage his young man and he would have gone up in any case (Chulin 95b).

לא תאכלו על הדם, “you must not eat the flesh of an animal until it is absolutely dead, or, according to some opinions, in the case of sacrificial meat, before it had been salted to remove any traces of life sustaining blood. A third opinion claims that this is a general prohibition not to eat meat stemming from an animal that has not been ritually slaughtered. This would be supported by Samuel I 14,32: ויעש העם את שלל ויקחו צאן ובקר וישחטו ארצה יאכל העם על הדם, “the people (who had been described in the previous verse as being famished) pounced on the spoils; they took the sheep and the cows and calves and slaughtered them on the ground and they ate with the blood.” [When King Saul heard about this he was terribly upset and chided them for having sinned against G-d. Ed.] An alternate interpretation: the words לא תאכלו על הדם are a variation of the commandment not to practice necromancy. Seeing that the survivors of slain people are charged with avenging their dead, they may feel inclined to sit on the graves of the dead to assuage their dead relatives’ anger at not having been avenged. The dead are apparently credited with some power in this respect. (According to Rash’bam, the Emorites believed this, especially about witches who had been murdered. Seeing that the uncircumcised gentiles do eat blood, the Torah would have addressed this subject at this point also.)

לא תנחשו YE SHALL NOT DIVINE — as do those who draw prognostications from the cry of a weasel or the twittering of birds (Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 6 2; Sanhedrin 66a), or from the fact that the bread falls from his mouth or that a stag crosses his path (Sanhedrin 65b).

לא תנחשו ולא תעוננו, unless warned against these practices the Jews would also engage in such practices as eating on the grave of the slain for the sake of protecting themselves against the vengeance by the spirit of the murdered person (particularly murdered witches). The Talmud Sanhedrin 63 lists a number of possible scenarios described by our verse.

לא תנחשו, “do not indulge in sorcery.” The word נחש is similar in meaning to that of נסיון, experimenting and using the outcome of the experiment as one’s guideline for how to act. [It is debatable if Eliezer’s request at the well stipulating certain behaviour patterns of the maidens that came out to draw water at the well falls into the category of forbidden ניחוש, at any rate at that time Torah had not yet been given. Ed.] Lavan admitted to Yaakov that he was in the habit of using such sorcery, i.e. Genesis 30, 27 נחשתי ויברכני ה' בגללך, “I have discovered by such experimentation, that G’d’s blessing for me is on your account.”

He says, “This day is good.” I.e., the person said this not through astrology but because this is the way of the Emorites, i.e., this is people’s common practice even though they know no logical reason for it. But if one saw through astrology that a particular day was not good for a certain matter or for his work, he may refrain from doing it; and we do not rely on miracles. I think that it forbidden to go against the constellations [relying] on a miracle, etc. All this is from the responsa of the Ramban, responsa 283. The Yoreh Dei’ah cites some of this in chapter 179. (R. Yaakov Taryosh)

ולא תעוננו The verb is connected in meaning with “period" (עונה) and “hours"; thus a מעונן is one who says: “This or that day is auspicious for beginning a work, this or that hour is inauspicious for starting on a journey (Sanhedrin 66a).

ולא תעוננו, “and you are not to believe that some periods are lucky compared to others.” Ibn Ezra writes that some people claim that the word עונן is derived from ענה, “answering,” i.e. a person poses a certain question expecting to guide his behaviour according to the answer he receives. This is not a tenable interpretation according to the rules of grammar. He believes, instead, that the correct interpretation is based on the word being derived from ענן, “cloud,” that the Torah forbids us to read meaning into the cloud patterns we observe in the sky, and to use such patterns as guidelines for our behaviour.