“However, you may slaughter and eat meat wherever you live and whenever you want, in keeping with the degree to which Adonai your God has blessed you. The unclean and the clean may eat it, as if it were gazelle or deer. But don’t eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.“-Deuteronomy 12:15-16
The last time we met, we just got done discussing a very popular new decision the Lord had made.
It was that once the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they would be allowed to help themselves to all the meat they could get their hands on.
The amounts of meat they would be allowed to eat would no longer be restricted to the limited portions left over from the sacrifices at the Tabernacle.
From verse 15, we can see that the former restrictions were now being loosened.
When the Israelites were living out in the wilderness, all domestic animals such as sheep, goats and cattle had to first be slaughtered at the Tabernacle as part of an official sacrificial rite before being eaten.
The only type of animals the Israelites were allowed to eat without having to be sacrificed were wild game.
With this new rule however, the only restriction to eating meat would be how much money one had to buy animals from herders and the ability to raise these animals once they were in their possession.
The truth is your average Israelite citizen really only ate meat on special occasions since it was so expensive.
These special occasions may have been to honor a special guest in one’s home, a wedding and of course celebrating any one of the seven God-ordained Biblical feasts.
Also keep in mind that animals were more generally used for other things than just the meat from their bodies.
For example, sustainable products such as butter, cheese and fresh milk that cows and goats produced were highly valued.
Oxen were used for pulling plows and wagons.
And the wool from sheep was used to make clothing, bedding, floor rugs and even tents
Therefore, even if one was economically well off enough to own a couple of sheep or an ox or a cow, the last thing that person would do was kill these animals just so he could enjoy a barbecue for a day or two.
So understand, it was only those who possessed large herds and flocks who were able to enjoy meat on a regular basis.
Next, I’d like to share the three fundamental points connected to this new regulation that you’ve just got to get.
First…
ONLY THE 3 SO-CALLED PILGRIMAGE FESTIVALS REQUIRED MEAT EATING
Although meat eating as a corporate group activity occurred during every one of the Biblical feasts, out of the seven, it was only the three Pilgrimage festivals that actually required that meat be eaten because it was part of the sacrificial slaughter that took place at the central sanctuary.
For the remaining four feasts, since the celebrations were local, the slaughter of the meat could take place in whatever town or village one belonged to. The Rabbis termed this secular slaughter of meat SHEHITAT HULLIN. This is referring to meat that was not part of a sacrificial ritual. However, even in the case of secular slaughter of meat, the animal was to be killed in the most humane way possible by slicing its main artery so that unconsciousness and death came quickly.
ONE NO LONGER HAD TO BE IN A RITUAL STATE OF PURITY TO CONSUME MEAT
Up until now, one had to be in the proper ritual state of purity before sacrificing meat. This meant that if one was unclean, unless one was consuming permitted wild game such quail as or deer, one was pretty much barred from eating meat. However, with the new regulation that took effect once Israel entered Canaan, that no longer mattered. Since the commonly consumed meats such as beef and mutton no longer had to be part of a sacrifice, whether one was ritually pure or not no longer mattered.
This new change was HUGE! This meant that a woman impure from her monthly cycle or from having just given birth could eat meat. Or a person who was ritually impure from TZARA-AT (a skin affliction) could now eat meat. Or a person who had accidentally touched a corpse (remember touching a dead body makes one unclean) would also be permitted to eat meat. In fact the only type of kosher meat an unclean person was not allowed to eat was the meat which had been offered as a sacrifice on the Brazen Altar.
EVEN IF A SECULAR SLAUGHTER, THE BLOOD OF THE MEAT WAS STILL FORBIDDEN!!!
This is one major restriction that never changed. Whether an animal was slaughtered as part of a ritual sacrifice or not, its blood was forbidden to be consumed. In fact, the law prohibiting the consumption of blood went all the way back to the time of Adam and Eve and it is even one of the seven Noachide Laws that the Rabbis say all human beings must obey. Hence, when the non-sacrificial butchering of animals for food took place, the blood was to be poured out on the ground and NOT used for any other purpose.
Leave a Reply