Lead Tidbit

The Law of the Excluded Middle - MitzvaWatch

The Torah Tidbits feature known as MitzvaWatch is usually part of the Aliya-by-Aliya Sedra Summary, but we’ve “promoted” it to Lead Tidbit status this week in honor of Parshat R’ei and its 55 mitzvot (#3 on the all-time mitzva list) and in order to introduce this feature to a wider readership.

The Law of the Excluded Middle is a principle of logic whereby a proposition is either true or false but cannot be both true and false. Also known as principle of dichotomy.
At Israel Center Shabbatonim, we often conduct a survey of the participants which includes questions such as, “For whom is this their first Shabbaton?”, “How many people were born in Brooklyn?”, “Who had the geilte fish and who had the moussaka?” Questions like “who was born in Israel?” and “who was not born in Israel?” should cover everyone in the room. Assuming that people will raise their hands appropriately, these two questions should cover everyone, and with no overlap. This is an example of the Law of the Excluded Middle.

The Torah permits us to eat meat. The Torah prohibits us from eating EIVER MIN HACHAI, which means that an animal must be dead before we can take and eat its meat. The Torah prohibits is from eating N’VEILA, meat of an animal that was killed other than by Sh’chita - shot to death, died of natural causes, shechted improperly, etc.
This leaves us only one way to take G-d’s permission to eat meat, and that is via the practice of Sh’chita, ritual slaughter. The Law of the Excluded Middle says that if in order to eat meat the animal must be killed only in a very specific way, then Sh’chita is the only option.
Meat from a live animal? No. Meat from non-Sh’chita? No.
Therefore, SH’CHITA.
Prohibition of Eiver Min HaChai - nec- essary. Prohibition of Neveila - necessary. Prohibition of T’reifa - necessary. Positive command - that is, MITZVA, to use ritual slaughter, to SHECHT? Actually, not necessary. It is the only option. Sh’chita could have been the technical method of being able to eat meat. Nothing more than that.
But it is more. It is a Mitzvat Asei in the Torah. One of the 613 mitzvot. It gets a bracha which speaks of G-d sanctifying us with His mitzvot - Sh’chita included.
Hold that thought.

We may eat kosher fish. We may not eat non-kosher fish. Eating non-kosher fish is prohibited. One of the 365 prohibitions among the 613 mitzvot says so. What’s the difference between a kosher fish and a non-kosher fish? Scales and fins.

Okay, you are camping by the river and decide to fish for your dinner. Your patience pays off when you land a whopper of a fish. Your Coleman stove, frying pan, spices and lemon are ready to go. You look at the fish and it’s a smooth skinned catfish. No good. Dinner is on hold. Throw it back or give it to a non-Jew who is similarly fishing 100 yards down river. You rebait your hook, cast your line, and are rewarded with another fish 15 minutes later. You look it over and there they are: beautiful fins (the catfish had them too) and scales which easily scrape off with your fingernail leaving no damage to the fish’s skin. Kosher fish! B’TEI’AVON.

Why’d you look over the fish? To see if it was kosher or not. Very practical thing to do, since you need to know what’s what before you can eat.
But there is more! Examining a fish, an animal (mammal), a bird, (a locust,) to determine its kosher status is a Mitzvat Asei, a positive command (actually, four different mitzvot, one for each kind of animal).

It didn’t have to be a mitzva. It would still be needed to be done in order to avoid prohibitions. But it is a Mitzva!
One more example from R’ei (we find more in R’ei and many others through- out the Torah): It is forbidden to send away a freed Jewish manservant empty- handed. Prohibition among the 365. To avoid transgression, you have to give the former EVED IVRI a significant gift at the time of his release.
There are several answers - here’s one - Rabbi Chananya b. Akashya says: G-d wanted to merit Israel, therefore He heaped upon them Torah and Mitzvot. Not just gave them (us) Torah and Mitzvot; He gave us more than would be necessary. Our gain - if…

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