This week at lunch we were discussing the gourmet dairy treats that would be served in the office in the afternoon, that the secretary was ordering. So most of us ordered paarve food for lunch.
One of the non-observant guys was confused, so my colleague explained that after meat some wait as long as six hours before having dairy food.
"Why? For health reasons or something?" the guy asked.
"No," my colleague explained, "it just says in the Torah the basic kosher laws."
"But doesn't the Torah stipulate the benefit? Like this will keep you healthy, or even by maintaining these strictures you will be ensured wealth?"
"No, this is simply the injunctions made by the Torah. We are serving the will of Hashem."
"That's completely irrational. You are just doing something that was proscribed, without any understanding of why, or what the purpose or benefit is?" the non-observant guy asked.
"If you think that is irrational, let me tell you about this week's parshah," I said.
It starts off with "
This is the statute of the Torah" - declaring the mitzvah of the red heifer, an enigmatic law that defies logic and has no explanation associated with it, yet requiring our pure compliance.
