Do not defile yourselves by any of these creatures. Do not make yourselves unclean by means of them or be made unclean by them. I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. – Leviticus 11: 43-44
Over the past few years I have become fascinated by the rules governing clean and unclean food.
Sure I may joke about enjoying some bacon every now and then, but I think it is important to be critically aware of what we put into our bodies.
But why have such detailed rules about what can and cannot be eaten? Were these rules designed to keep the Israelites healthy? Or perhaps they were created to set them apart from the people they would encounter in the Promised Land.
I have no idea.
But there is something special about having a spiritually ordained diet to follow. It transforms something as commonplace as eating into a way of connecting to God.
In the Autobiography of Gandhi he talks extensively about his dietary experiments. He thought that it was important for him to eat in a way that positively related to the earth. He even went to the extreme of setting the goal to not eat anything that would result in the loss of life of another being.
Wow! He must have eaten a whole lot of nuts and berries.
I am not nearly that disciplined, nor do I have the desire to be. But there is something intriguing about it. Every single meal became a prayer of sorts; a way to pay homage to the living things around him.
I like that idea.
If we can learn to connect to God in the simple things of everyday life then perhaps we will start to live our lives a bit better. With this perspective even our most basic actions become choices.
And these choices remind us that we all have the power to spread love and life in the world.
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