Achrei Mos: Dirty Animals

By Meir Jacobs

Among the many blood-related מצוות in פרק י”ז is that of כיסוי הדם, covering the blood of a slaughtered חיה or עוף.

There are many suggestions regarding the reason for the מצוה. Notably, the רמב”ם says that mixing the blood with dirt serves as a preventative measure to make sure we don’t eat the blood, as was common in ancient cultures, while the רמב”ן suggests, based on what seems to be apparent in the פסוקים, that out of recognition of the נפש of the animal, the blood needs to be dealt with respectfully, whether as a כפרה for us or being buried in the ground.

Shifting gears for a second - It’s brought down להלכה based on the גמרא in חולין that when one is covering the blood, he must cover not only the top of the blood with dirt, but the bottom as well. However, it’s not necessary to cover all of the blood - as long as some of the blood is covered that is sufficient to fulfill the מצוה. Yet, if you don’t cover the blood yourself, and the wind covers the blood with dirt, then you’re still חייב to put dirt on the blood yourself.

But why should this be so? If the idea behind covering the blood is to prevent eating it, then we should be required to cover all of the blood. And if the idea is that we are respecting the נפש of the animal, then why isn’t it enough when the blood is covered ממילא?

Rav Hirsch answers that it must be that there’s an additional component to the mitzvah - to distinguish between man and animal. In בראשית it says that while the חומר of both man and animal came equally from dirt, the distinction is in the נפש, as the animal נפש also came from the ground, while man’s נפש came from Hashem. And the Jew covering the the blood with dirt needs to have that כוונה, that the נפש of the animal is being returned to the ground, in sharp contrast to the human נפש, which will return to Hashem.

This explains each of the דינים: The blood has to be covered above and below because it needs to become part of the עפר, mixed in with it, to be one with the ground from which it came. And it needs to be done בידים, not ממילא, because what’s important is not only that the blood is covered, but that the person is doing a חשבון about how we are different from animals while doing the covering. And that’s why as long as the blood is partially covered it’s enough, because it’s the מעשה and מחשבה which matters.

Sefirah is the counting towards מתן תורה, the time when we transitioned from the 49th level of טומאה in מצרים to being holy enough to hear Hashem Himself speak. So we should focus during this time on the unique ability, and therefore responsibility, that Hashem graciously gave to us above animals. The ability to think, and to act not on base impulse, but rather על דבר השם. And בעזרת השם we’ll be prepared for מתן תורה once again this year.