Is it a Mitzvah to eat healthy?
Question submitted to “Ask the Rabbi” by:
Name: Benjamin
City: Delray Beach, Florida
Full Question:
“Does God want us to be healthy?
If yes, why didn’t he give us nutritional commandments instead of just kosher commandments? People can get very sick (high cholesterol, colon cancer, etc.) and die eating too much kosher meat.
If yes, why didn’t He give us other nutritional commandments such as “Don’t boil vegetables because you destroy all the nutrients.” That’s the truth whether you know it or not. We’re supposed to eat vegetables for nutrition that keep us alive and healthy. He never told us that. How about “Don’t cook your food in oil because it makes the food nearly indigestible?” That’s a fact too whether you know it or not.
Kosher doesn’t mean healthful. It may be better than nothing but not by much. I repeat: People can get very sick (high cholesterol, colon cancer, etc.) and die eating too much kosher meat.
Either G-d doesn’t know those things or He doesn’t care that we get sick.”
Rabbi Tully Bryks responds:
As I have indicated in other articles on my website, we believe that G-d is all-knowing and genuinely cares about us. If so, that would make it even more strange that there are no specific directives about proper eating and dieting? Think about all of the dieting books and programs that could have been eliminated had G-d spelled everything out for us. Yet, the Torah does command us to “guard your health.” How can we reconcile that?
In many ways, G-d has actually made us partners in His creation of the world. G-d created life, yet we are the ones who are commanded to procreate. He created trees, yet we are the ones who build boats and houses. He created wheat, yet we are the ones who harvest it and make bread. He created plants, yet we are the ones who figure out how to utilize those plants to produce medicines. The Torah did not include an instruction manual on how to achieve any of these developments as we are empowered to take the raw materials that G-d provided and improve upon them. Similarly, when it comes to commandments, G-d often gives us a general principal, which is applied based on the subjective norms or knowledge of the society we live in.
When we pray to G-d, we are required to dress in a way that is respectful for royalty. But G-d never legislated what kind of clothing is required. As such, it can become very subjective and often changes from one generation to the next, or even within different communities. For example, in most communities in the U.S., a suit and tie would be deemed respectful attire when meeting royalty. In many communities in Israel, that standard might be a nice button-down shirt. On a Kibbutz, that standard might even be a nice pair of shorts. The main thing is that each person is dressing in a way that is respectful for them, which helps them to achieve the proper reverence when communicating with the Creator.
When it comes to health, not only does G-d not provide the details as to which foods are healthy, He also does not provide a list a medicines to cure disease. He does not provide an exercise regimen nor does He provide guidelines for sun exposure, second-hand smoke, safe driving techniques and the like. G-d simply commands us to be healthy. As partners with G-d, it is our job to figure out how to protect our health to the best of our abilities. This is also usually subjective and often changes from one generation to the next, with the development of new technologies.
We are not perfect and G-d does not expect us to be. But our job is to do the best that we can. When it comes to health, we have certainly made a lot of progress. For example, life expectancy has jumped quite a bit over the past several years. Admittedly, unlike getting dressed for prayers, one of the pitfalls of leaving medical knowledge in our hands is that it is unlikely that we will ever perfectly cure every disease. But at the end of the day, G-d is the one who created a world that has disease and G-d is the one who created a world that has the opportunity to make bad choices, including the consumption of foods that are bad for us, as free will is a tremendous gift.
For some possibilities as the why G-d might want a world with the ability to get sick, please see my article on suffering.
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