Family Parshah
Living with the Parsha: Spiritual Pizza

"Yay! We get to go for Pizza!" Ben was delirious with happiness as he came charging through the front door of his house, waving a white sheet of paper.

"What's this?" his mother asked curiously, taking the paper from his hand.

"It's a permission slip – we finally earned enough points in Mr. Cohen's class to win the prize of pizza! Tomorrow, Mr. Cohen is taking us to the Tasty Pizza Store!"

Ben's mother smiled as she began to fill out the form. "Hmmm… it says I should check off how many slices of pizza you want – should I check off two?"

"No – six."

Ben's mother looked at her son, hoping he was just kidding. Unfortunately he was serious, and repeated his request.

"Mom – I really love pizza! Even if I will be full, I want to eat all six pieces!"

His mother slowly put her pen down and motioned for him to be seated.

"Ben," she began, "this week's Torah reading, Kedoshim, be holy, talks about how a Jew should behave in the pizza shop."

"Really?" asked Ben, "How does the Torah talk about it?"

"Well, there are three Divine commandments, one right after the next, at the beginning of the Torah reading."

"Sure, I know: Be a Holy Nation, Honor your mother and father, and keep Shabbat."

"That's correct. Now, the way we can be a Holy Nation is by making sure that when we eat, drink, or do our daily business, we do it in a refined manner, as befitting a refined person."

Ben sighed – "Okay… I suppose eating six slices of pizza is not a way of acting refined and holy, but why are you telling me this? I am just a kid! I'm not even Bar Mitzvah yet."

Ben's mother smiled. "The next commandment – about honoring your parents – teaches us that parents need to educate their children in this manner."

Ben tried again. "But Mom – it is so hard! How does G‑d expect us to be able to limit ourselves from enjoying all the good stuff in this world? I mean – I say, just dive in!"

His mother laughed. "The Torah answers this as well through the third teaching in the beginning of Kedoshim. By telling us to keep Shabbat, it reminds us that we have a spark of G‑d within us and therefore the ability to draw down G‑dliness into this world and to act in a spiritual way, whatever we are doing, including eating pizza."

Ben gave half a smile. "I suppose six slices of pizza is not such a spiritual way of eating. What about three? "