What does a talmid chacham have in common with a good steak?
A good friend tells a comic but sad story of a ruined birthday cake, which he uses to illustrate a strange medrash on the first verse of Sefer Vayikra.
The medrash in question quotes the opening of the book: And [God] called to Moses..., and then comments as follows: From here you see that neveila is better than a talmid chacham who lacks da'as...
Bill sees neveila as a piece of rotting meat, which at least doesn't pretend to be anything other than it is, whereas the talmid chacham in question is actually someone who has all the external trappings of such a venerable scholar but is in fact sorely lacking the inner qualities, in particular the ability to be sensitive to the needs of the moment, that are characteristic of a true talmid chacham.
While the point he makes is a good one, I'm not convinced of this explanation of the medrash and I think a closer look shows that even a real talmid chacham can lack da'as to the extent that he compares unfavourably to neveila. Having said that, I don't think that term refers to rotting meat, so perhaps the comparison is not as mean as it sounds.
In the Chumash, neveila simply refers to the meat of an animal that wasn't correctly slaughtered, i.e. non-kosher meat. That's all, nothing disgusting, just that Jews are not allowed to eat it. It's also used this way in halacha, for example in OC 328:14 the question of whether to give neveila to a sick person rather than slaughter an animal on Shabbat. It's obvious that it's talking about perfectly good meat otherwise that question wouldn't arise.
The question is here...what does this medrash have in mind? How is a talmid chacham without da'as worse than a piece of non-kosher meat?
Another question: where did chaz'al find any hint to this comparison in opening words of parshas Vayikra?
So what is da'as? How is it possible to be a talmid chacham without it?
Da'as is the ability to distinguish between things. If we had no da'as we wouldn't be able to differentiate between light and dark, day and night, holy and profane - it's one of the most basic of human analytical tools, one that is given by God to everyone.
On the other hand, da'as is the power to connect opposites in the most intimate and integral manner. This is the word that the Chumash uses to describe sexual intercourse, as well as one of the words used to describe the ideal relationship between man and God.
As an intellectual tool, Da'as presents a riddle: it's the koach hamavdil - the ability to distinguish - and also the koach hachibur - the ability to connect things up.
Here's the point: In order to connect two separate things, you have to first admit the fact of their separateness. You can't harness the power of a relationship between opposites unless you first have a clear pair of opposites to begin with.
Ultimately, you can't connect Heaven and Earth unless you admit the existence and truth of both.
A talmid chacham uses da'as to connect Heaven and Earth, only after he uses da'as to distinguish between them in the first place. There's a tendency among scholars to become so absorbed with their scholarship and their quest for spiritual truth that they forget that they exist on Earth. They view the events around them only through the eye of the spirit, and they fail to distinguish between the holy and the profane. For they don't relate to the world on it's terms - anything that doesn't radiate spiritual light simply doesn't exist in reality. There's no need, and indeed no purpose in engaging with people and things that don't exist.
But here's the problem with that (in case it isn't obvious): Torah in abstract is meaningless (I'm ducking down in fear of a bolt of lightning with my name on it). Torah was given to human beings in this world - in the crudest sense, can there be any point in an instruction manual if you don't have the parts to assemble? But even if Torah is not only an instruction manual as to how to live in this world, it's wisdom only makes sense when expressed as words in the mouth of a physical person.
So I think this is the intent of the medrash...food is the koach hachibur - the cohesive energy that connects body and soul. When a Jew eats kosher food, he manages to transform those two opposing forces into one integrated being. When he eats non-kosher food, he drives a wedge between the two forces. The body remains just a body and the soul remains purely spiritual, having no influence over it's host body.
In the same way, a talmid chacham who has da'as can quite literally connect Heaven to Earth. When he uses da'as to admit the existence of both good and evil in the physical world, and brings his Torah knowledge to bear on really human situations, he creates a sort of Heaven on Earth. But if the Torah scholar refuses to come down from his spiritual high, and instead wishes to live as if he's already in the World To Come, then he ensures that the Torah that he treasures will have no bearing whatsoever on the world.
How does this all come from the opening words And He called to Moses...? The medrash elaborates that Moses, despite being the greatest talmid chacham, the greatest prophet, and the vehicle through which God performed the greatest of miracles, nevertheless had the da'as to recognise that he ought not enter the newly built Mishkan until God called him.
This Man of God, despite his unimaginable wisdom, still understood that as a human being, his place was among humans and not in the Holy of Holies. As such, without the Divine calling, he wouldn't have dared set foot in the Mishkan, whose whole purpose was to connect Heaven and Earth. Moses understood what many a talmid chacham seems to miss, that the purpose of Torah study is to create a dwelling place for God here among us on Earth.
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