"Food" for Thought on the 4th of July

Every July fourth for the last 97 years, a popular event is held in Coney Island, New York to mark the 4^th of July (U.S. Independence Day) – I refer to none other than the world famous Nathan’s hot dog eating contest. 

Contestants that have made it to the finals are given ten minutes to eat as many hot dogs (including the buns) as they can. 40,000 people cram the surrounding streets to cheer on their favorite speed-eaters and more than one million viewers are expected to tune in on TV (you can catch the live nationally televised  broadcast on…. you guessed it… ESPN). As I write this I see the breaking news that Joey Chestnut (yes, his real name) has defended his title for the sixth consecutive year by tying his own world record of a (disturbing) 68 hot dogs in ten minutes...

This whole event brought to mind the halacha in the Gemara about feeding one’s animals....In general, a person’s must feed his animals before he feeds himself at meal time (See Brachot 40a and Gittin 62a based on the passuk in Devarim 11:15. Also check out the Magen Avraham in O.C. 167:18 who holds that this only applies to food, not drink).

The Yad Efraim in his commentary to Shulchan Aruch (O.C. 167) suggests that the reason for this is that it is quite possible that our merit and worthiness of receiving the food from Hashem is no less than that of an animal and it could be that the animals are the source of our meriting food in the first place. It is therefore the animals who take precedence.

We also know that the Torah requires us to elevate our act of eating in various ways. We acknowledge and thank Hashem before and after each and every meal and snack with brachot. We are also obligated to go out of our way to provide food to those less fortunate (see Rambam hil. Yom Tov perek 6).

All of this together makes for an interesting contrast of perspective - on the one hand we need to show ourselves that our eating is no greater than that of an animal and we do this by feeding our animals before ourselves. At the same time, we have halachot in place to help us raise our act of eating to become a vehicle for thanking Hashem and doing kindness for others.

In reality though, these are really just two sides of the same coin. The act of eating is indeed a physical, animalistic need and our fulfillment of this need is comparable to that of an animal. The Torah’s mandate is to make our eating part of the bigger picture of serving Hashem in a dignified, proper way.

My intent is not to bash the hot dog eating contest. Who am I to denounce a long standing American tradition. Just consider this a reference to a couple of interesting halachot and maybe some "food" for thought...