What happens next, though, is unexpected: the dietary laws, a
list of permitted and forbidden species, animals, fish and
birds. What is the logic of these laws? And why are they placed
here? What is their connection with the sanctuary? The late R.
Elie Munk (The Call of the Torah, vol. 2, p. 99) offered a
fascinating suggestion. As we have mentioned before in these
studies, the sanctuary was a human counterpart of the cosmos.
Several key words in the biblical account of its construction
are also key words in the narrative of creation at the beginning
of Genesis. The Talmud (Megillah 10b) says about the completion
of the sanctuary, that "On that day there was joy before the
Holy One blessed be He as on the day when heaven and earth were
created." The universe is the home God made for man. The
sanctuary was the home human beings made for God. R. Munk
reminds us that the first command God gave the first human was a
dietary law. "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;
but you must not eat from the tree