Our Gemara on Amud Aleph describes the features of eggs from kosher birds versus eggs from non-kosher birds:

“Any egg that narrows at the top and is rounded, so that one of its ends is rounded (kad) and the other one of its ends is pointed (chad), is kosher. If both of its ends are rounded or both of its ends are pointed, they are non-kosher.”

Likkutei Halachos (Y.D., Laws of Eggs 2 and 4) discusses the secret meaning contained within these physical properties. Whenever there is a unification there is a holiness, as it incorporates all, and is therefore closer to God’s unity. The Jew unifies the written Torah and the Oral Torah, making two modes of relating to law, thought and practice into an integrated whole. The two sides of the kosher egg, the rounded (kad) and the pointed (chad), are the combination of written and oral Torah. The Hebrew word for rounded is kad, which is spelled chof dalet, numerically 24, the number of books in Tanach, the written Torah. The Hebrew word for pointed is chad, which means sharp, and stands for the Oral Torah, which is built on the sharp analysis and legal distinctions of the sages.

Furthermore, the two sides, sharpness and softness, represent a unification of two opposite but necessary features that it takes to fulfill the Torah, humility and brazenness. It takes humility to learn and be close to God, but brazenness to enact the will and intellectual guts to pursue the limits of human ability, and even transcend them.

From a psychological perspective, mental health is not about eliminating drives but rather about healthy integration of various drives. The emotional and the intellectual, the aggressive and the peaceful, joy and seriousness, and compassion and self-interest. One of the essential features of Torah observance and thought is healthy integration and balance of the various drives and parts of human nature. (The Rambam’s Shemoneh Perakim makes this point in an extended fashion.)

For example, the Jewish calendar is based on a combination of lunar and solar inputs; specifically, the months follow the Moon, however the seasons follow the Sun. Since 12 lunar months only add up to 354 days, it is approximately 11 days short of a solar year. The rabbis understood from the Biblical directive to guard the month of spring, that they needed to add in a leap month (Adar II) approximately every 3 years (actually a cycle of 7 out of every 19 years) in order to ensure that Passover occurs in the Spring. However, we must ask ourselves, what is this process supposed to teach us?

The three major world religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all view the calendar differently, and it may be a manifestation of a way of working with reality. Christianity exclusively follows a solar calendar, Islam exclusively follows a lunar calendar, in that its holidays are measured by lunar months alone, while Judaism follows a hybrid. We might say, the Christian world which is in a large part the Western world and a legacy from Greek Hellenism, follows the obvious and observed phenomena. The years and seasons are organized solely on the observed reality of the solar cycle. Islam bases its year solely on the Moon. The Moon is seen at night and waxes and wanes. We might say the Sun stands for observed natural reality, then the Moon stands for mystical, mysterious and inner subjective reality.

In terms of attitudes, the secular Western world relates to concrete practical concerns and organizes itself based on those perceptions and needs. The Islamic world is the opposite. The subjective spiritual dimension is the organizing force, regardless of the practical considerations. Jihad, suicide bombings, cutting off the hand of the thief are all expressions of the spiritual reality dictating the external reality. (Notably, despite the literal reading in the Bible of an “eye for an eye,” the rabbis of the Talmud report a tradition that these draconian measures are not meant literally, but instead stress the importance of the fairest possible financial restitution. Jewish courts of law never practiced “eye for an eye.”)

By organizing itself based on a combination of the Solar and Lunar cycles, we can understand Judaism’s attitude is one of balance between inner realities and outer realities. The spiritual dimension in our life is vital. There is a drive toward Unio Mystica, cleaving to, and joining with God. There is a part of us that wants to run away from all the practical day to day problems and live on a mountain top. Yet, we cannot do that. We must live in this world, so long as the good Lord sees fit to keep us alive. We must plant, harvest, eat, live and love amongst people.

The kosher egg is a physical manifestation of this important archetype of life. The non-kosher egg has either both rounded or both sharp sides, because it sits at the extremes and has not achieved successful balance or integration of human nature.