The Kabbalah of Food
Eating kosher is an act of liberation. We liberate the hidden sparks of holiness embedded in the food.
The Plethora of Kashrus Prohibitions
Kashrus, the Jewish Dietary laws, represents a multifaceted area of Jewish law and a pervasive part of our very lives as Jews. These laws can be divided into many categories.
This week’s Parsha, Shemini, features the laws concerning which species of animals, beasts, fowl and fish are kosher (fit for consumption) and which are not. In an earlier Torah portion (Mishpatim and Ki Tisa) we were informed about the prohibition concerning the forbidden mixture of milk and meat.
Elsewhere, the Torah exhorts us to slaughter the animal as we have been commanded, referring to the laws of shechitah (ritual slaughter). We’ve also learned in other Torah portions concerning the prohibition of eating an animal that is neveilah (not slaughtered properly) and tereifah (an animal that has a punctured organ etc. that would prove fatal) even if it was slaughtered properly.
In addition, the Torah imposes a prohibition against eating the blood, as well as certain types of fat, of an animal. The prohibition against eating the animal’s sciatic nerve and not eating an animal before it was killed, round out the many prohibitions that involve the consumption of meat.
In addition to the prohibitions that apply to meat, there are also restrictions that apply to vegetation as well. For example: there is a Biblical prohibition not to eat the fruit of a newly planted tree for three years. One may also not eat the mixture of the vine and grain and some other mixtures of plants. And one may also not eat the bugs that may be in a vegetable.
The question that begs to be asked is, why does the Torah impose so many restrictions on the food that we eat?
Soul Food and the Soul of Food
The answer to this question lies in the dynamics of eating, from the Jewish perspective.
There are things we do in life because we have no other choice and there are things we do because that is what life is all about.
In the former category, when we do what we have to do in order to survive, we do it in the most perfunctory manner, not expending too much time and resources on these activities. After all, these activities are not what we think life is all about. And while they ensure our existence; they do not capture the essence of why we exist.
In the latter category, however, we spend as much time as we can and savor every moment of it. Those pursuits that we think are of little consequence for survival are actually the stuff out of which a true life is made.
Eating clearly falls into the second category. Despite the necessity in food consumption, eating has become an activity in which many invest much of their time and energy. Unlike breathing, eating is an activity around which we plan so much of our other activities.
Food has always been a part of all of our celebrations. The Shabbat and Holidays are required to have food—and good food—as part of their observance. We have work lunches where much of what we decide in our businesses is decided. For many eating is not just a necessary act in order to survive but an end unto itself. In our day and age, huge multi-billion dollar industries have been established that cater to the palate and the gourmet consumer.
Why did G-d make it so that food consumption would be pleasurable to the point that it has become a ritual.
The Ba’al Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement, addressed this question by referring to a principle in Kabbalah that it is the food that wants to be eaten by us more than the desire that we have to eat the food. Every morsel of food contains Divine energy that is even more potent than the divine energy that we possess naturally.
Kabbalah teaches us that there is a higher spiritual dimension that is the source of the physical aspects of our world. That source is the world of Tohu, which means chaos. It is a spiritual realm where the energy is so potent that the vessels G-d created to contain and channel that energy could not contain it and were shattered, scattering the sparks of this potent energy into the physical realm. More specifically, these sparks, containing this powerful Divine energy, is embedded in the food we eat.
When we eat, we not only derive physical energy from the food, but moreover, we derive intense spiritual energy for the soul. Because through eating kosher food we are capable of freeing that spark from its imprisonment and allow that food to unleash heretofore unparalleled energy to the person who eats it and to the world at large.
Talking Food!
Every time we eat, the G-dly spark “calls out” to us and asks of us: “Please eat me, so that I can be liberated from the confines of the food.” Similarly, our soul beckons to us to eat the food so that it can be nourished by receiving a dose of spiritual energy it does not possess on its own.
But there is a catch to all of this. The spiritual energy that is contained within the food can only be extracted when the food is kosher and eaten properly.
When the food is not kosher, the spark cannot be extracted by eating it. This food is forbidden. In Hebrew the word for forbidden – assur – can also be rendered “imprisoned,” the Divine spark is not capable of being released from its imprisonment, notwithstanding any and all efforts of the consumer to do just that.
Indeed, the only way we can liberate the hidden sparks in forbidden food is by resisting the temptation to eat it. The energy one expends in resisting is in some ways even greater than the energy we invest in doing something right.
When a food is permissible, the Divine spark contained within the food can be accessed and released into the world, thereby making the world a holier and more spiritually attuned place. Thus the word for permissible in Hebrew—muttar—also means “released” or “unfettered.”
However, as stated before, the spiritual energy that is contained within the food can only be extracted when the food is kosher and eaten properly. Eating properly means that we acknowledge the Divine source of the food. And the way we acknowledge that Divine source is by reciting the appropriate blessing before consuming the food and the appropriate blessings after the meal. This helps to re-direct our understanding of food as a spiritual experience and not simply for the body’s indulgence in physical pleasure and not even for the sake of survival.
Eating Kosher as a Preparation for the Messianic Era
Thus the process of eating is more than a culinary experience. It is the ultimate way through which our actions release the most potent forces of Divine energy into the world. And in the process of releasing this powerful energy we thereby pave the way for the Messianic Redemption, at which time the whole world will be permeated with Divine energy.
What distinguishes the Messianic Age from life in the present exile era is that in the future we will have released all of the potent energies of the world of Chaos, with one caveat. Not only will that explosion of divine energy not overwhelm us or paralyze us; it will be fully internalized within our wellstructured and disciplined vessels. The same vessels that were previously capable of receiving only limited doses of spiritual power, will be expanded. They will now be capable of absorbing and internalizing all of the light.
In truth, there is an even higher spiritual dynamic to eating which commences when the process of refining the sparks is completed.
This process involves generating powerful Divine energy by bringing together dynamic spiritual forces.
The Rebbe has informed us that we have already fulfilled our service of refining the world needed for the Redemption. Now, the Rebbe, taught is the time for us to welcome Moshiach and internalize the Messianic energies.
Thus, when we eat kosher food, preceded by a blessing, with the intention of generating Messianic energies, we actually hasten the process of Redemption.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Shemini by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
