Body nullified to the soul

בפסוק וכהן כי יקנה נפש קנין כספו כו'.

On the pasuk: "And if a kohen acquires a person, the purchase of his money, etc." (Vayikra 22:11).

The Torah teaches that a slave acquired by a kohen may eat from terumah; the Sefas Emes will read this as a hint about the body and the soul.

וזה דבר פלא כי הקדוש שבישראל לא יאכל בתרומה ועבד כהן ואפי' בהמת כהן אוכלין בתרומה.

And this is a wondrous thing: the holiest of Bnei Yisrael (a non-kohen Israelite) may not eat terumah, yet a kohen's slave, and even a kohen's animal, do eat from terumah.

It seems strange that a holy Yisrael is barred from terumah while a kohen's slave and beast are permitted — the Sefas Emes will explain why.

משום שעבד בטל לגמרי אצל האדון אוכל בלחמו.

Because a slave, being utterly nullified (batel) to his master, eats from his bread.

The slave's complete bittul to his master is precisely what entitles him to eat the master's holy food.

וכן הרמז בכל איש ישראל כי באמת הנשמה באה מלמעלה וניזונית מלחם השמים.

And so is the hint in every Yisrael: in truth the neshamah comes from above and is nourished by the bread of Heaven.

The soul's true food is heavenly — it draws its sustenance from the spiritual realm above.

ואם כל הגוף בטל אל הנשמה יוכל גם הגוף להיות אוכל בלחם הנשמה.

And if the entire body is nullified to the neshamah, then the body too can eat from the bread of the neshamah.

When the body subordinates itself fully to the soul — like a slave to his master — it too partakes of the soul's heavenly nourishment.

וכן הי' באמת בדור המדבר שניזונו מלחם שמים לחם הנשמה לחם שמה"ש אוכלין אותו.

And so it actually was in the generation of the wilderness, who were nourished by the bread of Heaven — the bread of the neshamah, the bread that the ministering angels eat.

The mann was the food of angels and souls; the dor hamidbar reached a level where their bodies, nullified to their souls, could be sustained by this heavenly bread.

וכן הוא בכלל ישראל שהם קנינו של הקב"ה כדכתי' עם זו קנית.

And so it is with Bnei Yisrael as a whole, who are the acquisition (kinyan) of the Holy One, as it is written: "This people You have acquired" (Shemos 15:16).

Klal Yisrael belongs to Hashem the way a slave belongs to his master, having been "purchased" by Him at the Exodus.

מן הדין להיות ניזונים מלחם שמים.

By right they should be nourished from the bread of Heaven.

Since Yisrael are Hashem's own acquisition, it befits them to be fed directly from His heavenly table.

ואפי' בהמת כהן אוכלת ונאמר ואתן צאני צאן מרעיתי.

And even a kohen's animal eats, and it is said: "And you, My flock, the flock of My pasture" (Yechezkel 34:31).

Just as a kohen's beast may eat terumah, so too Bnei Yisrael are called Hashem's flock, fed by His own hand even at the level of bodily, "animal" existence.

וכהן ובת כהן רומז אל הנשמה כדאיתא בזוה"ק.

And the kohen and the daughter of a kohen allude to the neshamah, as is found in the Zohar HaKadosh.

The kohen represents the holy soul, which carries its own innate kedushah.

וזה הרמז ובת כהן כי תהי' לאיש זר היא מדת הרשעים שגם הנשמה מתבטלת בהם אל הגוף.

And this is the hint of "And if a daughter of a kohen becomes [married] to a stranger" (Vayikra 22:12) — this is the trait of the resha'im, in whom even the neshamah becomes nullified to the body.

In a wicked person the order is inverted: the soul itself becomes subservient to the body, "marrying the stranger" of physicality.

לא תאכל כו'.

"She shall not eat [of the terumah], etc."

When the soul is enslaved to the body, it loses its access to the heavenly bread.

ומדת הצדיקים להיפוך שהגוף מתבטל אל הנשמה כהן כי יקנה נפש קנין כספו פי' ע"י שמשתוקק הצדיק שגם הגוף יהי' בטל אל הנשמה ע"י זו התשוקה אוכל בלחמה:

And the trait of the tzaddikim is the reverse, that the body becomes nullified to the neshamah: "A kohen, when he acquires a person, the purchase of his money" — meaning that through the tzaddik's yearning that the body too should be nullified to the neshamah, by means of this very longing he eats from her bread.

The tzaddik turns the order right side up: his soul "acquires" his body, and his very yearning for the body to serve the soul is what allows even the body to share in the soul's heavenly bread.

Summary: A slave or animal of a kohen may eat terumah because they are fully nullified to their master, whereas an independent Yisrael may not. So too the neshamah is fed by heavenly bread, and when the body is utterly nullified to the soul it too can share in that food — as the dor hamidbar did with the mann, and as Klal Yisrael, Hashem's acquired flock, are meant to. The rasha inverts this, enslaving his soul to his body; the tzaddik, through his yearning that the body serve the soul, draws even his body into the soul's heavenly bread.