Forbidden foods fulfilled by being rejected

בגמ' מנלן דטריפה אינה חי' דכ' זאת החי' אשר תאכלו כו'.

In the Gemara: From where do we know that a tereifah cannot survive? As it is written, "This is the chayah (living thing) that you may eat."

The Sefas Emes opens from a Gemara that derives, from the wording "This is the chayah that you may eat" (Vayikra 11:2), that a tereifah — an animal with a fatal defect — is destined not to live.

והלא כ' ג"כ חיה אשר לא תאכל.

But behold, it also writes "a chayah that you shall not eat."

He raises a difficulty: the verse also speaks of a "chayah" — a living thing — in the context of what may not be eaten. So how can the very word chayah prove that the forbidden animal has no life?

אך כי וודאי חיות השי"ת שיש בכל נברא הוא חיותו.

But surely the vitality of Hashem that exists in every created thing is its life.

The resolution begins with a principle: the true "life" of any creature is the chiyus (divine vitality) of Hashem that animates it. Nothing lives by itself; everything lives only by the life-force Hashem invests in it.

אך כי הכשרות החיות מסטרא דקדושה ונק' זאת החי' ונאכלת.

But the kosher one — its vitality is from the side of holiness, and it is called "this chayah," and it may be eaten.

A kosher animal draws its vitality from the sitra dikedushah (the side of holiness). Because its life-force is holy, the Torah calls it "this chayah" and permits it to be eaten — so that through eating, its holy vitality is elevated within the Jew.

וחיות הטריפות הוא זה אשר לא תאכל מה שנשלם רצונו ית'.

And the vitality of the forbidden creatures is "that which you shall not eat" — wherein His will, may He be blessed, is fulfilled.

The forbidden creature also has divine vitality, but its purpose is fulfilled specifically through being rejected — "that which you shall not eat." The ratzon Hashem in such a creature is realized precisely by a Jew's refusal to consume it.

שאין בנ"י אוכלין אותו.

That Bnei Yisrael do not eat it.

The very fact that Bnei Yisrael abstain from it is the realization of its role in creation — its "service" is to be left uneaten.

זה הוא חיותו המחי' מין ההוא כנ"ל.

This is its vitality, which gives life to that species, as above.

This rejection is itself the life-force that sustains that species: its reason for existing — and thus its "life" — lies in serving as the thing from which a Jew holds back.

ונק' חי' אשר לא תאכל כנ"ל.

And it is called "a chayah that you shall not eat," as above.

This is why the Torah can still call it a "chayah" while forbidding it: its very status as a living creature is defined by the prohibition — it lives in order to be refused.

כי חיות הסט"א הוא זה שדוחין אותה שנתרבה כבוד ה' ע"י התגברות האדם נגד היצה"ר שלא להתדבק בסט"א.

For the vitality of the sitra achra (the other side) is this: that it is pushed away, so that the honor of Hashem is increased through a person's overcoming the yetzer hara, refusing to cleave to the sitra achra.

The entire life-force of the sitra achra is bound up with its being rejected. When a person overcomes his yetzer hara and refuses to attach himself to the unholy, the kavod (honor) of Hashem is magnified — so the forbidden thing's purpose is fulfilled through the very act of being pushed away.

וזה הוא חיותו כנ"ל:

And this is its vitality, as above.

Thus even the forbidden creature serves Hashem: its "life" is the increase of His honor that results when Bnei Yisrael overcome temptation and reject it.

Summary: Every creature lives only by the divine vitality within it, but that vitality takes two forms — the kosher animal draws from the side of holiness and is elevated by being eaten, while the forbidden creature fulfills its purpose precisely by being rejected. When a Jew overcomes his yetzer hara and refuses to cleave to the sitra achra, Hashem's honor is increased, and that very rejection is the "life" of the forbidden thing.