Kosher foods and cleaving to the Tree of Life

בפסוק זאת החי' כו' פרש"י לפי שדביקין בחיים.

On the pasuk "This is the chayah (living thing/animal you may eat)…" (Vayikra 11:2), Rashi explains: because they cleave to the Living One.

Rashi notes the unusual word "chayah" (related to "chayim," life): Bnei Yisrael are called "living" because they are attached to Hashem, the Source of life. The laws of permitted and forbidden foods flow from this clinging to true life.

ובמד' עמד וימודד ארץ כו'.

And in the Midrash: "He stood and measured the earth…" (Chavakuk 3:6).

The Midrash brings the pasuk describing Hashem "measuring" the earth, hinting that the life-force placed in creation was apportioned in measured amounts — a theme that will be developed below.

ובזוה"ק מי האיש החפץ חיים כו'.

And in the Zohar HaKadosh: "Who is the man who desires life…" (Tehillim 34:13).

The Zohar invokes the verse "Who desires life," connecting the pursuit of true life with guarding oneself — here, through the dietary laws that keep a person bound to the Source of life.

דכתיב ומעץ הדעת טוב ורע לא תאכל וע"י החטא ויגרש כו' האדם כדכ' פן ישלח ידו ולקח כו' מעץ החיים כו'.

For it is written, "And from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat" (Bereishis 2:17), and through the sin, "He drove out… the man" (Bereishis 3:24), as it is written, "lest he send forth his hand and take… from the Tree of Life…" (Bereishis 3:22).

The root of the matter goes back to Gan Eden. Adam ate from the Eitz HaDaas, mixing good and evil, and as a result was banished — lest he also take from the Eitz HaChaim (Tree of Life). Sin introduced a confusion of tov and ra that cut man off from pure life.

והנה בנ"י בקבלת התורה התדבקו בעץ החיים והי' ראוי להיות נתקן החטא.

Now Bnei Yisrael, at the receiving of the Torah, cleaved to the Tree of Life, and it would have been fitting for the sin to be rectified.

At Matan Torah, Bnei Yisrael reattached to the Eitz HaChaim — for the Torah itself is the Tree of Life. At that moment the damage of Adam's sin was poised to be fully repaired.

והגם שאח"כ נעשה פגם ע"י החטא מ"מ נשאר לנו חלק בתורה שהיא עץ החיים.

And although afterward a blemish was made through the sin, nevertheless there remains for us a portion in the Torah, which is the Tree of Life.

The sin of the Golden Calf caused a pegam (blemish) and undid the complete tikkun. Yet a permanent gift remained: our chelek (portion) in the Torah, the Eitz HaChaim, which keeps Bnei Yisrael connected to true life.

ולכן צריכין לשמור מתערובות טו"ר.

Therefore we must guard against the admixture of good and evil.

Because our task is to hold on to the pure life of the Eitz HaChaim, we must avoid the taaroves (mixture) of good and evil that came from the Tree of Knowledge — and this is the very purpose of the dietary laws.

ובאמת בכל הנבראים יש בהם חיות אך במדה וצמצום.

And in truth, in all created things there is life-force, but in a measure and a tzimtzum (constriction).

Every creature contains chiyus (life-force) from Hashem, but only in a limited, contracted form. The divine vitality is present everywhere, yet hidden and rationed within the bounds of nature.

וז"ש עמד וימודד ארץ כו'.

And this is the meaning of "He stood and measured the earth…"

This is what the earlier pasuk meant: Hashem "measured out" the life-force into the world, apportioning a fixed, constricted amount of vitality to each created thing.

אבל בנ"י יש להם אחיזה בעץ החיים כענין שכ' ואכל וחי לעולם. שהוא בחי' למעלה מהטבע.

But Bnei Yisrael have a grasp on the Tree of Life, in the sense of what is written, "and he shall eat and live forever" (Bereishis 3:22), which is a dimension above nature.

Unlike the measured life within ordinary creation, Bnei Yisrael have a hold on the unlimited life of the Eitz HaChaim — the eternal, "live forever" vitality that transcends the constricted life-force of the natural world.

לכן בירר לנו השי"ת המינים שאין בהם תערובות מעה"ד טו"ר.

Therefore Hashem selected for us the species that have in them no admixture from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil.

So that Bnei Yisrael can stay bound to pure, supernatural life, Hashem chose for them the permitted species — those free of the good-and-evil mixture that stems from the Eitz HaDaas. The kosher animals are the foods that do not draw a person into that confusion.

ובמד' דורש אלה המינים על הד' מלכיות גמל שפן כו'.

And in the Midrash it expounds these species as referring to the four kingdoms — camel, hyrax, etc. (Vayikra 11:4-7).

The Midrash reads the forbidden animals — camel, hyrax, hare, pig — as symbols of the arba malchuyos, the four exiles that dominate Bnei Yisrael. The impure species correspond to the foreign kingdoms.

כי מצד שלא נתברר עדיין מלכות שמים ונמצא עוד מלכות בו"ד בעולם לכן נבררו בנ"י מתוך האומות עובדי כו"ם ח) לכן נמצאים עוד מינים טמאים בעולם כי הכל הכנה אל האדם.

For since malchus Shomayim (the kingdom of Heaven) has not yet been fully clarified, and there still exists a kingdom of flesh and blood in the world, therefore Bnei Yisrael were selected out from among the idol-worshipping nations; and therefore there still exist impure species in the world, for everything is a preparation for man.

So long as Hashem's kingship is not yet openly revealed and human empires still rule, the same unredeemed state expresses itself on every level: Bnei Yisrael had to be sifted out from the nations, and impure species still exist in the world. All of it — the mix of pure and impure — is a hachanah (preparation), a testing-ground through which man does his work of selection.

וכ' ונטמתם בם ע"ש בזוה"ק שדורש מה שכתוב בלי א'. דכ' מי יתן טהור מטמא לא א'.

And it is written, "and you shall become impure through them" (Vayikra 11:43) — see the Zohar HaKadosh which expounds that it is written without an alef; as it is written, "Who can produce a pure thing from an impure one? Not One" (Iyov 14:4) — "lo alef."

The Torah spells "venitmesem" (you will be defiled) defectively, missing an alef. The Zohar links this to "mi yiten tahor mitamei lo echad" — "who can bring purity out of impurity? The One [Hashem] can." The presence or absence of the alef (alluding to the One, Hashem) is the whole difference.

כי הא' רומז שנמצא קצת נקודה מן האחדות ובכח זה עתיד להתברר טהור מטמא.

For the alef alludes to the fact that there exists a small point of the Oneness, and by virtue of this it will in the future be clarified — the pure from the impure.

The alef represents the nekudah (inner point) of Hashem's Oneness that lies hidden even within impurity. Because that holy point is present, it is possible — and destined — that purity will ultimately be drawn out of impurity and the tahor separated from the tamei.

אבל כשנפש מישראל מתגאל באכילת מינים אלו. ונטמתם כ'. שניטל הנקודה מהאחדות:

But when a soul of Yisrael becomes defiled through eating these species, "venitmesem" is written (without the alef) — that the point of the Oneness is taken away.

When a Jew eats the forbidden species, he reverses the process: the alef — the inner point of divine Oneness — is removed from him. Eating impure foods dulls and severs the holy nekudah within, the very point through which purity could have been drawn out.

Summary: Bnei Yisrael are called "living" because they cleave to Hashem, the Source of life, and to the Torah, the Eitz HaChaim, which restored the connection broken by Adam's eating from the Tree of Knowledge. While all creation holds only measured, constricted life-force, Bnei Yisrael grasp a supernatural, eternal life — so Hashem chose for them species free of the good-and-evil admixture. The impure species, like the four exiles, persist as long as malchus Shomayim is concealed; yet even within impurity lies a hidden "point" of Hashem's Oneness (the alef) through which purity will ultimately be drawn out — a point that eating forbidden foods strips away from the soul.