Kosher eating and the redemption of the soul

בפסוק אל תשקצו את נפשותיכם כו' אני ה' המעלה אתכם כו'.

On the verse, "Do not make your souls abominable… I am Hashem who brings you up [from the land of Mitzrayim]…" (Vayikra 11:43-45).

The Sefas Emes opens on the conclusion of the laws of kashrus, which warns against defiling the soul and recalls that Hashem "brings up" Bnei Yisrael from Egypt.

ובמד' ראה ויתר גוים כו'.

And in the Midrash: "He saw and released the nations…" (Chavakuk 3:6).

The Midrash links our verse to the pasuk describing how Hashem "released" the nations from certain mitzvos — i.e., the seven Noahide laws — and the Sefas Emes explains the underlying idea.

הענין הוא שכל מזון הוא שנותן חלק למה שלמעלה ממנו.

The idea is that all food is a matter of giving a portion to that which is above it.

Eating is fundamentally an act of elevation: the food gives over its inner vitality to the higher being that consumes it.

כי המינים דצח"מ כל הגדול במעלה ניזון מהתחתון ע"י שהוא כולל אותו.

For among the categories of domem, tzomei'ach, chai, medaber (inanimate, plant, animal, speaker), each one higher in level is nourished from the one below it, in that it incorporates it.

The four tiers of creation form a ladder: plant draws from mineral, animal from plant, the human (medaber) from animal. The higher consumes and thereby absorbs and elevates the lower into itself.

והמדבר כולל מה שלמטה ממנו לכן נקרא עולם קטן.

And the medaber (the human) incorporates all that is below him; therefore he is called a "miniature world" (olam katan).

Because the human being takes up and contains all the lower levels of creation, he is a microcosm — an olam katan that includes the whole world within himself.

אכן בפרטות המינים ע"י שאין בנפש דקדושה חלק ממינים הטמאים אסרה לנו התורה.

However, regarding the specific species, since the holy soul has no portion in the impure species, the Torah forbade them to us.

The general rule of eating-as-elevation has an exception: the impure (non-kosher) creatures contain nothing that has a root in the holy Jewish soul, so they cannot be elevated by it — and therefore the Torah prohibits them.

והיינו שאחר החטא נתערב טוב ורע בכל.

And this is because after the sin [of Adam], good and evil became intermingled in everything.

Following the cheit of Adam HaRishon, good and evil were blended together throughout creation, so that the lower world is now a mixture requiring sorting.

אך ע"י התורה ומצות הבדיל לנו השי"ת בין טוב לרע.

But through the Torah and mitzvos, Hashem separated for us between good and evil.

The Torah and its mitzvos — including the laws of kashrus — are the tools Hashem gave us to distinguish and separate the good from the evil within the mixture.

ואותן המינים שלא נתבררו אסורין לנו כמ"ש במד' לפי שדבקים בחיים כו'.

And those species that have not been clarified are forbidden to us, as it is stated in the Midrash, "because they cling to life…"

The non-kosher species are ones whose good cannot be separated out and "clarified" (birur); since Bnei Yisrael "cling to life" — to the source of holiness — such unrefinable creatures are forbidden to them.

וז"ש המעלה אתכם מארץ מצרים.

And this is the meaning of "who brings you up from the land of Mitzrayim."

The verse's mention of being "brought up" from Egypt is now explained as part of this theme of elevation and refinement.

ובגמ' אמר הקב"ה אלו לא העליתי אלא ע"מ שאין מטמאין בשרצים די כו'.

And in the Gemara, the Holy One, blessed is He, said: "Had I brought you up [from Egypt] only on the condition that you not defile yourselves with creeping things, that would be sufficient…"

Chazal teach that the entire purpose of the Exodus could be justified by this one mitzvah of refraining from defiling impurities — showing how central kedushas ha-achilah is to the goal of yetzias Mitzrayim.

הענין הוא דכ' המעלה לשון הוה כי הנה עיקר הגאולה הוא בנפש שמתקשר בגוף וצריך גאולה שיוכל להיות נפרד מהגשמיות.

The idea is that it is written "ha-ma'aleh (who brings up)" in the present tense; for behold, the essence of the redemption is in the soul that is bound to the body and needs redemption to be able to separate from physicality.

The present-tense "who brings up" signals an ongoing geulah. The deepest redemption is of the neshamah, trapped within the body and its physicality; it needs to be liberated so it can rise above the material.

וביצ"מ ניתן זה הכח לבנ"י שיוכלו להפרד מהגשמיות וזה גאולת הנפש ולכן צריכין בכל יום לזכור יצ"מ ובכח זה יכולין להעלות הנפש.

And at the Exodus this power was given to Bnei Yisrael, that they should be able to separate from physicality — and this is the redemption of the soul; therefore we must remember yetzias Mitzrayim every day, and through this power we are able to elevate the soul.

Yetzias Mitzrayim implanted in Bnei Yisrael the ongoing ability to free the soul from the grip of the physical — the true geulas ha-nefesh. This is why we recall the Exodus daily: it is the active power by which we continually lift the soul above materiality.

ולכן סומכין גאולה לתפלה כמ"ש בטור או"ח שעיקר התפלה לקרב הנפש ולהוציאו מהתפשטות הגשמיות כו'.

Therefore we juxtapose geulah to tefillah, as the Tur writes in Orach Chaim, that the essence of prayer is to bring the soul near and to draw it out from the expansion of physicality.

This explains the halachah of placing the redemption blessing right before the Amidah: the very purpose of tefillah is to draw the soul close to Hashem and extricate it from immersion in the physical — which depends on the power of geulah.

וזאת הוא בכח זכירת יצ"מ כנ"ל.

And this is accomplished through the power of remembering yetzias Mitzrayim, as explained above.

The soul's elevation in prayer is powered precisely by the remembrance of the Exodus.

וע"י מינים הטמאים ונטמתם כו'. שא"י להפרד הנפש מהגוף ע"י איסורים הללו.

And through the impure species, "and you shall become defiled…" — for the soul cannot separate from the body by means of these forbidden things.

Eating the forbidden, unrefinable creatures has the opposite effect — "ve-nitmeisem," it defiles and coarsens, so that the soul becomes unable to detach itself from the body and rise above physicality.

והתקדשתם והייתם קדושים היינו ע"י הפרישה מהטומאות ומעלין הנפש מהתדבקות הגוף אז נוכל לקבל רוח קדושה ממרום וכמ"ש רש"י מדברי חז"ל אדם מקדש עצמו מלמטה מקדשין אותו מלמעלה ובעוה"ב.

"And you shall sanctify yourselves and you shall be holy" — that is, through separating from impurities and elevating the soul from its attachment to the body, then we are able to receive a spirit of holiness from on high; as Rashi writes from the words of Chazal, "A person sanctifies himself a little from below, and they sanctify him much from above, and in the World to Come."

The two phrases describe cause and effect: by abstaining from tumah we lift the soul off the body, and then we can receive a ru'ach kedushah from Above. Rashi, quoting Chazal, teaches that a small effort at self-sanctification below is met with abundant sanctification from Above — in this world and the next.

וע"כ הכוונה שגם בעוה"ז יכולין לקבל הארה זו.

And therefore the intent is that even in this world one can receive this illumination.

The point is that this gift of sanctification from Above is not reserved for the next world alone; it can be drawn down even here, in olam ha-zeh.

ויתכן שהוא בשבת שהוא מעין עוה"ב.

And it is possible that this is on Shabbos, which is a foretaste of the World to Come.

The time when this "World to Come" illumination is received in this world is Shabbos, which Chazal call a me'ein olam ha-ba — a taste of the next world.

והתקדשתם בימי המעשה. והייתם קדושים בשבת.

"And you shall sanctify yourselves" — during the weekdays; "and you shall be holy" — on Shabbos.

The two clauses map onto the week: our own effort of self-sanctification ("you shall sanctify yourselves") is the work of the weekdays, and the resulting gift of holiness ("you shall be holy") is bestowed on Shabbos.

שכשהנפש מתוקן יוכל לקבל נשמה יתירה בשבת קודש:

For when the soul is rectified, it can receive the neshamah yeseirah (the additional soul) on Shabbos Kodesh.

The weekday avodah of refining the nefesh prepares a person so that, on Shabbos, he is fit to receive the extra dimension of soul that Shabbos brings.

Summary: Eating is an act of elevation, by which the higher incorporates and raises the lower; but the impure species contain no portion redeemable by the holy soul, so the Torah forbids them, for since Adam's sin good and evil are mixed and must be separated through Torah and mitzvos. The deepest geulah is of the soul bound in the body — yetzias Mitzrayim (recalled daily, and the purpose of semichas geulah le-tefillah) gives the ongoing power to lift the soul above physicality, while forbidden foods coarsen and trap it. By sanctifying ourselves through abstention during the weekdays, we become fit to "be holy" — to receive holiness from Above and the neshamah yeseirah — on Shabbos, a foretaste of the World to Come.