Eating elevates the holy spark

זאת החי' אשר תאכלו.

"These are the living creatures that you may eat."

The Sefas Emes begins from the verse listing the kosher animals, and he will read in it a deeper idea about how the eating of a tzaddik elevates the food.

במד' עמד וימודד ארץ כו' ויתר גוים ז' מצות פרקן מהם ע"ש המשל חמור כו' מלחית פרק ממנו המשא ע"ש.

In the Midrash: "He stood and measured the earth… and He loosed the nations" — He removed the seven mitzvos from them, see there; with the mashal (parable) of a donkey from which one unloads the burden, see there.

The Midrash (on Chavakkuk's verse) explains that Hashem released the nations of the world from the obligation of the Sheva Mitzvos Bnei Noach, comparing it to a master unloading the burden off an overloaded donkey.

ובגמ' מקשי אתגורי מיתגר וכי יהי' חוטא נשכר ומשני שאין מקבלין עליהן שכר כמצווה ועושה ע"ש.

And the Gemara asks: do they then profit by it — shall a sinner be rewarded? — and it answers that they do not receive reward as one who is commanded and performs, see there.

The Gemara objects: if the nations are "let off," they seem to gain by their non-observance. It resolves that they still receive only the lesser reward of one who acts without being commanded, not the full reward of the commanded one.

ולפי"ז לכאורה אין מובן משל המד'.

According to this, the Midrash's parable seems, at first glance, not to make sense.

If the nations still bear some obligation and reward, why does the Midrash speak of the burden being entirely "unloaded" from them like a load off a donkey?

והענין הוא כי באמת המצות יש להם טעמים הרבה ופקודי ה' ישרים ומדריכין האדם בדרך ישרה ומטהרים את האדם ויש להם פעולות הרבה עצמו מספר.

The explanation is that in truth the mitzvos have many reasons — "the precepts of Hashem are upright" — they guide a person on the straight path and purify him, and they have countless effects beyond number.

Mitzvos operate on two levels. On the lower level they have rational benefits: they refine and purify a person and direct him in the right way, and these effects are innumerable.

אבל שורש המצות למעלה מה שמתעורר ע"י מצוה שלמטה לזה אין שום ברי' מוכן רק בנ"י שעושין רצונו ית' למעלה בעשיות המצות.

But the root of the mitzvos is above — that which is aroused on high through a mitzvah done below — and for this no creature is fit except Bnei Yisrael, who do His will above through their performance of the mitzvos.

The higher level is the spiritual effect a mitzvah produces in the upper worlds. Only Bnei Yisrael can accomplish this, because only they fulfill the ratzon Hashem in a way that reaches and stirs the supernal root.

אבל עם הדומה לחמור א"י לעשות רצון בעליו הגם שנושא המשאוי אבל אינו פועל בו כרצון בעליו.

But a people likened to a donkey cannot fulfill its master's will — although it carries the load, it does not accomplish in it what its master wills.

This is the point of the donkey mashal: a beast may carry the burden (perform the action) yet it has no share in the master's true intent. So too the nations may perform good deeds but cannot effect the inner, supernal purpose of a mitzvah.

ולכן נשנו ז' מצות.

This is why the seven mitzvos were repeated (at Sinai).

The Sefas Emes now explains a known teaching: the Sheva Mitzvos Bnei Noach were "repeated" at Har Sinai for Bnei Yisrael.

הגם דנאמרה ונשנית לכל נאמרה ונוהגין בבני נח.

Even though "whatever was stated and then repeated" was stated for all, and these apply to Bnei Noach as well —

By the rule that a mitzvah given before Sinai and repeated at Sinai applies to everyone, the seven mitzvos still obligate the nations.

אבל נשנו לומר שבנ"י מקיימין אותן עפ"י התורה שמשמים ואין זה בבני נח.

Yet they were repeated to teach that Bnei Yisrael fulfill them by virtue of the Torah, which is from Heaven — and this dimension is not present for Bnei Noach.

The point of "repeating" them for Bnei Yisrael is that when Bnei Yisrael keep these laws they do so as Torah given from Shomayim, with its supernal root — a level the nations simply do not have.

ולפי שבני ישראל מעשיהן מתקשרין למעלה.

And since the deeds of Bnei Yisrael are bound up above —

Because the actions of Bnei Yisrael connect to and act upon the upper worlds, their deeds carry an elevating power.

לכן זאת החי' אשר תאכלו כי מהאוכל יצא מאכל.

Therefore, "these are the living creatures that you may eat," for "out of the eater came forth food."

Drawing on Shimshon's riddle ("out of the eater came forth food"), the Sefas Emes reads the permission to eat as itself an elevating act: when a Jew eats, something emerges and rises from the food.

וע"י אכילת הצדיק מתעלה משהו מזה המאכל למעלה.

And through the eating of the tzaddik, some part of that food is elevated on high.

When a tzaddik eats with the right intent, the nitzotz (holy spark) hidden in the food is lifted up and returned to its root — the eating itself becomes an act of elevation.

וזה פי' חי' אשר לא תאכל שנדחק באבן עזרא בזה ע"ש ותבין דברי:

And this is the meaning of "a creature that you shall not eat," over which the Ibn Ezra labored, see there — and you will understand my words.

The non-kosher animals are those whose spark cannot be elevated through a Jew's eating; that is why they "shall not be eaten." With this idea, the Sefas Emes hints, the difficulty the Ibn Ezra struggled with becomes clear.

Summary: The Sefas Emes resolves the Midrash's donkey parable by distinguishing two levels of mitzvos: their many rational benefits, which anyone can attain, and their supernal root, which only Bnei Yisrael can stir through fulfilling Hashem's will as Torah from Heaven. Because the deeds of Bnei Yisrael are bound to the upper worlds, even their eating elevates the holy spark within the food — which is why a tzaddik's eating raises it up, and why only certain "living creatures" may be eaten.