This Parasha puts forth the dynamics of choice of foods and their ramification. The Verse states: “You shall not draw abomination upon yourselves through anything that swarms; you shall not make yourselves Tamey therewith and thus become Tamey. For I Hashem am your God: you shall sanctify yourselves and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not make yourselves unclean through any swarming thing that moves upon the earth.” (Leviticus 11:43-44). The definition of Tamey cannot be found in any other language. It is somewhere between abomination and impure. Similarly for Tahor, its definition is somewhere between delight and pure. The Parasha categorizes all the forbidden animals for our consumption, as Tamey. Whilst, those permitted to consume as Tahor. In other words, we are what we eat, and the Torah goes to great extent to warn us not to eat any Tamey food. The Zohar explains the reason some foods are forbidden is because they draw their spiritual sustenance from evil powers, which in turn categorize them as impure, while the permitted foods draw theirs from the Divine Spirit. Nonetheless, even the permitted foods have an evil portion, and therefore it requires a specific process in order to consume them safely, such as tithing, proper slaughtering, saying the proper blessing etc. When man surrenders to his evil inclination, he relinquishes his Divine Sparkle to the evil powers, and in return they become an integral part of him. His very life sustenance is then provided by the evil powers. In contrast, when a person repents or does good deeds, his Divine Sparkle is retuned and draws his sustenance from the Divine Spirit. However, this is true only if he rigorously respects the laws of Kosher, as if not, even his good deeds will enhance the forces of evil that inhabit him. Indeed, consuming, forbidden substances, feed his body and his Nefesh [spiritual body, which has the exact shape and form as physical body] as both draw their sustenance from the consumed foods. So, when the body has ingested Tamey nutriment, its very fabric becomes tainted and it’s impossible to return to the original level of purity as long as nutrients remain in the body. The Zohar classifies the laws of Kashrus

as the cornerstone of the Jewish life. Transgressing any other interdiction can be corrected by doing Teshuva. However, indulging in forbidden foods will require firstly the complete elimination of those nutriments from the body, and only then repentance will prevail. Therefore, the numerical value of Tamey [ ַט ] ַמא is 50, to stress that eating forbidden substances sends the person to the 50th level of impurity, more than the Jewish people in Egypt. If we employ our imaginations to project the sort of feelings we would have if we were a Neshama trapped into supplying Divine powers to the evil forces of the universe, the image that pops into mind is excruciating pain and overwhelming dismay. The implication is clear. The pleasure the body experiences in the commission of forbidden acts is experienced by the Neshama as the opposite of pleasure; pain.
On the other hand, the pain and frustration experienced by the body from the refusal to indulge in forbidden pleasures is experienced by the Neshama as an intense surge of delight. The intensity of this pain-pleasure relationship follows an inverse proportionality rule. The greater the forbidden physical pleasure, the more intense the spiritual pain. The greater the frustration of self-denial the more intense the spiritual joy. In this physical world we are almost entirely numb to spiritual sensations and it is almost beyond us to directly experience spiritual pleasure or pain. But as soon as we leave the confines of physicality, we will fully taste our spiritual experiences. Unlike physical feelings that fade very quickly, spiritual experiences last for unlimited time. This allows us some insight into the pain and pleasure that awaits us in the next world.
It is within the context of this battle between the Neshama and the evil inclination that the positive and negative commands of the Torah must be understood. The Torah prohibits the sort of indulgence in physical experience that translates into providing creative energy to the Tamey, while the positive commandments encourage the activities that have the capacity to transform the physical into spiritual and make it permeable to the Divine light.
The Baal Hatanya offers a different approach, which illustrates further the above explanations. In Hebrew the expression for forbidden is Assur, a word that literally means “bound”, or “tied up”, while the expression for permissible is Mutar, a word that literally means “loose”, or “untied.” Forbidden substances bound us to the Tamey forces. It is then beyond our capacity to loosen its grip on us as we became an intrinsic part of it.
The Talmud Yoma [39a] brings the teaching of Rabbi Yishmael: “A transgression has for effect to stop up a person’s heart, [Rashi explains: it makes it impermeable to the Torah’s wisdom] as it is

written, ‘Do not contaminate yourself through them, you become contaminated through them.’ The word Tamey in the verse is deliberately misspelled; it should be written with an aleph, but the aleph was omitted, the intention being so it could also be translated to ‘stop up.'” The passage establishes a special connection between being open and receptive to Torah wisdom and the avoidance of commission of transgressions. This connection turns out to be especially potent when it comes to transgressing against the laws of Kashrus.
Tosefos [Chulin 5b] explains that this concept does not apply to other sorts of sin. The consumption of forbidden foods is especially pernicious because it ‘stops up the heart’ and closes it off from being able to comprehend and to retain the wisdom of Torah. Normally a sin that is committed inadvertently does little spiritual harm. However, even inadvertent ingestion of forbidden substances has adverse effects. Poison is poison, no matter how it is ingested.
An illustration of just how far this can go is provided by the response of the famous sage Rabbi Akiva Eiger to the query sent by a mother who complained about her son’s apparent inability to absorb the wisdom of Torah despite his brightness concerning worldly matters. In his response Rabbi Eiger wondered if the son had ever been placed in the care of a non-Jewish nurse as a young child who might have fed him pork. He explained that if this had been the case, his present lack of ability to study Torah despite his brightness was perfectly understandable. His heart and mind could still be stopped up to the wisdom of Torah years later by what the forbidden food he had ingested as a baby.
The laws of Kashrus are indeed fundamental to the practice of Judaism. The food we put in our mouth becomes the fabric of who we are. It prevents us from understanding any Torah and turn us agnostic to the cry of our brothers. In this world defilement is not discernable, but in the next world it is obvious to the naked eye and has a foul smell. The soul must be quarantined as the Tamey is in this world, which causes it much sorrow and shame.

Rabbi Fridmann

By Rabbi Fridmann * [email protected] * 305.985.3461

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