So the topic tonight is the Jews' special diet. Now I must tell you the truth, it is not about a diet how to lose weight, cuz some people maybe thought that this is the topic, that Jews have a special magical diet that if you keep to this diet, then you'll lose weight, and you don't have to come and go on to the Atkins diet or whatever other diet they have. This is not the topic, because maybe it's important, but I am not a professional, I'm not an expert in the subject, so I really don't know what to tell you about that. Right, exactly. But the topic is the Jews' special diet, not because of losing weight, but because it's a mitzvah, and that is the mitzvah of keeping kosher. And that is the Jews' special diet. It's a diet only for Jews. Non-Jews are not obligated to keep kosher, and therefore it's the Jews' special diet. Now, before we get into the subject, let me just explain, what is the meaning of the word kosher? Now we're so used to it that the word kosher means food that a Jew is allowed to eat, and according to the halacha, according to the Jewish Torah, a Jew is allowed to eat it. So the word kosher people think means food that you're allowed to eat. But I must tell you that the word kosher has nothing to do with food, and the word kosher has nothing to do with eating. The word kosher, the real word is kosher, means fit. That's all. It means ready, actually. Ready to... something that's ready and right and fit. And it doesn't mean specifically food. Anything that's ready and fit and right could be called kosher. It was just developed somehow that this term stuck to the top the right food and the food that is fit for a Jew to eat, and it became that way. As a matter of fact, nowadays the word kosher already became a part of the English language and being used properly not only for food. You say, well, this is a kosher business, this is not a kosher business, because really that in truth, that's the right word. We say this is a kosher mechitzah or not a kosher mechitzah, because in truth the word kosher means fit. This is a kosher mechitzah, so it's fit. If it's not kosher, meaning it's not right, so it's not fit, so it's not kosher. But people think that the word kosher, the way it's used now, is taken, adapted from the real word kosher, which means food that's allowed to be eaten, but it's the reverse. But anyway, that's not important to our subject tonight. I just wanted to let you know that the word kosher means fit, and it has been adapted and developed into meaning kosher food, food that a Jew is allowed to eat according to the halacha, according to the laws of the Torah. Now, when we speak about kosher food, the food that's allowed to be eaten, there are different categories, or different types within the concept of kosher, meaning, and I'm not speaking here at all about the level of kashrut, standards of kashrut, I don't mean that, I just mean to classify what constitutes kosher. There are certain things that are allowed to be eaten according to the Jewish law, and certain things are not allowed to be eaten. There are certain things that are allowed to be eaten, but when they're combined with other things, they're not allowed to be eaten, the combination of two things. So the combination makes it unfit, makes it not kosher. Then you have, really doesn't fall under the category of kashrut, but still we could put it together, there are certain times that you are not allowed to eat food. And then there are certain times that certain foods in certain times you're not allowed to eat. And then there's another category of food that are is allowed to be eaten and the time is proper, but because of certain things that were done to it, it's not allowed to be eaten. And now give examples to each one of these categories. The first thing I said was there are certain foods that are allowed to be eaten and certain foods that are not allowed to be eaten. There are certain kosher animals and certain non-kosher animals. Now animals include בהמות and חיות, tame animals or wild animals. So there are certain that are allowed, the animal itself is a kosher animal, means like it's a בהמה טהורה, it's a kosher animal allowed to be eaten, and there are certain animals which this animal Hashem said cannot be eaten. There are certain fish that are allowed to be eaten, certain fish which are not allowed to be eaten. There's Certain birds that are allowed to be eaten, certain birds which are not allowed to be eaten. And we would say those are kosher, which means those are fit, and then some are not fit, they're not kosher because they're not allowed to be eaten. Then we have certain foods that each one on its own is allowed to be eaten, but when they're combined, they're not allowed to be eaten. Not for instance, this is the main one, בשר בחלב, milk and meat. Kosher meat is allowed to be eaten. Kosher milk is allowed to be, you can drink it, you can eat it, but when they come together, when milk and meat come together, now it's forbidden. So the combination of the two is what makes it forbidden. Then we have the third category, which I said is not really part of the kosher kitchen, but nevertheless we could put it into the idea of when you're what about food, there are certain times that you're not allowed to eat food. On Yom Kippur, you can't eat food. On יום תשעה באב, you can't eat food. So here we have times of the year when food is not allowed to be eaten. And then we have the other category of certain foods are not allowed to be eaten in certain times. That when you have the type of food combined with a specific time of the year, then you can't eat it. And that is obviously chametz on Pesach. Chametz, bread, is allowed to be eaten. It's kosher, if it's kosher bread. But when you have the kosher bread on Pesach, so when you have the combination of this type of food with the time of the year together, you're not allowed to eat it. And then you have the last category that I mentioned, and that is if it's kosher food in a proper time, but because of certain things that were done you're not allowed to eat it. And that is a kosher animal that wasn't slaughtered properly. So it's kosher food, it's a בהמה טהורה, it's a kosher animal, but if it was slaughtered, it was killed in a certain specific way, not in that specific way that you're supposed to, the shechitah was not done כדין, the slaughtering was not done properly, then that food, that meat, is forbidden. It is not kosher. Or even if you did slaughter it properly, but you didn't salt it and soak it. Meat you could only eat if it was salted and soaked and salted, the whole procedure that it's supposed to go through in order to get the blood out. If you didn't do it, you have everything positive: it's kosher food, and it's on a proper time of the year, and it's not combined with anything, but because of something that was done to it. Or another example: wine that was touched by a goy. Obviously if it wasn't מבושל, wasn't cooked, and the bottle wasn't sealed with two seals. But in that case, the wine could be kosher wine, everything is fine, it's a day you're allowed to drink, but if the goy touched it, that makes it unfit, it makes it not kosher. So these are the general categories when we deal with the kosher kitchen, with kosher food. Now, there are so many so many halachot and laws in every one of these categories that I mentioned, and we're not going to go through it because this is not a not a class on halacha, this is not a halacha class of kashrut or any other halachot. What we do here is we usually try to explain the deeper understanding and meaning behind all the different topics that we discuss. So what we're going to do is not go through the halachot of when it makes it unfit and when how you're supposed to shachat and how you're supposed to salt and what happens if you didn't. What we're going to do is we try to go behind the scene, behind of what kashrut is all about. In other words, let's see what is the reason, why did Hashem give us these specific laws, the laws of kashrut?

Now, there are some people who claim that the reason we have to keep kosher is because it's healthier, the food is cleaner. For instance, a pig rolls in the mud, and therefore a lot of bacteria and things like that, so therefore the Torah said don't eat meat of a pig. And the same is with other type if you certain things that if it's not done in a proper way, it is not so healthy, so Hashem wants us to eat food in a healthy way, and therefore He gave us the laws of kashrut. This, I must tell you, is not true. It is not true at all. I'm not saying it's not true that kosher food is healthier, very possible, and if it is, then it's a side benefit that we have, that the food is healthier. But if that would be the only reason, then if they would come up with some method that they were able to clean the food and take out the bacteria, then we wouldn't need the laws of kashrut. And that is not true. No matter what they do and how much they clean it, we still have to keep kosher, because this is not the reason. Why do we keep kosher? Because Hashem said so. Hashem told us in the Torah all the different halachot, and He told us that this is allowed to be eaten, this is fit, and this is not fit, and this combination is fit, and this combination is not fit, etc., etc. That's why we keep kosher. It is a mitzvah of Hashem, and we keep the mitzvah. Now, I cannot say that there are not certain reasons for certain aspects of kashrut, but again, these reasons are not the reason why we keep it. But I'll just give an example. For instance, some of the sefarim write, the Ramban and others write, that one of the reasons we can't eat the non-kosher animals because many of them are wild animals, and they're חיות טורפות, these are animals who kill. So that means that the characteristics of these animals are such that there are bad middot, they have they're bad characteristics, bad qualities. And if a person will eat meat from such animals, it'll influence the person, and the person will also get these middot. That's what it says in sefarim. That's when you eat meat of an animal that had bad middot. And not only concerning that aspect of animals which are wild animals, but even when you when you kill an animal and you don't do it through shechita, through the proper slaughtering, or you do it in a shechita which is treif, which is pasul, there is also a reason, because one of the the what it says, that shechita, when you shachat an animal the way the Torah prescribes to shachat, is the most humane way to kill the animal. It's the least cruel, and there's the least tzaar baalei chayim, the least pain for the animal. If an animal was slaughtered, killed in a different way, it was killed through pain. So when the meat became meat through pain, there is some kind of characteristic of negativity in this meat. And when a person will eat it, it will have an effect on the person, which is more interesting than the thing I said before, because what I said before is that the animal itself, the meat of the animal is a wild animal. Here the animal was a tame animal, the animal was a kosher animal, but if it was slaughtered in a way that was not humane, was cruel, will bring cruelty to the person who eats it. There's an interesting Midrash, it says, starts from the Gemara, it says that when Hashem came to the Jews to give them the Torah, and He said, \"Are you ready to take the Torah?\" So they said, \"נעשה ונשמע. We will do and we will hear.\" And the Gemara says that they said, \"First we will do, then we will hear. First we're ready to do it, and then we'll try to understand.\" And it says a voice came out from heaven and said, \"מי גילה לבני רז זה? Who revealed to My children this secret?\" To say it in such a way is a secret because only מלאכי השרת משתמשין בו. Only the angels know it. And the Gemara quotes a pasuk where we see that the angels behave that way, that they accept what they're told, and then they try to understand. So Hashem said, \"Who revealed to My children, to the Jews, such a secret? How did they know to answer this way?\" And the Gemara doesn't give an answer. Who told them? The Gemara just says there's a question: Who revealed it to them? It doesn't say who did. So there's a midrash that says, you know why they were able to do it? Because when we look into the chumash, they started eating the man a while before they said נעשה ונשמע. And the man is food of the malachim. So since the Jews already ate food of the malachim, so they got quality of the malachim, and therefore they were able to think of the same ideas as the malachim, because the food affects the person, influences the person in a positive way. The same is in the negative way. If you eat food that the meat became edible through a cruel way, it brings cruelty into the person, because the food makes the person behave according to the food. Not so long ago, scientists made a study, an interesting study. Someone showed this to me. That there was a whole bunch of worms, and they brought electrical currents in the area where the worms were. So the worms moved away. And after a while, the worms trained themselves to stay away from that electrical current that was there. And then they took the worms and fed them to some animals, and those animals, subconsciously, stayed away from that current. They brought the animals there, and they stayed away from that current, by itself, because they ate the worms that was trained were trained to stay away. And they made this study to show that the food that you eat, the person that eats the food, the food that he will influence the person, and you will get characteristics of the food. So this is a reason that's given for this part of kashrut of certain animals that you can't eat. But again, I must repeat, this is not the main reason. This is a reason, and it's a side, like I said before, a side benefit, that a Yid has better middot, better characteristics, because he eats only food that's made up of good middot, whether the animal itself has good middot or it's killed in a form of good middot, so that's a side benefit. But this is not the reason. The reason is because Hashem commanded us and said, this is right and this is wrong.

But I do want to explain based on what it says in chasidut, now we'll get a little bit into the Chassidic philosophy and a little bit into the inyanim the way they are explained in kabbalah and chasidut, but what I would like to explain is not the reason for the specific things why something is kasher, why something is not, why certain combination is kasher, certain times, not that part. But what I do want to explain is that there is a logical explanation to the fact that there has there has to be laws of kashrut, laws that tell you which food you're allowed to eat, which not. But I'm not going to give a reason why this is the right thing and this is the wrong thing, but the general idea that logically we are able to understand that there must be certain laws, spiritual laws, to tell you which food you should eat and which not. Now, exactly what the laws are, why these are the laws and not something else, that I can't explain. But I could explain why there has to be this idea of laws, spiritual laws governing what we eat and what we shouldn't eat. And the explanation is as follows: We know that a human being is made up of a guf and a nefesh, a body and a soul. We could use another word for the word nefesh, a life force. A person is alive. Now, that's something separate than his body. When a person, God forbid, passes away, the body is still complete. What left him was that life force that was there. That life force is not physical, that life force is not tangible. It's not gashmi. That life force is something spiritual. The body is a גשמיותדיקע thing, it's physical, it's tangible. The nefesh, the life force, is spiritual. Gashmi and ruchni, physicality and spirituality, are two opposites. What happens in a person is that they become they come together, they become one. The nefesh is in the body, and they're united. And the union that takes place between the guf and the nefesh, the body and the nefesh, is so close that they become one. There's nothing in the world that you could take two things and they become one. Here it actually becomes one: the body becomes a live body, the body is alive. It's not like you have a car, and the car is a piece of metal, and then you start the motor, now the car is able to go, it doesn't mean that the car becomes alive. There is a force in the car that's pushing it, that's all it is. But even after the force is there, the car is still a piece a a שטיק אייזן, it's a piece of metal, it's nothing. But it's not in the body like that. It's not the pshat that we have a nefesh, a life force, like a motor, and the body remains a dead piece of meat, and there is something there that's pushing it. The body becomes alive. So the nefesh and the guf become one. The nefesh, the life force, is not an entity in itself, it's part of the body. And the body is not an entity in itself, it's together with the with that force of life. So the guf and the nefesh become one. They're two opposites, and they become one. And not only the general nefesh becomes one with the general body, meaning that now I'm alive, but each individual organ of the person, which has a specific part of that nefesh, becomes one with that nefesh. For example, the eye. The eye is able to see. We have two things here: we have the physical eye, the actual eye, then the eye has the power of sight. Now that's not something physical. A person is not alive could have the same eye, but he can't see, because the life is not there. So here you have two things: you have the general idea that the eye is alive, then you have the specific part that the eye has a specific aspect of the life force, which is the ability of seeing. But we don't say there are two things: we have the eye and then we have another thing here, the ability to see. It becomes one: the eye now is an eye that sees. So the concept of sight is not a separate entity, and the eye is not a separate entity, they're together, so they become united. And the body as a whole is alive, so becomes united. Now we know that to combine two opposites is impossible. You can't combine two opposites, especially when they're in two separate worlds, so to speak, like gashmiyut and ruchniyut. Gashmiyut and ruchniyut are two separate worlds, and you can never combine them. Here's an example. An example Of two separate worlds would be a table, piece of wood, and an idea, a thought. They're two separate worlds. Try to combine it. Impossible. Try to combine the table with a thought, with a philosophical thought. You'll never do it. You'll talk to the table from today till tomorrow, and try to explain the idea, and you'll try to explain it in better words, and you'll give it another mashal, it won't work. Why? Because a table and an idea are two separate worlds that just don't meet. You can't connect the two. It's impossible. Now, if you can't connect the two, seichel, let's say, a thought, with a table, how do you connect the guf and the nefesh? They're opposites. So there has to be the link in between that keeps the two together. But I must explain this further. When I say that the guf and the nefesh are two opposites, it's not really so true, because both are creatures of Hashem. Hashem created the world, and He created a person, and the person has a body, and a person has a life force, and Hashem made it that these two creatures should work together. These two parts of the creation should work together. And therefore, we can't say, well, how did they get together when they're two opposites? Well, how did the whole world come to be? Hashem made it! So Hashem made it so that the two should come together. The fact that you can't combine the table with a thought, is because Hashem made it that you can't put it together. But the body and the and the nefesh, Hashem made it they do come together. But, I must add, there is another thing in the person, and this is only by a Jew, and that is an opposite of the guf. There's another thing that a person has, a Yid has in him, and that is the complete opposite of the physical body. We know that every single Jew, beside having the regular nefesh, which is the life force, which everybody has, all human beings have, as a matter of fact, all animals have, they're all alive, all animals have a body and a life force. But we have something extra. We have a neshamah. That's why I kept on using the word a life force. I didn't want to use the word nefesh because nefesh is more connected to neshamah. We have a neshamah. The neshamah is a חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש, the neshamah is actually part of Hashem. And that neshamah is not part of the creation. What I mean to say is that in order for a Yid to be alive, he doesn't need that neshamah. In order for him to be alive naturally, like any human being is alive, you don't need a neshamah. The best proof is you have so many human beings in the world, three billion, five billion, how much there are, and they don't have this neshamah and they're all alive. They're all alive and well, and they speak, and think, and eat, and do everything. So we don't need that extra neshamah in order to be alive. In other words, for our existence as part of the creation, we don't need that extra neshamah. Nevertheless, Hashem says that I put into every single Jew an extra life force, an extra neshamah. And He puts it into every single body. And He says when we are alive, we are alive not for one reason, but for two reasons. We have the regular life force, and then we have that נפש השנית בישראל, that second nefesh, that Godly soul, which is within us and that also gives us life. Now someone will ask, how do we know it's there? The fact that we know that there is a nefesh that gives life, that we know. You see a person dies, the body is there, what's missing? Some kind of life force. But how do we know that a Yid has an extra life force that a non-Jew doesn't have? Well, the truth is, I don't know if I could prove it, that I could show it to you. But it says in the Torah! And if it says in the Torah, then it's true, so we know it's there. If someone questions that, if someone questions, well, Torah says so, but I'm not so sure, then we have to have a different topic, a different discussion. Then we have to have a topic to discuss the truth of the Torah. We are all here beyond that already. We all have Emunah in the Torah. And therefore, if the Torah says something, it's true. And if it's true, so we know it's true that every single Yid has a נשמה אלוקית, a נפש אלוקית, a Godly soul. It's taken from a Pasuk in Chumash. In Chumash it says כי חלק השם עמו, that His nation is part of Him, so we have part of Hashem within us. It says in all kinds of Gemara we find all kinds of discussions about Neshama, and that this Neshama is part of Hashem, it says in קבלה ספרים, and the closest to us, it says in Tanya, in the second Perek of Tanya, second chapter, it starts off by saying, ונפש השנית בישראל היא חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש. The second Nefesh is part of Hashem, and that Nefesh is not part of the normal creation. As I said, as far as the normal creation is concerned, and as far as us living part being part and living as part of the creation, that is extra. We don't need that. So what is it that is not part of the creation, that is an extra part that Hashem put into us? And that is within us. And here we have the problem. The problem is how could we have the combination of these two opposites? We have the body, which is the Guf. The body is Gashmi, physical, tangible. And then we have the נפש אלוקית, we have a Godly soul within us, which is Godly, it's part of Hashem. And here it's one. It's in the body, and it's not like two parts of us, well, one part is the Guf, one part is the Neshama. The Guf and the Neshama became one, so they are united. Two opposites are united. Now normally we know that when we have to unite two opposites, the way to unite it is by putting a link in between. So we have two things which are not connected, and there is a link in between that connects it. And the link in between is always something that is made up of both parts. If you have two sides, so you have something that's a little bit to the of the right, a little bit of the left, and because it has both, it could combine the right and the left. Chassidus gives a Mashal to this in the time of the Gemara, when the Tannaim, the Amoraim, the great scholars that used to speak, so they had a מתורגמן. A מתורגמן was a person, the literal meaning is a translator, but it doesn't mean a translator. The problem was, the great scholars, the great Tannaim, when they spoke, an ordinary person couldn't understand. Their their way of understanding, their their their their their thought process was completely beyond, באין ערוך, impossible for normal normal person to understand. So what did they need? They needed somebody to bring it to them, to be the intermediary, let's say, the ממוצע in between the great scholar and the ordinary people. Now, this person in between had to be a person that's made up of both. If he would be completely in the level of the scholar, then we didn't gain anything. Just like the scholar when he spoke they couldn't understand, they wouldn't understand him either. If he would be completely in the level of the people, then he himself couldn't understand what the scholar said. He was a person that was in between, which means he was close to the level of the scholar, close to the level of the people, and therefore he was able to combine the two. Because whenever we have two opposites and we look to combine it, we have to have something in between that has made up of both. What combines the Guf and the neshama? Food. That's really what it is. Food, when you eat food. If you don't eat food, a person will die. What it means is, his nefesh will go away, and automatically his neshama will go away. His נפש הבהמית, his animalistic soul, his נפש הטבעית, his natural source of life, force of life will leave, but together with that, his neshama will leave, too. So one of the things that keeps together the guf and the neshama, the body and the neshama, is food. Now we just finished saying that the link in between has to be made up of both. Has to be in this case, you would have to have something that's made up of gashmiyus and ruchniyus. If you want to keep together the gashmiyus and the ruchniyus, and we're saying food keeps the two together, so we would have to find somehow that food is made up of gashmiyus and ruchniyus. Because if food would only be purely gashmiyus, physical, then how can it be the link to combine the gashmiyus and the ruchniyus? So the food would be only from one side, so we're still stuck. How can we have the two together? Now when we say food combines the two, obviously food has gashmiyus, which is obvious, food, look at the food, there is gashmiyus, something you can eat, it's tangible, but it must have ruchniyus in it also, otherwise it couldn't keep the guf and the nefesh together. Now where do we find the ruchniyus in the food? Well, this is the famous saying of the Arizal. Arizal in Kabbalah, Arizal quotes a pasuk. The pasuk says, כי לא על הלחם לבדו יחיה האדם כי על כל מוצא פי השם יחיה האדם. The simple translation is that a person does not only live on bread, which means food, but a person lives on what on what comes out from the mouth of Hashem, which simply means that a person doesn't live only on food, but he only lives because Hashem wants him to exist and live. But the Arizal says there's another pshat in this pasuk. He says like this: He asks the question, how can food give a person life? If a person needs the food to live, in other words, without the food he wouldn't be able to live, so he's lacking something. The food is going to give him something that he's missing. Now, when can a person get something that he's missing? Obviously, from somebody who's more than him, so he's able to get something that he's missing. Food is lower than the human being. We know that the world is divided into four categories: דומם, צומח, חי, מדבר, immovable immovable objects, and the plant life, the animal life, and the human being. Now, food is or plant life or from the animal life, from the animal world, animal kingdom, which is lower than the human being. How is it possible for a human being to get chiyus, to get life from something that's lower than him? If anything, he should get from something that's higher than him. So, he says that when we eat foods, there is the gashmiyusdike part of the food, but besides that, there are what we call ניצוצות הקדושה, there are godly sparks that came from higher spiritual worlds which were put into the food. And when a person eats foods, it's not the physical food that helps him, it's that godly spark that he takes out. And since that's godly, that's able to give the person, the human being, chiyus. And that's how he explains, interprets the pasuk: כי לא על הלחם לבדו יחיה האדם, a person doesn't live only on the bread, on the physical part of it, but על כל מוצא פי ה׳, there are words of Hashem in that bread, and that gives the person life. So, here we have two parts to the food: the food on one hand is gashmi, at the same time the food has ruchniyus in it, which we don't see, but it's there. And therefore, by eating foods, we're able to combine the two. The food is what keeps the gashmi, the body, and the ruchni, the neshama, together. Food is made up of both. So, we could understand that just like from the גשמיותדיקע part, there are rules and regulations when you could eat and what you could eat and what's healthy for the body and what's not, but that's from the one side of the food, the gashmiyut part of the food. But since the food has the רוחניותדיקע part also, it also needs rules and regulations, what is good for the neshama part of what the food is supposed to do. And when we look at it, we see that the rules and regulations, the laws in the רוחניותדיקע part are very similar to the gashmiyut. In the גשמיותדיקע part, they say certain things, certain food you should eat. It's fit to be eaten. Certain food is not healthy. It's poison, it could kill you, it's not good for your body. We said there are certain foods that are okay, but when you combine two types of foods, it's not healthy anymore. Then there are certain times of the year when certain foods should not be eaten because it's not healthy. And then there are certain things that might be done to the food, like lay around too long and get spoiled, I mean there are certain things done to the food that makes it unhealthy for the body. And there are certain times, they say don't eat at all, the best thing is you don't eat. So, we see this type these type of categories of what makes food healthy for the body. And since food is made up of these two parts, we have the exact same thing on the other side. That since there is a neshama part in the food, so we have certain foods which are unhealthy for the neshama. Certain combinations of foods are unhealthy for the neshama. Certain times food is unhealthy. Certain times certain foods are unhealthy. Certain time when you do certain things, they're unhealthy, which is exactly like the body. So, what I'm trying to say here is, I'm not giving a reason for the specific laws of kashrut, why certain things are okay and not or certain things are not. But what I am giving a reason is why I understand that there has to be laws of kashrut. There has to be laws that tell us which food which type of food is good for the neshama and which not, just like that everyone understands that there are laws concerning the גשמיותדיקע part. And it's all because the food is made up of gashmiyut and ruchniyut, and that's why it's able to keep a person together. The difference is only that when it comes to the גשמיותדיקע part, the physical part, we understand the specifics also. We understand why this food is no good, doctors will explain it to you. The nutritionists, the people who are involved in health foods, they'll be able to explain, they have a physical explanation and they could see and understand that this and this will cause this and this, and it's no good. When it comes to the spiritual part, we don't understand. But that's not because they're less than the others. We bichlal don't understand this neshama. We don't have any understanding what the neshama looks like. We don't have any understanding what the neshama is all about. So, just like we don't understand ruchniyut in general, we cannot be the ones to explain why this specific thing is no good for the neshama and this is good for the neshama, because we don't know what the neshama is. In gashmi that we know what the body is and we know what it consists of, so we're able to explain why this is good, why this is not good. In the neshama, we can't do that, but not because it's less important. It's just as important. Because certain things will harm the neshama. And I want to explain what I Say harm the neshama, I don't mean that it'll chas v'shalom get rid of the neshama, take the neshama away. The neshama is there, but to have the נשמה בגילוי, revealed and really functioning within the body, so it has to be in a healthy way, healthy according to the to the way it's prescribed in that book, kiv'yachol, that is the health book. Just like in the גשמיותדיקע part, you have health books that explain to you which things you should eat, we have another book which tells you the other side. And if you don't, it'll be harmful for the neshama.

Someone might ask, \"Well, in that case, if a person doesn't eat kasher at all, maybe he shouldn't live, because the whole idea is that this keeps this neshama the the guf with the neshama together, it should take away the neshama?\" The answer is, it does, to a certain degree. It does harm the person's neshama. If a person doesn't eat kasher food, there is a blemish on the neshama, on the person's neshama. It is true. Now, in truth, any aveirah a person does, any sin that a person does, is a blemish on the neshamah, but it's not the same like when we talk about food. Because all other mitzvot, and on the other side aveirot, are not in order to keep the nefesh and the guf together. We are a human being, we are Yidden, and there are certain things we have to do. We don't do them properly, or we don't do it, there's a blemish on the neshamah. But these are not mitzvot that are the essence of what makes you alive, what makes the neshamah stay in the body. Food, as we said, is what keeps the neshamah with the guf together. So anything that's wrong is much worse than any other aveirah. Besides, any other aveirah that we do is on the outside of the person. Chas veshalom, a chas veshalom person מחלל שבת, it's not inside him, it's outside, he did something. Food goes inside the person. It's the only aveirah, when it comes to kashrut, that's in the person, inside the person. And it's an aveirah that you do in a positive way. Positive, I mean, by an action. For instance, if a person doesn't fulfill the mitzvah of brit milah, it's also an aveirah with the body, but that's an aveirah we call of shev ve'al ta'aseh, that you didn't do what you were supposed to. But here a person goes along and does something that's wrong, and it's something that was in the body, that's worse than any other aveirah. So it's worse because this is an essential to the existence and the life of the person, of the Yid. And also it's something that's with the body itself, not something that's on the outside. And then there is something else when it comes to kashrut. We all know the expression, which is a true expression, it's an English expression in English, but it's a hundred percent true: \"You are what you eat.\" And as I explained at the beginning, that whatever you eat has an influence on you, and you get the characteristics of the food. But besides that, the person's body is made up of the food he eats. So if a person eats kasher food, his body is made up of kasher stuff. If a person eats non-kasher food, his body, which is alive and exists and grows through the food that he ate, his body is made up basically of non-kasher food. And this is even more important by children. On one hand, children who are young, under Bar Mitzvah, under Bat Mitzvah, the keep keeping of the mitzvot is not so important for them. They have to keep it מדרבנן, because of chinuch, etc., etc. But when it comes to kashrut, it's more important by children than by adults. Because children are in the age of growing, children are in the age of development, so if they eat non-kasher food, their whole being, their whole development is developed through non-kasher food. And that definitely has a worse and a greater influence on the neshamah of the person. And that's why we see that there are certain people who, for some reason, have no, don't care for spirituality, have no feeling for it, have no chush for it, have no understanding in it. Sometimes you hear parents complain about children, but to the schools, \"My child is doing so bad in Hebrew studies.\" Now, sometimes you could say, \"Well, the child doesn't have a good head.\" That we could understand, some children are better, some children are worse. Sometimes you see children that לימודי חול, in their secular studies, they're geniuses, they do terrific. That means that their head is good. When it comes to לימודי קודש, comes to learn a shtikel Gemara, a a חומש מיט רש״י, ס'קריכט נישט אין קאפ, it doesn't go. Now, why is it? If you're not careful with the food in the kashrut, so the physical aspect of it is fine, because you ate healthy food, so your גשמיותדיקע body is good. Even your nefesh is okay, that first nefesh, which is part of the creation which is close to the body. And therefore, when you're going to think or understand secular studies which is part of the creation, it's fine. What's affected is the neshamah. And therefore, when you want to use your sechel to understand a shtikel Gemara, a piece of Torah, which is using the sechel from the neshamah, it's not working because of the food that the person ate. And this is why food, eating food is so important. And therefore, we have to be very, very careful, as I said before. And also, here, if you do if you eat non-kosher food even b'shogeg, by mistake, it still has an influence. Just like no one will say, \"Well, if I ate poison by mistake, it won't hurt me. I didn't know, I didn't intend to do it.\" Well, too bad. It's poison. The same thing with the with the neshamah and the poison of the neshamah, that it affects the neshamah anyway. And we have to be careful with it just like we're careful with gashmiyus. And therefore, it's interesting that some people don't look at it that way. \"Well, kashrus, sure, you keep kosher, uh...\" But when it comes to the physical half of it, we're very careful. When it comes to spiritual half, which is just as important because the two parts go together, it's not so important. Sometimes you go into the store and you look at products and you say, \"Well, the hechsher, eh, probably it's good, I heard it's good, maybe it's good, probably.\" You take it, you buy it. I'm just asking, what would be if you take a product and someone says, \"I heard somebody said that this might be poison. Maybe, I'm not sure, a little bit.\" You wouldn't look at it, you wouldn't touch it. Why? But it's only, well, most people said it's okay. I heard one person just look at it and say, think it's poison. I wouldn't touch it. Give it to my children? Why have to go into any doubts? And when it comes to kashrus, it's the exact same thing. It might be might be poison. \"Yeah, it's בטל בששים, it's probably, it's this.\" All kinds, you find all kinds of heterim. Why didn't you find the same heterim there? I'm just telling you from my own experience, I once remember I had to glue something. I had to glue, I don't know, a piece of wood or something. I went to the store and I asked at the store, \"What can you give me? But something that'll hold it very good.\" So, he said we have I think they call Krazy Glue or something. And they tell like this, there are two tubes, and what you have to do is on a piece of cardboard, you take a little bit of this, a little bit of this, and when you mix them together, it becomes glue, and that's that doesn't hold. So, they say if you get it on your fingers, and you get your fingers stuck, you have to cut it. I mean, it's it's no way. So, be very careful. And I took it home, took a piece of cardboard, you can't imagine how careful I was, I was so scared. What's going to happen if I touch it? I had it the two tubes a mile away, and I just took a drop and I took my fingers, and I and I looked, and then I thought to myself, \"How come I'm not so careful with בשר בחלב? If you have meat and milk, I don't, well, uh, it's together, it could be on the same table, it could be...\" It's the same thing. Why am I not that careful that this is milk, together the combination of the two makes it glue that will stick to you and you have to get cut. I mean, same thing. But that, you know, what could be, it's a she'eilah, blah blah blah. But when it came to this Krazy Glue, I was so afraid because my body might have some Because we don't look at it that way. What we have to do is realize that this is poison for the neshamah. And it makes sense that there should be rules of what is poison and what is not for the neshamah, just like there are rules for gashmiyus. And that's why some people are not careful Some people have this meshuga'as, I mean, obviously not in our circles, but I'm just saying in the velt, people who keep kosher. They are kosher at home, and they're not kosher in the street, they go out. Like someone would say, \"At house, I don't drink poison, and when I go out in the street, I drink poison.\" I mean, it doesn't mean that they should not do either. Some people say, \"Well, they mean that I'm a hypocrite, and I should Okay, I'll stop keeping.\" I once said this to somebody. He said, \"Well, I'll stop keep keeping kosher at home, too.\" I said, \"No, you're not a hypocrite. The part that you keep is fine. The problem is the other part.\" Like someone who says, \"I'll steal I stole once.\" I said, \"Well, don't steal a second time.\" The less you steal, the better it is. The less treifah you eat, the better it is, certainly. But the idea of saying, \"Well, at home I'm kosher, here not,\" it doesn't make any sense because if you realize that it's poison, then why is it not poison over there? And some people are not careful. Sometimes, people are not careful because of lack of knowledge. They don't even know the halachos. Some people think you hear people say, \"Well, I keep kosher all over. I go to a goyishe restaurant, I just eat fish. Just fish, kosher fish.\" It's cooked in טרפה כלים, and treifah the vessels make it treifah. I'm not going into halachos now. And it makes it treifah, so you have poison. Imagine if you know that this is a vessel that contains in the walls there are there is poison, and when you cook, some of the poison comes out. Well, you say, \"Well, it's only a treifah, only a poisoned dish.\" You don't say such things. And the same thing here also. You have to realize that what it is because this is poison for the neshamah. And besides, when a person keeps kosher, This has an effect on the whole house. You know the expression goes, the way to the man's heart is through the stomach. Food plays a very important role in our life. A very important role. In the Jewish life, certainly. The goyim even love to laugh at the Jews. Everything is food, you know wherever you go, any, and it's true, you know, when you're born, a bris is food, and a פדיון הבן is food, and a bar mitzvah is food, and a chasunah is food, and a siyum, a siyum is food, and a Shabbos is food, and a Yom Tov is food. Really it's everything is food. Food is very important. And a lot of the house, a lot of atmosphere at home is around the food. Food is very important. I just came from, ask someone on a cruise, I can tell you what food is like. And food is very important, it's it's it's it's. If the food, if around the food you feel Jewish, around the food you have the feeling of Torah and halachah, then this has an effect on the whole house and everything else. And one of the ways to get to the person's heart, to get closer to Yiddishkeit is through the stomach, is through kosher food. Beside the spiritual end of it that if you eat kosher food, your body is better, your neshamah is better and you're you're eidel'er and you're able to grasp some spiritual thoughts and feel closer to Hashem. But I say even from the pure, pure physical sense, it brings an atmosphere of Jewishness into the home, because this you can eat, this you can't eat, and the whole and since food is so important, you always talk about you always talk about something that's Godly, something that's Jewish, something that's spiritual, and it brings spirituality in the home. Now for us, we don't have to say that because we know all of us always eat kosher, but what is important to realize the degree of how far we go. That if a person has higher standards in kashrut, it's not a bad idea, like a person will say I have higher standards in being healthy. It's very important. Even though here we see it, here we don't, but this is a fact. The Torah says so. When Mashiach will come, we won't just believe it, we'll see. It says if a person will come over to food that's not kosher, the food is going to say to him, hey, don't touch me. I'm not kosher. It says about a tree, we know that when you plant a tree, the first three years the fruit that grows is called ערלה and you can't eat it. It's one of also one of the examples of not kosher. But how do we know a tree if it's three years old or five years old or two years old? So it says when Mashiach will come, you'll walk over to the tree, the tree will say, hey, I'm ערלה, don't touch me, because then we will see the effect that this has. When we keep kosher now, this is a good preparation when Mashiach will come. Now we don't see it, but then we'll see it, and then we'll be able to do it in the proper way. And we hope that we'll this will happen very, very soon, bimheirah v'yameinu. Amen.

Yes. You said about meat. How does Meat, you know, is in the slaughterhouse, you know, it's not like in the old days that you שחט a cow and you talk to it and you שחט it. Now they, I'm told that they string, they hoist them up with a leg and they have them hanging upside down and the shochet comes and just goes like that, not only that. But what kind of nature goes into the meat with a humiliated cow? Well, they try not to do that. I'm telling you, the real I'm told that they do that. Some places, not all, some some places. Other places they don't do it. On most many places, the real glatt kosher places, what they do is they the בהמה goes into a box and the box turns around, and the בהמה is lays there, but it's not hanging on a I mean some Maybe by goyim they hang. Goyim they hang and that surely they are, but by Yidden they try to do it as humane as possible. Another question I have. If someone denies himself part of the meat of the diet, if they're non-meat eaters, are what are they missing? What are they What What do you can imagine their neshamah is not receiving by not What said they're not doing anything wrong, I mean they're not No, they're not missing anything. I just once explained that you're missing the בירור הניצוצות, the elevation of the of the meat, which is a higher level, but that's a spiritual thing. But as far as halachah or anything else, there is no No, I'm not talking about halachah, I'm talking about spiritually. Yeah, you're not missing anything either. You're just there's nothing that's that's no blemish on the person, but you're lacking a certain avodah. There is an avodah in elevating food, and there's an avodah in elevating meat especially because it's a lower level, so it's a greater avodah. So, if you don't do it, you're missing that. But on the other hand it says if a person is not able to elevate, better don't eat. The Gemara says, עם הארץ אסור לאכול בשר, he should not eat meat because he won't be able to elevate it. You also said one time that you should only eat meat on Shabbos because of this. Not only, I said on Shabbos you have to eat meat. Even a person We shouldn't eat meat during the week? I didn't I just say that it says if you can't elevate it, it's it's you're not allowed to eat it. Oh, here we are. To rephrase, that meat is such a elevate and as another food, you really can't elevate it within the week. It's only on Shabbos, because the קדושת שבת you're able to elevate it. That's it. Yes. elevates it, so when you're eating you're not really elevating? Right, but that... Still we have to guard the soul, no? No, but Shabbos you have two of them. True, still guard the soul, it'll always help. Yeah, yeah, he says that, but still that's one is still not enough, unless you're in a very high madreigah. That's what the Gemara says, an am ha'aretz, meaning a person at a very low level, should not eat meat during the week, because he can't elevate it. The word asur, which means forbidden, has another meaning: tied, bound. Asur, matir is to untie, asur is to tie. The Gemara means עם הארץ אסור לאכול בשר, an am ha'aretz is tied, is pulled to eat meat because he has a ta'avah to it, a desire, and really he shouldn't. But if a person eats properly, meaning l'shem Shamayim, eats with making a berachah, and says a ברכה אחרונה, or benches, then you're able to elevate it. Yes. Excuse me, maybe it's an ignorant question, whatever, but you say that this food is like defense, it will unite neshamah with the body, with the physical. But what happen when a person pass away, then it's not a question of food that that that neshama went... Well, for other reasons. Yeah. That could be the other reason that keep it... No, no. This is not the only thing. He says if not for food, it wouldn't be. Now, there are other reasons why the neshama would separate from the body. Hashem could just take it away. But if you don't have food, certainly they won't stick together. And the food is something that keeps it together. Okay. Yes? The Rebbe would say that a person drinks milk of a חלב עכום not prepared, not kosher, supervised by a jew, מטמטם the heart, it diminishes the faith, the emunah, it tears down like you know... That this is a very important point. What did he say? It says concerning milk specifically, and wine, that if a person doesn't eat, drink kosher milk, and doesn't drink kosher wine, what it'll do is it'll bring a lack in the person's emunah in Hashem. And it's all connected with what I'm saying. Really, it's with all foods, specifically it says in this. And it means because the neshama will lack nutrition, the nourishment, and therefore it'll weaken the neshama's revelation into the body. That person will not feel what the neshama is supposed to feel, if he doesn't eat the proper food, and especially mentioned concerning milk and wine. And another expression is that יין נסך מטמטם הלב והמוח, stopped up, it stuffs up your mind, the spiritual part of your mind, that you can't understand something spiritual. You can't feel in your heart. You don't feel. Because a Yid has a certain feeling to mitzvot, to Torah, you stop feeling it, you become numb, because the food affects it. Yeah? Earlier, mostly they talked about milk and wine... No. ...kosher food... Mm-hm. Can you repeat that question, please? No, he said why the punishment in the Torah for non-kosher food in many cases is lenient, not as terrible as as as a מחלל שבת, or things like that. Because the the effect it has is the is the worst punishment. The bad effect it has on the person, that is the greatest punishment, that the person can't have connection to Hashem. You feel that someone who who becomes a Baal teshuva, and they have been eating non-kosher food, you know, they feel... Oh, that's adraba, no, I'll explain that. The question was, I explained that when you when you eat non-kosher food, your body becomes it's made up of non-kosher food. How can we find that baalei teshuva who ate for many years non-kosher food and they have even a greater feeling to Hashem? Well, the reason is, because when you become a Baal teshuva, all the aveirot turn into mitzvot. And you are what you eat, and what you ate was a mitzvah. Now that you did teshuva, what you ate before, we said before was an aveirah, now it changed. In גשמיות, this is impossible, you can't change the past. It's only in Torah that you're able to. And what happens is that the food that you ate before, instead of being an aveirah, every bite that you took was a mitzvah, because the aveirot turn into mitzvot. So now you are really you have so many mitzvot, and it's even more than that. I I must take two two, three minutes to explain this in more detail. Said before that what is the spiritual aspect of the food? The ניצוצות הקדושה, the holy sparks that are there. It says the food that's non-kosher has even greater holy sparks, because the rule is כל הגבוה ביותר יורד למטה. Whatever is very high comes down very low. The higher, the greater the sparks are, the greater they are spiritually, will come down something lower. And therefore it came down in non-kosher food. World Trade... What? Yeah, exactly, exactly. What did he say? World Trade Center. So, so it comes down low. Now, it came down so low that We have no way of elevating it. And that's why Hashem said, \"Don't touch it. You can't elevate those 'cause you can't lower yourself that low.\" A Baal teshuva is the only person that is able to elevate the ניצוצות הקדושה even from something that's forbidden, because he ate it, and now when he did teshuva, it all turned into mitzvot. So, all the spiritual ניצוצות הקדושה that were there in the food are now elevated. And being that these ניצוצות are greater than the ניצוצות הקדושה in regular food, it brings into the person a greater connection to Hashem, because now that spiritual, רוחניותדיקע side of the food is stronger than by a regular, by regular food that's kosher food. If we would be able to elevate the ניצוצות of the non-kosher food, it would be a great idea to eat non-kosher food because there you have even more spirituality. But the Torah said you can't, so you can't, so you can't elevate it. But the moment you do elevate it, you gain more than a person who eats regular kosher food. Yes. Scientifically, every seven years your entire body changes. Every seven. Every seven years. Okay, so? So, if you're chareidi eight years, it's already No, it's it's the cycle of the body, but but the body is still it's there. Not the body, the body I mean the bl- Okay. Everything in the structure changes. Okay, so then in that case it's even better. I have a question. Okey-dokey. Mine is not on the subject. Not on the subject, so that sticks to you. How do you reverse the effect of the weakened neshama? By doing teshuvah. That's the only way. You do teshuvah. Teshuvah not only strengthens it as it was before, but it gives it even a double strength. In Tanya, in Iggeres Hateshuvah, he gives an example: when you have a rope, and the rope tears, and you want to tie it, you make a double knot, so now it's even stronger. When you do teshuvah, it's even stronger. So, the weakened neshama becomes even stronger than by a regular person. That's why a baal teshuvah is greater than a tzadik, because his neshama is stronger than the other person. Yes. Off the subject? Yeah, because it's very interesting. You know in in in Tehillim and in other places it says that they describe the throne of Hashem as a sapphire color. You know, that color? So, the scientists have now discovered that the universe is a color just like they described, you know, the throne. The universe is that color. Isn't that an interesting thing? Mhm. Thank you, everybody. Please don't miss next week