Holiness Through Food

Fortunate is Israel more than all idol worshipping nations, for their Master said of them, "and G‑d has chosen you to be a special possession to Himself" (Deut. 14:2), and "For you are a holy people to the L-rd your G‑d," and it is written, "You are the children of the L-rd your G‑d..." (Ibid. 14:1).

Come and see...He who consumes food [of meat and milk] so they join [are cooked] together, or during the same hour or in the same meal, for forty days a despicable kid roasted with its skin appears to those [kelipot] above [showing the arousal of judgment. These days are the negative of the 40 days Moses stood at Mount Sinai, so one must guard themselves for the next 40 days that the external forces do not rule.] Groups of impurity approach him, causing unholy judgments to be activated in the world [for one has opened the mouth of the Satan to prosecute him]. If a son is born to him during these days, a soul is borrowed from the Other Side which should not be with him [this son. His impure soul is considered to be merely borrowed, for if the son purifies himself it will run away from him.]

And the verse says, "you shall therefore sanctify yourselves and be holy..." (Lev. 11:44). [This also infers that] one who wishes to profane himself, he is assuredly defiled, as it is written: "that you should be defiled [in Hebrew, 'venitmetem'] by them" (Ibid. 11:43). Now the word 'venitmetem' is spelled in this verse without an Aleph showing a solid impurity more than all other that he can never cleanse himself from as with other impurities [for one who eats forbidden food, this food becomes absorbed into his body and becomes part of his essence, and stupefies his mind as well].

Furthermore, he fears dangerous beasts, for he appears before them as a kid and they are capable of harming him because the image of man [the image of Elokim from which he was created] has been removed from him.

Rabbi Yesa asked if it is permitted to eat chicken with cheese or milk [for the Torah prohibition concerns beef alone] Rabbi Shimon said, it is prohibited for you [R. Yesa!] A man should not allow an opening for evil forces [to accuse him], as the expression goes, 'say to the Nazarite (one who has vowed not to drink wine): go, go, go around, go around [to bypass it], and don't [even] enter the vineyard.' This (chicken and milk together) is forbidden for it entails the complex laws of ritual slaughter just like cattle [unlike fish]. One who permits this brings to mind the verse, "But you gave the Nazarites wine to drink" (Amos 2:12). One who permits one (chicken with milk) is like one who permits the other (wine to a Nazarite), and the verse writes, "You shall not eat any abominable thing" (Deut. 14:3); "any" also includes all [that the rabbis prohibited]

BeRahamim LeHayyim:

This is a difficult Zohar to digest [pun intended!] for our modern sensibilities. Here the Hok LeYisrael has chosen for our daily Zohar study one of the most hard-to-swallow Hok LeYisrael/suprarational statutes for Jews. Milk and meat together causing such supernal tzores?! Rather than try to rationalize it for ourselves in terms of holistic eating habits, the Zohar has given us a gift, by describing what actually occurs in supernal realms when a Jew eats a cheeseburger, etc.

For us to try to comport with the holiness code beginning in this week's portion, we need to strengthen our faith to do the Will of G‑d. This law is not based on sense, because it is way above it. For those of us that have eaten or still eat prohibited foods or mixtures, there may be no apparent physical harm that flows from the eating. But spiritually, we now know of the dangers. To each his/her own. It is all a question of sensitivity. And that is a private discussion for one to have with the One Above.

Bracketed annotations from Metok Midevash and Sulam commentaries
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