THEMES of Featured Mystical Classics Articles

We are commanded to slaughter animals even when we consume them as non-consecrated meat because a human being’s soul at times is reincarnated in an animal. If the animal is healthy and contains some spark of sanctity and is killed by means of ritual slaughter, the soul will then exist in purity.

Enticement to sin is not only due to external sources but may be due to some force within us from birth. In addition, man creates a spiritually negative force every time he sins; the more man sins, the more powerful the forces which urge him to sin become.

Moshe tells the people that he does not want them to follow what he says because he is a prophet, neither are they to follow subsequent prophets. They are only to follow the revealed word of G‑d, comparing it with what G‑d revealed at Mount Sinai.

Just as on our earth there are two mountains: Mount Gerizim, and Mount Eyval, symbolizing blessing and curse respectively, so there are two parallel mountains in the Celestial Regions.

The function of Mount Gerizim is to reassure us that Paradise lost is recoverable. Our good deeds create the "good angels" whose pleas reach the throne of G-d.

Emek Ha-Beracha states that a heavenly sanctity rests on foods which are pure and permitted. Thus consumption of these foods confers upon the person eating them some of the spirit of purity and holiness resting on them. Nowadays, when we do not have a Temple and an altar, it is our tables which serve as the instrument for our atonement.