Kashrus (כשרות) — the dietary laws

Core definition

Kashrus — the laws of permitted and forbidden foods — is the Torah's regime governing what a Jew may eat. The corpus develops it through the Chassidic doctrine of birurim (refinements): all food exists to be refined; permitted food can be elevated through man's eating it, while what the Torah declares forbidden (assur) or treifah is "rejected, that it cannot be elevated" — its evil cannot stand against the decision from the Holy One [31633/maamar_032 :: p.רמח; 15962/maamar_024 :: p.רצג].

How the Rebbeim develop it

Food is for refinement. A maamar on eating states the principle: "all the matter of food is only to refine refinements (levarer birurim): through his eating it, the food is elevated and rectified." An am ha'aretz is therefore (morally) forbidden to eat meat — not by law, but because "an am ha'aretz, who cannot refine, does not elevate it"; through his eating he lowers it below. The table is the altar's successor: as the altar was "a place for the korban's ascent," so "now man's table atones for him" — the table, in the altar's very pattern, is the place of the food's ascent [15962/maamar_024 :: p.רצג].

The food's root is from Tohu. Why can food be elevated at all? "Since the food's root is from Tohu, therefore it adds power to man" — its high root is what lets it add light to the eater (as the Sages said: the infant does not know to call "father" until he tastes the taste of grain; "wine and scent make wise"). But "though its root is from Tohu, still it fell below and was clothed in physicality — under the rule of kelipas nogah, where good and evil are mixed — and the good must be refined, to be included in the good in man." The refinement requires first the evil's complete rejection: that he not want the physical lust — only that all be for Heaven's sake, that he learn and pray in that power — or that he not want even the physical essence, "only want the motza pi Havayah in the food." "Through this the evil is rejected, and through this the good is elevated and included in the spiritual power in man" — as in physical eating, where the waste is first rejected outside and afterward the choicest elevated. "This is an ascent for the food: ascent from the level of tzomeach-chai to the level of medaber" [15962/maamar_024 :: p.רצה].

Forbidden food cannot be elevated. The limit of the refinement is fixed by the Torah's decision. "For what is decided through the Torah, that this is forbidden or treifah — this is rejected, that it cannot be elevated — for against the decision that is from the Holy One, blessed be He, the evil cannot stand." Where permitted food's good can be refined from its evil, the forbidden thing is cut off from refinement entirely [31633/maamar_032 :: p.רמח].

Defilement through non-kosher food. The Rebbe Rayatz's reshimah records the rescued soul's promise: that he "will remain a Jewish man, and will not defile himself (lo yitga'el) with the deficient bread of idolaters and with non-kosher meat, and will keep Shabbos" — kashrus and Shabbos as the two guardians of the Jew's standing [15962/maamar_037 :: עב׳ 4]. So too Daniel "showed mesiras nefesh in refusing the royal non-kosher food" — kashrus as the arena of self-sacrifice [58834/maamar_003 :: Intro].

Key distinctions

1. Permitted vs. forbidden — permitted food can be elevated through man's eating it; what the Torah declares forbidden or treif "is rejected, that it cannot be elevated" [31633/maamar_032 :: p.רמח]. 2. The food's root vs. its fall — its root is from Tohu (hence it adds power); it fell under kelipas nogah's rule where good and evil are mixed (hence it needs refinement) [15962/maamar_024 :: p.רצה]. 3. Refinement vs. rejection — first the evil's complete rejection, then the good's elevation; the waste goes outside before the choicest is elevated [15962/maamar_024 :: p.רצה]. 4. The table as altar — in the Temple's time the altar atoned; now man's table atones: the table is the food's place of ascent in the altar's pattern [15962/maamar_024 :: p.רצג].

Related concepts

Sources