Cohn, Jacob. The Royal Table - VWC: Faculty/Staff Web

BASES OF THE DIETARY LAWS 47
it is his duty not only to bring himself closer to God but
to lift the whole world along with him. Hence he dare
not destroy any creature, for in so doing he keeps that
creature from realizing its destiny, its union with the
divine. Likewise, man must be merciful to all creatures,
and should not uproot a growing thing unnecessarily; nor
may he handle any food with disrespect; nor may he kill
without cause or with the infliction of useless pain. 6* But
man, by virtue of his) superior station in the scale of things,
can by proper use of the inorganic and organic worlds,
make them serve his purpose, in raising himself closer to
God, and in so doing he raises those very things closer
to Him. 65
Speaking in terms of the lower mysticism, the
use of inorganic matter, or of vegetable products, or meat
for food raises their position to the higher station of being
a human body, which is a sheath for a holy soul. This
body acts as an instrument for the performance of God's
precepts and acquisition of a knowledge of the Torah, by
which the soul raises itself, together with that which made
its functioning possible, to the Divine Source. Thus the
right to consume food is clear, for thereby
that matter is
itself aided in fulfilling its destiny. But man must be very
careful in his choice of food, to choose only that which is
conductive to the soul's elevation, and God Himself has
by
the Torah indicated which these foods are. The still
higher mystic view conceives this as an aesthetic process,
in the sense in which we used the term above. The soul,
which in its spiritual essence is pure God-substance, dis-
covers an affinity between itself and certain foods, because
Tomer Deborah of Rabbi Moses Cordovero, Chap. H' mi* *bl
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65 Ibid. TKtf HID 1
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