Long ago, centuries before modern science, our Sages knew very well the secret that "we are what we eat." Their understanding of nutrition went far beyond its physical definitions. They knew that what we eat also has an affect upon our consciousness. Our minds and thoughts, along with our bodies are definitely affected by what we eat.

Not only does what we eat affect us psychologically, it also effects us spiritually. Unlike what some modern critics say, kosher laws were not established by Torah merely to serve as the basis of some ancient code for healthy eating. Physical health benefits play only the smallest of roles in the laws of kashrut. Observing kosher laws does provide physical and nutritional benefits; however, these are only secondary in importance to the greater spiritual benefit that comes forth from them.

Food is essentially energy and energy is the life-force. In Torah, this energy is called Nefesh and it resides within the blood. Various levels of life-force energy fluctuates human consciousness. The proper balance of life-force energy enables one to calibrate one's level of spiritual attunement. Therefore, the right amount and levels of life-force energy are vital for one to maintain a complementary spiritual frequency aligning one with the Tabernacle, and later Temple, the Ark and prophecy. Kosher laws are all about this energy. Kosher laws were given to us to enable us to refine our bodies so that our souls would be clear and able to tune in to the Divine frequency, becoming in tuned with G-d. This connection is what Torah refers to as Kedusha, holiness. Kosher cleanses both body and soul and makes one holy.

All kosher laws revolve around the basic principle of the interaction between tumah (unclean) energy and kedusha (holy) energy. Tumah sucks out life force energy and kedusha is the opposite, injecting life force energy, imbuing its recipient with great psychic power. The origins of these laws came from beyond our Earth. Their origins are beyond limited human intellect to grasp. They betray their extraterrestrial origins. No unaided human being can possibly delve to the depths of understanding life force energy transference as outlined in Torah. The details of kosher laws make a lot of sense when understood within the context of life-force energy mechanics. Let us review some of the general categories.

Forbidden Foods - The Torah outlines a number of animals that are forbidden to eat. The general rule is that a permitted animal need have a split hoof and chew their cud. These two attributes delineated an animal of a specific caliber of energy that was benign to spiritual attunement and therefore permitted. However, as we have learned, different foods generate different energies. There are specific types of animals and fish that emanate energy fields which create incongruity within human beings disturbing our sensitive tuning into the proper spiritual frequency which connects us to Heaven. Eating forbidden animal flesh does not make us sick, physically or psychologically, however it most certainly disrupts the sensitive tuning that a soul must have if it is too remained attached to the Heavenly Torah frequency. Israel was obligated to maintain this connection; it is part of the commandment to be holy.

Not all human beings are required to achieve and maintain such a level of spiritual sensitivity, therefore, the categories of forbidden flesh are only applicable to Israel and those who wish to achieve that level of spiritual consciousness which we call holiness. Non Jews are not obligated to maintain this heightened level of spiritual connection, however they are by all means welcome to adopt them if they so choose.

We see many individuals from many different spiritual paths who are very refined in what they eat, avoiding all types of animal and fish flesh. Their heightened levels of spirituality are often self evident. While they might not met the Torah standards for kedusha/holiness, nonetheless, their levels of spiritual attunements are certainly higher than Jews who do not maintain their kedusha and violate the kosher laws. The Non Jewish paths of vegetarianism and veganism certainly have both physical and psychological health benefits; these cannot be denied. Nonetheless, I do not consider these diet choices as having any extraordinary spiritual merit with regards to kedusha/holiness.

Ritual Slaughter of Animals - The origins of kosher ritual slaughter predate any historical record. The Torah states that Noah sacrificed an animal to G-d, as did Avraham, Yitzhak and Ya'akov after him. The specific practical laws must have originally been taught to mankind, possibly even in Eden. These same laws of how to slaughter animals were incorporated into Torah law and have been strictly followed since Biblical times.

The act of slaughtering is considered an ominous task. We do not take the life of any animal lightly. Indeed, Torah includes laws against the infliction of unnecessary pain on animals. Therefore the ritual act of slaughter requires a meticulous, speedy and almost painless slice of the animal's neck. When performed properly, the life-force blood line is severed immediately causing almost instantaneous unconsciousness and death.

Not just anyone can perform this most delicate of services. Professionals go through a long period of training, which includes a comprehensive overview of all the laws and only then hands-on training to make sure that the slaughterer is properly knowledgeable and prepared to carry out this sacred task. Once tested and approved, such a one can embrace the title of Shohet. This is a special title that is not a Rabbi. But also, a Rabbi is not a Shohet. A Shohet is a special title and the one bearing it is subject to constant retesting to verify he still can do the job right. A Shohet cannot merely just kill the animal. He must have holy intent, a focus of mind, just short of meditation when he strikes. Not only must he do the right action, he must also have the right thoughts when he performs the right action, otherwise his performance is suspect. I know of certain Rabbis who refuse to eat meat unless they personally know the Shohet and verify his spiritual caliber.

To accomplish the act called Shehitah most swiftly, the slaughtering knife used must be razor sharp. Even the slightest nick or blemish in the blade would disqualify its usage and equally disqualify any animal slaughtered with it. To this day, in every kosher ritual slaughter house around the world, the knife used to kill animals for meat is supposed to be checked before each and every individual kill.

Once the animal is dead, its body and organs are then thoroughly checked for lesions, breaks or other blemishes that might be a sign of the animal being sick, either physically or psychically. Physical defects can be a sign of psychic contamination, an imbalance of inner energy. If any of these signs exists, the carcass is deemed unfit for kosher usage. Only when the kill has been performed in its proper way, using the proper blade, such a way enabling the full release of the animal's life force energy and its carcass then properly checked and approved, only then do we certify the meat as being kosher. Yet, this is not the final step.

Blood - The animal soul is in the blood. The animal level soul is incongruent with the human soul. Therefore the next step is making meat kosher is the removal of blood. The life-force is in the blood. The consciousness is in the life-force. One who drinks blood absorbs the soul inherent within the blood. One who ingests meat full of an animal's blood absorbs an essence of the animal's soul. Animal consciousness absorbed into the human soul causes a great lessening of human consciousness. Thus one who eats animal's blood absorbs the consciousness of the animal and loses the purity of human consciousness. This is why all blood must be removed from meat prior to its consumption.

Our Sages instructed us to take properly slaughtered and checked meat and first wash it thoroughly. Some will even soak the meat for a full half hour in water allowing all surface blood to be removed. After this, the meat is covered top and bottom with a generous covering of salt and left in it for a period of time ranging from 20 minutes to a full hour. Salt has both powerful physical and spiritual cleansing properties. The salt sucks out all excess blood from the meat and imbues it with a state of purity. It is inherent within the nature of salt to both cleanse and preserve. This is true because the spiritual component in salt is rather potent. This is even hinted to by its Hebrew name. The Hebrew word for salt, Melakh, has the same numerical value of three times the holy Name YHVH. Our Sages see in this great significance. As the Name YHVH balances out the three columns of the Sefirot, so too does Melakh/salt bring to meat a state of balance making it fit for human consumption.

Originally when the nation lived in the Land and the Temple stood, the national collective consciousness enabled forbidden mixtures to be nullified in a simple majority. Yet, after the Temple was destroyed and the majority of the people had fled the Land, the national collective consciousness underwent a tremendous shift. Our Sages recognized the fluctuating levels of national consciousness and enlightenment and ordained accordingly that there needs to be a 60 to 1 ratio of permitted to forbidden in order to make the mixture of food acceptable.

Sixty is a number with great meaning. A 60 to 1 ratio creates a state where the infecting forbidden element can be safely psychically neutralized. Not for naught did our Sages ordain the laws they did. They could see with prophetic vision into the very depths of the collective psyche of the Jewish people and ordain Jewish Law correspondingly to the national level of consciousness in the state of exile. To explain this all would require much more detail than what I have briefly stated here. Maybe we can return to discuss this matter is greater depth in another forum.

All transference of uncleanliness in forbidden mixtures comes about through the medium of heat. Indeed, tumah, the Hebrew word for uncleanliness should be understood as an imbalance of life-force energy that acts like a vacuum, essentially sucking life out of a thing, instead of putting life into it.

When the clean and unclean foods are mixed while hot, they require the above mentioned nullification of 60 to 1. Even so, if the prohibited item is still visible it needs to be removed. All these kosher laws are based upon psychic spiritual principles of energy transference. Heat is the medium through which energy is transferred. No heat, no exchange. This is the general rule. Mere touch without heat causes only a minor surface penetration of one into the other. Therefore, if something prohibited that is cold merely touches something that is permitted and cold, one merely needs to cleanse with water the area of contact.

Meat & Dairy - "Do not seethe a kid in its mother's milk." Three times this commandment is mentioned in the Torah. That is one times more than the Ten Commandments and two times more than the Shema Yisrael. This commandment must be pretty important to merit it being spoken three independent times. Our Sages have learned that this law, mentioned three times, actually comes to teach us three distinct things; one time to prevent cooking them together, the second from eating such a cooked mixture and third to prevent us from having any benefit whatsoever from such a forbidden mixture. Apparently, this seemingly superfluous and antiquated commandment is nothing of the kind. The simple fact that it is mentioned in Torah so many times betrays its significance.

This is one of many Torah commandments that cannot be understood simply at face value. There is obviously more than meets the eye here. A full explanation of the spiritual sources of meat and dairy and how they are extremely incompatible with one another is explained in Kabbalistic literature and would require a discussion beyond the scopes of this limited essay. However, maybe I can at least offer some brief insights.

As we know, both meat and dairy come from the same source. Meat is the product of the animal and milk is the byproduct of the animal. Milk is made inside the cow to be drunk by its young. Thus the byproduct of the mother becomes the product of the offspring. Meat remains meat whereas milk becomes meat. Milk is a transformation element; it is meant to nourish growing flesh. Thus when milk is ingested by a living calf, it is absorbed into the body creating life.

However, once the flesh is dead and is meat, it can no longer absorb milk as a life giving food. The inherent life giving energy within the milk therefore inverts when it comes into contact with meat. Its energy polarity essentially implodes. Thus the mixture of the milk which is supposed to be the life of the meat interacts with its present form and creates a type of psychic, spiritual black hole. The combination becomes a source of imbalance that only the 60 to 1 ratio can neutralize. Even so, there are other numerous rules to these forbidden mixtures; all of which follow the underlying current of energy transference between the two.

Both meat and dairy and fine and kosher by themselves, each according to their own rules. Yet, to inject dairy's energetic quality into meat outside of its natural transformation when ingested by the infant animal creates a state of imbalance between the two forms. The mixture is thus psychically volatile and a source of extreme psychic danger.

As stated above, the manner of the mixture only becomes forbidden through the medium of energy. Energy is heat; heat specifically is cooking. Meat and milk are prohibited by the Torah only when they are cooked together. For only through the cooking process does the transference of their essential energetic elements combine creating the psychically dangerous mixture. The forbidden mixture of meat and milk is prohibited to make, it is forbidden to eat and more so, one may not derive any semblance of benefit from the mixture whatsoever. Its mere existence must never be tolerated in our midst or possession.

These rules apply to everyone who seeks to rise to the level of kedusha (holiness); Jew and non Jew alike. Israel is commanded to maintain this level of holiness; whereas it is voluntary for the non Jew. Therefore, the extreme negative affects of the mixtures of meat and dairy are not felt by the non Jew; although they are not felt, they are nonetheless there to some degree. We never ever hear of anyone having a spiritual vision after they have eaten a cheeseburger. I do not wish to suggest that non Jews should avoid cooked mixtures of meat and dairy, but it certainly would not hurt.

Pots & Pans - Not only are forbidden mixtures by themselves prohibited. Even the pots and pans through which the medium of heat passed to cook these forbidden mixtures become forbidden. Our Sages tell us that the vessels absorb what they call the "taste" of the forbidden mixtures and take on some of their properties. Therefore, just as it is forbidden to eat meat and dairy food together so too is it forbidden to cook one in the pots of the other. Mind you, the laws of contaminated cookware apply to all forbidden mixtures of kosher and non kosher foods.

The taste remains potent in the pot for a period of 24 hours. Now, let us understand the Sages properly. If one were to clean a pot thoroughly, removing from it any semblance of what was previously cooked in it and then licked it, no one would be able to taste anything of what was cooked in it. The pot has no actual taste in it or to it. Therefore what were our Sages thinking when they revealed to us this most profound law? The answer reveals to us their profound insight and understanding into the true nature of energy mechanics.

Conclusion - Our Sages were truly blessed by Heaven with revelation. They did not ordain their laws based on simple human logic. There was nothing simple about them and their so-called Rabbinic logic was far above simply being logical. The Sages of the Mishna and Gemara all shared prophetic insight, some to an even higher degree than many Biblical prophets. This is why the Gemara states that a Sage is preferred over a prophet. For a prophet would go into a trance and wait for Heaven to speak with him. A Sage on the other hand would use his oscillating consciousness and delve into the world of wisdom independently and at will, something a prophet could not do.

The Sages were very much in tuned with the natural order of things. They were totally aware of the laws of harmonics, energy movement and their inter-relationships with human consciousness. When one learns the Mishna and Gemara and studies how laws were ordained and why they were ordained, one can see underlying this flow a stream of consciousness that was truly in touch with the national collective.

When we the nation of Israel therefore our lives in accordance to Torah law, those revealed at Sinai and those later revealed by the Sages, the individual thus aligns his/her soul with the collective unconscious of the nation and truly finds its home and place in life. All Torah laws are about energy harmonics and how the human soul aligns with the greater whole of the universe. Torah principles, while incumbent upon the nation of Israel also serve as a great "light to the nations." There are many great life lessons to be learned from the underlying principles that govern Torah law. They are a benefit to us all.