Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 136

What Is the Meaning of “Animal Food” and “Human Food”?

Each spiritual degree is nourished according to its stature. Animal food is vegetative. Human food is both vegetative and animate because the human belongs to the speaking degree. What distinguishes a human from an animal? Their degree. Baal HaSulam says that human food is processed from wheat, while animal food consists of raw grains and the wheat itself.

He explains this well in Sifra deTzniuta from The Zohar: A person comes to a city (“city” refers to the world of Atzilut) and sees that everyone there is eating various breads and pastries. He looks at the foods, and people offer him: “Taste.” He tastes and finds the foods very delicious. Then he asks, “What are these foods made from?” They answer: “From wheat.” And he is astonished: “I have never known foods like this, because my whole life, like an animal, I ate only raw wheat.”

The person reached the “city,” Atzilut, and saw that foods are sold and eaten there, but they are processed differently. They are called “human food.” Only a human can prepare such foods, by processing wheat with “water” and “flour,” which symbolize the discernments of Hassadim and Hochma.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 135
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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 133

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