Musar zu Schir haSchirim 5:1

Similar sanctification can be achieved by man even in that most regular and therefore most profane performance of bodily functions, eating and drinking. I have described this at length in my essay on קדושת האכילה. The food is elevated to the spiritual level of sacrificial meat, the drink to that of the wine libations, both as offered on the altar when the Temple was standing. G–d will then relate to our food and drink intake as He is described in Song of Songs 5,1 as relating Israel's offering of incense, the preferred of all sacrificial offerings. The Zohar both on פרשת ויקרא and elsewhere explains that whole verse in Song of Songs in terms of the various sacrifices. The mystical element in all this: The consumption of the sacrificial meat on the altar, though it takes place in this world, represents a spiritual awakening in this world which translates into a ריח ניחוח, a pleasing fragrance which rises towards heaven. The same thing happens when the righteous in this world consume their daily meals. Their seemingly mundane activity is transformed into a spiritual experience by which they derive pleasure from the brilliance of the שכינה and their entire body derives nourishment from its splendor. Even the plates and other utensils used will become refined and will sparkle. These utensils will then qualify to serve as receptacles for spiritual food. Maimonides refused to believe that the eternal reward for the performance of the commandments included an eternal physical life of both body and soul after the resurrection; he preferred to believe in an eternal existence of the soul alone. Maimonides (because according to him there was neither eating nor drinking in the World to Come) would not have recognized the need for these utensils. I believe he forgot an important consideration. Food will always be needed to sustain life. The food and drink does not necessarily have to be of the physical variety which we are familiar with. Spiritual food may also be served in dishes, but sanctified dishes. Were this not so, how could G–d – or certain aspects of G–d – have been described as "receiving" the sweet smelling fragrance of the incense offering? It is said of this fragrance in Songs 5,1: אכלו רעים שתו ושכרו דודים, i.e. the fragrance which symbolizes something intangible, spiritual, [compare the commentary on that verse by Metzudat. Ed.] We can now understand that something like this is conceivable also in our times provided our food has been prepared with the necessary care.

The fifth: Bringing in guests. [The guests] are Splendor and Foundation - to give them a house for resting, such that they rest there, meaning in Kingship. Since They are Wayfarers in the secret of the exile - to search for Their lost object - he must bring Them in there. And according to what is elucidated in the Zohar, Vayera 1:115b, this commandment is implemented by those who are 'wayfarers that speak'; which are those expelled from their houses to be involved in Torah [study], who cause that the Guests will be involved in the needs of Kingship. And so [too,] anyone who creates a unification for Splendor in Kingship from another aspect and fixes a place for his Torah [study], causes Splendor to make its residence in Kingship. And so did they explain in the Tikkunim (in the Introduction). And one must prepare food, drink and escort for the Guests. That is that one must bring in Splendor and Foundation to Kingship; give them food, similar to, "I have come to my garden, I have eaten my honeycombs and my honey" (Song of Songs 5:1), which is the flow that is fitting for the lower governance that extends from the side of the sweetened Severity; and drink, similar to "I have drunken my wine with my milk,' which is the inner flow from the wine that is guarded, and from the secret of the milk sweetened to connect Splendor and Kingship - [which are] Yaakov and Rachel - and Severity with Victory or with Majesty. As so did they explain in the Raaya Meheimena (Vayikra, p. 4b). And the escort is to bring himself and his soul There with Them in their Highest Replication, to escort Them There; also to bring the other Sefirot There with Them to make a good escort for Them. And there are several things included in this reparation.

It is possible that Satan's argument which is seen as responsible for the command to Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, has its basis in our story. According to Sanhedrin 89 Satan argued that Abraham's motivation in offering sacrifices had always been only in order to secure the birth of his son Isaac. As soon as that objective was attained, the Torah no longer reports Abraham as building altars and offering sacrifices. G–d told Satan that he was mistaken, that Abraham would be prepared to offer his son Isaac as a total offering if that were required of him. The weak point that Satan had found to focus on may have been that at this meal, when Abraham did offer sacrifices, he had done so initially to the angels as intermediaries. The Talmud, quoting the dialogue between Satan and G–d, has Satan stress the word לפניך, meaning that Abraham did not offer a sacrifice to G–d directly. Only after that are the spiritual forces awakened and G–d bestows of His bounty, as explained in the Zohar on פרשת ויקרא. The complaint of Satan was that no mention is made of Abraham offering anything in the nature of an offering during the feast he made on the occasion of Isaac being weaned (21,8). He added that Abraham did not even offer a sacrifice at the time he received the tidings from the angels that Isaac would be born the following year. The meal presented to the angels, though a sacrifice, should not have been offered to an agent of G–d but to G–d directly.