Musar do Psalmów 82:6

The purpose of Israel's exile and enslavement in Egypt was to refine the nation in the "iron crucible," to enable it to receive the Torah so that the contamination caused by the original serpent would be purged from them. At that point (מתן תורה), the whole of the universe would rejuvenate itself and become like it had been at the time G–d had created Adam. It would have remained in that state had the Jewish people not sinned during the episode of the golden calf. Proof of this theory is found in Psalms 82,6-7: "I said, I had taken you for Divine beings, (immortal) sons of the most High, but you have to die as men do…"

But sometimes eating is mystically tied to sacrifices, like the rabbis, may their memory be blessed, say (Berakhot 55a), "And now, the table of a person atones." And that is in place of a sacrifice. And the idea is that eating has the physical and spiritual in it, as I cited before (s.v. OuDevar Zeh) in the name of the divine ARI, may his memory be blessed, the understanding of the verse: from everything that comes out of the mouth of the Lord, a person lives (Deuteronomy 8:3): According to this, the connection between the soul and the body is through food, the spirituality of the food strengthens the power of the soul, and the materiality of the food strengthens the power of the body. The two of them are connected, just like the hidden soul inside the body. Through this, the body is sanctified and clings to the soul, while the body, which is the holder and container of the soul, then connects the book container with the book. And this is on condition [that] the righteous eats to satisfy his soul [alluding to Proverbs 13:25]. What I mean to say is that one is exacting in his eating, that it is from that which is permissible in his mouth and that there is no doubt or concern of a prohibition in it; and he only eats for his sustenance, and his purpose in it is to serve his Creator, to occupy himself with Torah [study] and commandments. And, also, that he gives to the poor from his bread [alluding to Proverbs 22:9], as will be explained later on at length. Then it is called a commanded meal; in this aspect, he is commanded to eat. For all of his eating is [then] an atoning altar, like a sacrifice, as per the below. But to know good and evil, the secret is [that] if it is desirable to [eat], etc. [alluding to Genesis 3:6], you shall not eat [it]. Rather, the purpose of the creation of man, who was made in [God's] likeness and image, was that the creation be similar to the Maker, as it were; to become similar to Him in all of his ways, as it is written: You are godlike beings (Psalms 82:6). So the food they should eat should be with the secret of the sacrifice, such that his eatings become sanctified.

At the time the Jewish people accepted the Torah they were freed from the need to die, i.e. from the influence of Satan. They had become totally free from the influence of other nations as alluded to in Psalms 82,6: "I had taken you for divine beings, sons of the Most High, all of you; but you shall die as men do, fall like any prince." This is an allusion to death and exile. This sin of the golden calf is the reason that even when we experienced redemptions at a later stage, such redemption is always characterised as being feminine, incomplete. When we give thanks for such a redemption we sing שירה חדשה, a new song (feminine gender) as distinct from when we received the Torah where the Torah was referred to as masculine. An example for the dual function of the פרה is found in Samuel 16,12 where the cows are described as וישרנה, "they walked straight (masculine form). Kimchi points out that the grammar here is a combination of the masculine and the feminine gender, i.e. the ending is feminine, whereas the first half of the word is masculine. This is an allusion to the שיר, song, which is sometimes masculine and sometimes feminine as the situation requires. We have written more about this both in our treatise on פרשת פרה, on פרשת ויקהל-פקודי, as well as on פרשת חוקת.