When Hashem created Man, He joined together two different components to create a living being. He brought down an element of the Divine, the spiritual soul, and encased it in a physical body. Only when He breathed the Divine soul into the earthly body did Adam become a fully functioning being. We must continually ask ourselves, what is the dominant component of our being. Are we primarily physical, with some energy supplied by our soul so that we can move, talk, and eat? Or are we rather primarily spiritual, clothed in the garb of a body that necessitates our functioning along physical lines? Do we live to eat or do we eat to live?
This is the basis for the sentence in our Yom Kippur confession, "and for the sins that we have sinned before you with food and drink." "Food and Drink" is a full category of sin, just as is each of the other transgressions we enumerate. Within this category are times we may have eaten non-kosher food, or been careless in checking our vegetables for bugs, or inadvertently sliced our meat with a dairy knife. This sin encompasses our attitude to food, and to our attitude to all the physical aspects of our lives. If we value food primarily for physical pleasure, we will remain forever unsatisfied. We will constantly look for things to fill a deep void within ourselves. But if we appreciate food as God's gift to us, to sustain us on a spiritual journey in this physical realm, then our food and drink become elevated and take on a spiritual aura.
Our challenge is to recognize ourselves as primarily spiritual beings, to see our essence as a spark of the Divine. Every morning in our daily prayer we say, "My God, the soul that You have implanted in me is pure." If we internalize that message, we can successfully vanquish our evil inclination. The soul is essentially pure and cannot be tarnished. As a diamond that fell into a mud puddle, it may become sullied. But the dirt does not stick; it can be washed away to again reveal the diamond's beauty. And the jewel case, my body, can be scrubbed clean. But only if we view our core as the spiritual battery that animates our external body.
If, on the other hand, we are more concerned with our temporal aspect, whether it is food and drink, or wealth, or honor, we will be unable to divest ourselves of our sins and our evil inclination. They will have become such an intrinsic part of us, that removing them will feel like cutting off a part of ourselves. Even when we feel we are doing
mitzvot
, we must be honest with ourselves and know whether we are acting for the sake of Heaven or for the sake of appearances for our friends and neighbors. The wrong motivation can take all the joy out of our performance, leaving us open to many punishments, for we would have subverted our service to Hashem to accommodate the false gods that are important in the physical world.
However, we do not need to compartmentalize our existence. In fact, we need to synthesize the two aspects of our being and elevate the physical to a spiritual purpose. Yes, we all need to eat. But when we eat, do we contemplate the miracle of vegetation that brought forth every aspect of our food supply? Do I appreciate that the apple I eat is a testimony to God's love for me and His personal Providence over my pure
neshama
? Make the blessing with these thoughts, and then thank Him for having eaten.
The very symmetry and beauty of our bodies can bring us closer to Hashem. As we ritually wash our hands before saying
hamotzie
, we physically represent the letters of the Name of God with our very bodies. After we've poured the water over our hands, we raise them up above our heads, creating the three-pronged letter "
shin
" with our head between our two hands. As we extend our hand to our fellow, the outstretched arm attached to our long body becomes the letter "
daled
". And our ten fingers represent the "
yud
." Our hands are so unique in that they are instrumental in performing so many of the mitzvot that we can actually symbolize God's names through them.
When the Priests bless
Bnei Yisroel
, their hands face downward, as if pouring God's blessings down on us. When we ritually wash our hands, we raise them upwards, making them receptacles to receive God's blessings. When we awaken in the morning, let us focus on the many
mitzvot
our hands can do as extensions of our pure
neshamot
. Each
mitzvah
creates angels that accompany us wherever we go, both in this world and the next. When our
neshama
comes before Hashem on Yom Kippur, accompanied by the angels we created in the past year, we can feel more confident in asking Him for His help in washing the "soiled external clothing" our physical aspect tempted us to wear so that our spiritual essence can remain intact and retain its brilliance.
