Canfei Nesharim: Core Teaching #13: We are How We Eat

We are happy to note that this important "Core Teaching" in Canfei Nesharim and Jewcology's ongoing series quotes both Rebbe Nachman and Reb Noson. It also cites Sarah Schneider, a leading Orthodox intellectual and spiritual teacher in Israel, who authored a wonderful little book on holy eating a number of years ago. We strongly encourage our readers to explore these essays, as well as everything that Canfei Nesharim and Jewcology have produced to raise the level of awareness in our communities on these critically important issues.

Received via e-mail from Canfei Nesharim:

Core Teaching #13: We are How We Eat

Eating food is a significant part of the Jewish spiritual path, and Jewish teachings and practices pr

We are How We Eat: A Jewish Approach to Food and Sustainability

ovide guidance for how to eat in a holy manner. 

Summary: 

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov identifies the desire for food and drink as the central desire of the human being, and the one from which other desires emanate. In Rabbi Tzadok Hacohen's "A Treatise on Eating," he cites the mystical book of the Zohar, which calls the moment of eating "the time of combat."  This is because in eating a Jew must engage in the spiritual fight to ensure the act is a holy one.