nourishing ourselves

Eating is one of the most powerful spiritual gateways and the primary way we elevate the world. The first aveira ever done by humans, as well as the first mitzvah: "from all the trees of the garden you should eat, and from the tree of knowledge of good and evil don't eat from it, for on the day you eat of it you will die." (Breishit 2:17) Getting back to the garden, rectifying that primordial choice to go against the Creator's will, is each one of our primary tasks. The expression of this tikkun can take many forms, since as Rav Tzadok explains, "eating" is a metaphor for any way we take from the outside to fill a lack within ourselves. In learning to "eat" from all of the bounty that life offers us, in the proper balance, we nourish ourselves and use the Divine creation for it's intended purpose. Not falling off the "narrow bridge"-- remaining properly balanced on our journey-- is a great challenge. And we do fall. The even greater challenge is to get back up, like a baby learning to walk, and not let our "yetzer hara" our internal voice of criticism bother us. "oy! just give it up, do you really think you can be better? look at all your mistakes, etc." it hisses. Tell the snake to bite it's tongue and go on trying to figure out how to distinguish true nourishment from the temptations that drag us down. This is our journey! "we've got to get ourselves back to the Garden........"