Can you sanctify a steak? The Tanya's seventh chapter says yes—but only under certain conditions.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman distinguishes between things that can be elevated to holiness and things that cannot. Everything that is permissible under Torah law—kosher food, business dealings, marital relations, ordinary conversation—belongs to the category of kelipat nogah (קליפת נוגה), the translucent shell. This shell sits between pure holiness and absolute impurity. It can tip either way.
When a person eats a kosher meal with the conscious intention of using the energy to serve God—to study Torah, to pray, to perform acts of kindness—the vitality of that food is extracted from the kelipah (a shell of impurity) and absorbed into holiness. The animal soul that processed the food becomes, temporarily, a vehicle for the divine. This is what the Tanya calls elevation: taking something from the neutral zone and pulling it upward.
But here is the critical point: this only works with permitted things. If the food is not kosher, or if the act violates Torah law, no amount of good intention can elevate it. The three completely impure kelipot—the shells that encase forbidden acts—are sealed. They cannot be opened from below. Only God's own light, through the process of teshuvah (תשובה), repentance, can break them.
What about acts that are technically permitted but done purely for selfish pleasure—eating for the taste alone, talking for entertainment, indulging the body without any spiritual purpose? The Tanya does not call these sinful. But it does not call them holy either. They remain in kelipat nogah, contributing nothing upward. The energy stays trapped in the shell, neither ascending nor descending, until some future act tips the balance.
The practical teaching is stark. Every moment of consumption is a spiritual crossroads. The fork in your hand is a tool that can serve holiness or serve nothing. The food does not care. But the intention behind eating it determines whether its spark of divine energy is liberated or left in exile.
On the other hand,1 The author continues to expound the doctrine of the kelipot, and his definitions of good and evil, distinguishing an intermediate category. the vitalizing animal soul in the Jew, that which is derived from the aspect of the kelipah, which is clothed in the human blood, as stated above,2 Ch. 1. and the “souls”3 The quotes are the translator’s. According to Lurianic doctrine all things, including inanimate objects, possess a “soul,” which is the creative and preserving force of the Creator, the thing’s reality. This doctrine was adopted and expounded by the Baal Shem Tov and Rabbi Schneur Zalman. See Likkutei Amarim, Part II, ch. 1 ff. of the animals, beasts, birds, and fish that are clean and fit for [Jewish] consumption, as also the existence and vitality of the entire inanimate and entire vegetable world which are permissible for consumption, as well as the existence and vitality of every act, utterance, and thought in mundane matters that contain no forbidden aspect—being neither root nor branch of the 365 prohibitive precepts and their offshoots, either on the explicit authority of the Torah or by Rabbinic enactment—yet are not performed for the sake of Heaven but only by the will, desire, and lust of the body; and even where it is a need of the body, or its very preservation and life, but his intention is not for the sake of Heaven, that is, to serve G–d thereby —all these acts, utterances, and thoughts are no better than the vitalizing animal soul itself; and everything in this totality of things flows and is drawn from the second gradation [to be found] in the kelipot and sitra achara, namely, a fourth kelipah, called kelipat nogah. In this world, called the “World of Asiyah (Action),”4 See Addendum, Glossary. most, indeed almost all, of it [the kelipat nogah] is bad, and only a little good has been intermingled within it [from which come the good qualities contained in the animal soul of the Jew, as is explained above.5 Ch. 1.] This [kelipat nogah] is an intermediate category between the three completely unclean kelipot and the category and order of holiness. Hence it is sometimes absorbed within the three unclean kelipot [as is explained in Etz Chaim, Portal 49, beginning of ch. 4, on the authority of the Zohar], and sometimes it is absorbed and elevated to the category and level of holiness, as when the good that is intermingled in it is extracted from the bad, and prevails and ascends until it is absorbed in holiness. Such is the case, for example, of he who eats fat beef and drinks spiced wine in order to broaden his mind for the service of G–d and His Torah; as Rava said, “Wine and fragrance [make a man’s mind more receptive],”6 Yoma 76b. or in order to fulfill the command concerning enjoyment of Shabbat and the Festivals.7 Maimonides, Hilchot Shabbat 30:7; Hilchot Yom Tov 6:16. Rabbi Schneur Zalman, Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 242:1; 529:1, 3. In such a case the vitality of the meat and wine, originating in the kelipat nogah, is distilled and ascends to G–d like a burnt offering and sacrifice. So, too, when a man utters a pleasantry in order to sharpen his wit and rejoice his heart in G–d, in His Torah and service, which should be practiced joyfully, as Rava was wont to do with his pupils, prefacing his discourse with some witty remark, to enliven the students thereby.8 Pesachim 117a. On the other hand, he who belongs to those who gluttonously guzzle meat and quaff wine in order to satisfy their bodily appetites and animal nature, derived from the so-called element of water of the four evil elements contained therein, from which comes the vice of lust—in such case the energy of the meat and wine consumed by him is degraded and absorbed temporarily in the utter evil of the three unclean kelipot, and his body temporarily becomes a garment and vehicle for them, until the person repents and returns to the service of G–d and His Torah. For, inasmuch as the meat and wine were kosher, they have the power to revert and ascend with him when he returns to the service of G–d. This is implied in the terms “permissibility” and “permitted” (muttar),9 The Hebrew term מותר literally means “released.” that is to say, that which is not tied and bound by the power of the “extraneous forces”10 Another term for kelipot and sitra achara. preventing it from returning and ascending to G–d. Nevertheless, a trace [of the evil] remains in the body. Therefore the body must undergo the Purgatory of the grave, as will be explained later.11 Ch. 8. So, too, with regard to the vitality of the drops of semen emitted from the body with animal lust, by him who has not conducted himself in a saintly manner during intimacy with his wife in her state of purity.12 This paragraph is added according to Luach HaTikkun (below, p. 781). Such is not the case, however, with forbidden foods and coition, which derive from the three kelipot that are entirely unclean. These are tied and bound by the extraneous forces forever and are not released until the day comes when death will be swallowed up forever, as is written, “And I will cause the unclean spirit to pass from the land,”13 Zechariah 13:2. or until the sinner repents to such an extent that his premeditated sins become transmuted into veritable merits, which is achieved through “repentance out of love,” coming from the depths of the heart, with great love and fervor, and from a soul passionately desiring to cleave to G–d, blessed be He, and thirsting for G–d like a parched desert soil. For inasmuch as his soul had been in a barren wilderness, and in the shadow of death, which is the sitra achara, and infinitely removed from the light of the Divine Countenance, his soul now thirsts [for G–d] even more than the souls of the righteous, as our Sages say, “In the place where penitents stand, not even the perfectly righteous can stand.”14 Berachot 34b. It is concerning the repentance out of such great love that they have said, “The penitent’s premeditated sins become, in his case, like virtues,”15 Rosh Hashanah 29a. since thereby he has attained to this great love.16 This religious experience is unknown to the perfect tzaddik, who never sinned and consequently has never experienced the remorse and yearning of a repentant soul. This does not mean, however, that the tzaddik cannot experience my kind of teshuvah, for in a broader and truer sense (and as the Hebrew term indicates) it means “return” to the Source, which is of infinite scope. (Cf. Likkutei Torah, beg. Haazinu.) However, repentance that does not come from such love, even though it be true repentance and G–d will pardon him, nevertheless his sins are not transformed into merits and they are not completely released from the kelipah until the end of time, when death will be swallowed up forever. Yet the vitality which is in the drops of semen that issue wastefully, even though it has been degraded and incorporated in the three unclean kelipot, nevertheless it can ascend from there by means of true repentance and intense kavanah17 “Intention,” i.e., concentration and devotion in prayer, study, or the performance of a ritual precept. Cf. below, chs. 38, 40, and 41, for an elaboration of the term. during the recital of the Shema at bedtime, as is known from the Arizal18 See above, ch. 2, note 9. and is implied in the Talmudic saying, “He who recites the Shema at bedtime is as if he held a double-edged sword…,”19 Berachot 5a. wherewith to slay the bodies of the extraneous forces that have become garments for the vitality which is in the drops [of semen], so that this vitality may ascend, as is known to the students of Kabbalah. Therefore the sin of wasteful emission of semen is not mentioned in the Torah among the list of forbidden coitions, although it is even more heinous than they, and this sin is greater because of the enormity and abundance of the uncleanness and of the kelipot which he begets and multiplies to an exceedingly great extent through wasteful emission of semen, even more than through forbidden coitions. Except that in the case of forbidden coitions he contributes strength and vitality to a most unclean kelipah, from which he is powerless to bring up the vitality by means of repentance, NOTE: The reason being that this vitality has been absorbed by the “female” element of the kelipah, which receives and absorbs the vitality from the holiness. Not so with wasteful emission of semen, where there is obviously no female element of kelipah, and only its powers and forces provide the garments for the vitality of the [wasteful] semen, as is known to the students of Kabbalah. unless he repents with such great love that his willful wrongs are transformed into merits. From the above, one may understand the comment of our Sages, “Which is ‘a fault that cannot be rectified?’20 Ecclesiastes 1:15.—Having incestuous intercourse and giving birth to a bastard.”21 Chagigah 9a. For in such a case, even though the sinner undertakes such great repentance, he cannot cause the [newly created] vitality to ascend to holiness, since it has already descended into this world and has been clothed in a body of flesh and blood.
