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.