What is really happening when a person eats? R’ Elimelech gives words to say before the meal and after the first bite, and asks the eater to attend to the very taste in his mouth, and even to what happens afterwards. What is the taste?
15aBefore washing his hands for the meal, let him say Tefillas HaShav, the penitent's prayer of Rabbeinu Yonah. When he has said HaMotzi and eaten of the bread, let him say these words: “Leshem yichud Kudsha Brich Hu uShechintei, for the sake of the unification of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah. I do not eat for my body's pleasure, Heaven forbid, but so that my body will be healthy and strong for the service of Him whose Name is blessed. And may no sin or iniquity, no bad thought or physical pleasure, hold back the unification of the Holy One that comes through the holy sparks of this food and drink.”
In shortAfter Tefillas HaShav and HaMotzi he declares that he eats for strength to serve Hashem, not for pleasure, and that nothing should hold back the unification through the food's sparks.
15bWhenever he eats or drinks anything, let him have in mind that the taste he feels in his mouth as he chews and swallows is the inner holiness, the holy sparks, the fragments of holiness, that dwell in that food or drink. Through eating, through the teeth that grind the food and the stomach that receives it, the inner part is sifted out of the food, so that it does not become waste that feeds the outside forces, the powers opposed to holiness. His soul then takes its benefit from the inner part, while the refuse becomes waste and is thrust away to the outside forces. Let him resolve then in his mind that as soon as he feels the need to relieve himself, he will not keep the refuse inside him, defiling his mind, Heaven forbid, and making his soul loathsome by holding the excrement and urine within him even for a moment.1 While eating, let him also picture before him the letters of מאכל, maachal, “food,” in the square Hebrew script, and reflect that they add up to 91, the number of the Name Havayah (הוי״ה) interwoven with the Name Adnus (אדנ״י).2
The words echo Vayikra 11:43, “Do not make yourselves loathsome,” which the Gemara applies to one who holds back his bodily needs (Makkos 16b). ↩
מאכל is 40 + 1 + 20 + 30 = 91; Havayah is 26 and Adnus 65, together 91. ↩
In shortThe taste of food is its holy sparks, which the soul receives while the refuse goes to the outside forces, and must leave the body without delay.
The maamar as a whole
Item 15 makes the meal an act of service. Before washing, Tefillas HaShav of Rabbeinu Yonah; after HaMotzi, a declaration: leshem yichud, I do not eat for my body’s pleasure but to be healthy and strong for Hashem’s service, and may nothing hold back the unification that comes through the holy sparks of this food. Then he explains what the eater is to have in mind: the taste he feels while chewing and swallowing is the food’s inner holiness, its sparks; eating sifts them out, the soul takes them in, and the refuse is thrust to the outside forces, so it must leave the body without delay. Last, he pictures the letters of maachal, “food,” which equal 91, Havayah joined with Adnus. In his scheme, eating, as in item 3, is turned from pleasure to holiness.
Takeaway
Eat so that your body will be strong to serve Hashem, and taste your food as the holiness within it, for R' Elimelech teaches that the soul takes in those holy sparks while the dross is sent away.
