Meat, Milk & Nevuah - Changing Perception Properly

Negative mitzvah 187 tells us not to mix meat and milk. What's the message in this mitzvah?

Meat is from the shoresh בשר. Milk is from the shoresh חלב. Each root (shoresh) which comprises its respective specific word has a kametz (a vowel) under the first two letters of the shoresh. These two letters of each word are two she'arim (gates)¹. Consequently, we can see that meat and milk hold two gates which are not meant to be mixed. Kabbalah tells us that milk symbolizes life, while meat symbolizes death.

The vowel kametz pertains to the sefirah Keter.² Instead of mixing life and death, the two gates of milk and meat are meant to be transformed, leaving a singular gate into Keter, made of eternal life. The gate of eternal life is comprised of the remaining single letters of each word. That gate is רב (rav, see Shem Chai).

The gate of the Hebrew word for meat is comprised of בש, letters meaning "with sin" (with a dot over the left vav of ש) . In other words, it is important that the operation be carried out "with sin", as opposed to "with shin" (with a dot over the right vav of ש). This represents the extreme feminine pillar of Gevurah (the entire feminine array of the Gevurot), within the realm which may give birth to evil. The operation is one completely performed in the Gevurot - herein lies the key to the mystery of parah adumah ritual. It is an utterly female science, devoid of masculine Chesed. It is the Chesed a woman must find within Gevurah, unmixed with Chesed of Chesed. In other words, to elevate Gevurah to Binah, to transform judgment into understanding, and to move her center of consciousness from the middot to the mochin, a woman must do this operation alone.

The gate of the Hebrew word for milk is comprised of the letters חל, letters shared by the foul-smelling incense spice chelbenah (galbanum). Chelbenah represents the pure source and root of evil within the "wholeness" of the ketoret. In this state, חל of Gevurah (of the 7 lower sefirot) is joined to Binah through the ב of the shoresh and pure "beholding" sight (נה-הן) of the soul, thereby "raising it" back into the realm of holiness as it exists centered in the sefirah Binah (of the 3 upper sefirot).

This operation transpires in Gevurah-Binah and within the Gevurot. The kametz of the she'arim of milk and meat inform us that the Divine Will within the sefirah Keter performs it.

The shoresh of milk (חלב) means to change and to convert to nourishment. The shoresh of meat (בשר) means heralding, to bring a message, and a perceptive person.³

Taking all this together, we can see that the prohibition regarding not mixing meat and milk pertains to rectifying, transforming and raising the source of evil back into the realm of the holy. The feminine operation is carried out in Binah, the entire array of the Gevurot, and directed by the Divine Will in Keter.

Importantly, the mitzvah also pertains to nevuah. The prophetic messages of a Divine Messenger are not kosher until the transformative operation of the feminine force has been completed. In other words, the "mixing" of meat and milk cannot be done normatively (in Gevurah of the 7 lower sefirot). Rachel (ר-חל) is the catalyst which raises chel (חל also meaning "the best to enhance nourishment") of chelbenah (חלבנה) to Binah (בנה) where it is transformed into a feminine aleph (ל-אה) of expression.

Meat and milk essentially transformed through the ketoret of Binah, may only be raised following transformation, into Keter. The kametz tells us this. Rav (רב) transforms to בר, meaning "with clarity". And now we can understand why prophetic messages can't be made mixed with meat and milk; i.e., they mustn't originate in Binah (בש) or the Gevurot. They must originate b'reish, בר, in Keter (where the Gevurot and Chasidim "exist" in Singular Unity) to effect a proper change in perception.


Footnotes:

¹ Sefer Yetzirah 2:4
² Kabbalah & Meditation, page 185, R' Aryeh Kaplan
³ Etymological Dictionary Of Biblical Hebrew, R' Matityahu Clark

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