With whom will you dine today? Have plans for lunch?
Will you be sharing a meal with co-workers? A client? Friends? Loved ones?
A meal can be a very positive social/emotional experience. It has the potential to go beyond stilling our hunger and nutrifying ourselves, and provide a great setting for reflection, communication and relationship-building.
So let’s compare and contrast two meals with identical culinary menus, but vastly different psycho-spiritual ones: One meal simply attends to our digestive/culinary needs, the other is a stage to support the drama of relationship-building.
Menu aside, there is a striking difference. Our second model takes the meal to a much loftier place. The exercise becomes a special experience.
Special.
In Hebrew, the word for “Holy” actually means “different” or “special”. When we sanctify something, we take an otherwise-run-of-the-mill object and infuse it with special meaning; we’re experiencing life at a Higher Level.
And that can even be with a meal.
For example, our Friday night Shabbat meal celebrates a sacred opportunity for reconnecting with G-d, self and family. It’s not just a meal, it’s a Holy meal.
And this goes beyond Shabbat and Holidays.
In two separate places, the Torah enjoins us to eat Kosher. Both times, the Torah’s description of which animals/fish we should eat is tagged with a call to “Holiness”. The Torah is telling us that when we eat Kosher we’re taking an otherwise mundane meal to a special place. The meal becomes an expression of our commitment to Higher Living, of seeing a purpose beyond our simple bodily needs.
So today’s lunch can be holy too.
When you’re looking at the menu, that tuna fish isn’t just a culinary choice (to pick an example of a kosher food), it’s a pro-active decision to transform this meal into a Divinely uplifting experience. It’s saying to G-d “this meal’s about us”.
Lunch with G-d.
That’s no run-of-the-mill meal.