Parashat Acharei Mot, Kedoshim: The Soul Within the Blood
How Can Nourishment Unfold as a Progression – from Abstaining to Transforming?
How Does Withholding Become the Highest Nourishment?
Becoming mitzvah observant introduces a new awareness of boundaries around nourishment. This includes eliminating all unkosher food and abstaining altogether during the yearly fast days. As the flower power hippy girl I once was (and perhaps still am to some extent), I had to redirect my boundary-breaking lifestyle to align with Torah discipline. Surprisingly, this process offered me a greater feeling of freedom, revealing that true freedom is the liberty of self-discipline. My personal shift reflects a deeper Torah principle – that true nourishment begins not with taking in, but with holding back.
Parashat Acharei Mot opens not with eating, but with its absence – the service of Yom Kippur. On the holiest day of the year, nourishment is redefined. We abstain from food, yet we are sustained more deeply than at any other time. This reveals a foundational truth: nourishment does not originate in the physical, but flows from a higher spiritual source. It does not begin in the body, but in the soul. Physical food is only an outer vessel for a deeper flow of life emanating from Hashem. Only when we learn to receive from that inner source can we properly engage with physical nourishment. This prepares us for the Torah’s transition into the laws of eating – specifically, the prohibition of consuming blood. Before teaching us how to eat, the Torah teaches us how to step back. Only once we recognize that life comes from above can we begin to receive physical nourishment in alignment with Hashem’s will.
How is the Animal Soul Contained Within the Blood?
The Torah then introduces a striking boundary:
ספר ויקרא פרק יז פסוקים י–יא
וְאִישׁ אִישׁ מִבֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל וּמִן הַגֵּר הַגָּר בְּתוֹכָם אֲשֶׁר יֹאכַל כָּל דָּם וְנָתַתִּי פָנַי בַּנֶּפֶשׁ הָאֹכֶלֶת אֶת הַדָּם וְהִכְרַתִּי אֹתָהּ מִקֶּרֶב עַמָּהּ: (יא) כִּי נֶפֶשׁ הַבָּשָׂר בַּדָּם הִוא וַאֲנִי נְתַתִּיו לָכֶם עַל הַמִּזְבֵּחַ לְכַפֵּר עַל נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם כִּי הַדָּם הוּא בַּנֶּפֶשׁ יְכַפֵּר:
“Any man from the house of Israel, or from the convert who dwells among them, who eats any blood – I will set My face against that soul who eats the blood, and I will cut her off from among her people. For the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to atone for your souls, for it is the blood, through the soul within it, that brings atonement” (Vayikra 17:10-11).
The Ohr HaChayim explains that the Torah is precise: the soul is not located in the flesh itself, but specifically within the blood. Blood is what animates the body and gives it life. The flesh is only sustained through it, but the actual life-force – the nefesh – is rooted in the blood (Ohr HaChayim, Vayikra 17:11).
The Netziv deepens this by clarifying that the blood is not merely associated with life – it is the essential expression of the animal soul. For this reason, it is uniquely suited to serve as the medium of atonement, corresponding directly to the inner life-force of the person bringing the offering (Ha’Emek Davar, Vayikra 17:11). This reveals a profound dimension of nourishment: the animal soul resides in the blood, for it is the essential life-force that gives vitality to the entire being. Thus, when we eat, we are not only consuming physical substance, but encountering a trace of life itself. The Torah, therefore, directs us to engage with this life-force carefully – to recognize where the soul resides, and to ensure that it is elevated rather than absorbed.
Why Must We Refrain from Consuming the Animal Soul?
The Ramban explains that at first Hashem did not permit humanity to eat living creatures, but only vegetation (Bereishit 1:29). After the Flood, when the animals were saved in the merit of Noach, He permitted humanity to eat meat (Bereishit 9:3). Despite the permission for humanity to eat meat, the nefesh itself was never permitted. Rather, it was designated for atonement, to be offered before Hashem. The body may be consumed, but the soul belongs to Hashem alone. For it is not fitting for a being with a soul to consume another soul, since all souls belong to Hashem. The soul of man and the soul of the animal are both His. They share a common fate – as one dies, so dies the other, and one spirit is in all. Since the blood does not require digestion like other foods, which are transformed through the digestive process, it directly affects the person; and the human soul becomes attached to the blood of the animal (Ramban, Vayikra 17:11). This establishes a boundary within nourishment itself: the act of eating must remain within the realm of the physical, without crossing into the essence of life itself. We may receive sustenance, but not absorb the raw life-force in its unrefined state.
Rabbeinu Bachaya deepens this by explaining that consuming blood would draw the human soul toward the coarseness of the animal soul conveyed by the blood, and what we eat becomes part of us. Consuming blood would dull our inner nature, drawing us toward the animal instincts rather than refining us toward holiness (Rabbeinu Bachaya, Vayikra 17:11). Therefore, nourishment is not neutral; it requires discernment and shapes the very texture of the soul. Not everything that can be consumed should be consumed.
Even more sharply, Rabbi Menachem Rekanati connects the consumption of blood with forces of impurity, explaining that blood was historically used as a medium to connect to destructive spiritual forces. Taking it into oneself draws a person into these impure realms rather than being elevated toward holiness (Rekanati, Parashat Tetzaveh).
How Do We Elevate the Animal Soul Rather Than Absorb It?
Commenting on the prohibition against eating the animal’s blood and the mitzvah to sacrifice it (Vayikra 17:11), Rabbi Yekutiel Yehuda Teitelbaum describes the inner tension within a person: when impulses rooted in the blood dominate, the animal soul begins to direct the higher soul. The proper order, however, is the reverse – the higher soul must guide and refine the drives of the blood, transforming them into a vessel for Divine service (Yitav Lev, Kedoshim).
Since the essential task of a person is to connect the higher soul to the blood, the blood must be drawn after the soul, diminishing the material desires and the negative forces within it. In this way, all of our desires can be elevated and directed toward Hashem.
Every aspect of a person’s nature can then be transformed: the element of fire burns as a flame in the service of Hashem rather than for base desires; the element of wind, expressed through speech, is used for Torah, wisdom, and awe of Heaven rather than idle talk; the element of water, which reflects desire, becomes a yearning to draw close to Hashem; and the element of earth, which manifests as laziness, is redirected to resist sin while being overcome in the performance of mitzvot (Be’er Mayim Chayim, Parashat Vayikra).
Even more profoundly, the Sod HaChashmal explains that blood is among the most spiritual elements within the physical body. Given its elevated nature, the soul becomes clothed within it, rendering it susceptible to both great elevation and great impurity. For the impure forces attach themselves to what is most spiritually potent within the physical realm. Precisely because of its spiritual potency, it must be handled with the utmost care and restraint (Sod HaChashmal, Laws of Blood). When this boundary of abstaining from consuming animal blood is ignored, nourishment becomes spiritually damaging, for nourishment without boundary does not elevate – it entangles.
How Do We Elevate the Animal Soul into a Conduit for Holiness?
The Torah commands us to transform the same substance that could degrade our soul into a vehicle for atonement. Rabbi Chayim Attar clarifies that the Torah designated the blood specifically for this purpose – not for human consumption, but for elevation through the altar. It is not ours to use freely; it belongs to a higher process of rectification (Ohr HaChayim, Vayikra 17:11). Similarly, the Ramban explains that since every creature’s soul resides in its blood, it is not fitting to mix the soul that is destined to be cut off with the soul that endures. Instead, it should be used for atonement upon the altar, to be accepted favorably before Hashem (Ramban, Vayikra 17:11).
Nourishment, then, is refined through redirection. Instead of drawing everything into ourselves, we learn to offer, elevate, and return life to its Source. This is the beginning of holiness.
Parashat Kedoshim takes this even further with its opening command:
ספר ויקרא פרק יט פסוק ב קְדשִׁים תִּהְיוּ כִּי קָדושׁ אֲנִי...
“You shall be holy, because I am holy…” (Vayikra 19:2).
Holiness is not only about what we eat, but about how we engage with our inner drives. The blood – the seat of the animal drives – must be directed toward serving Hashem. When we transform our desires, the very forces that once pulled us downward become fuel for Divine service.
According to Rabbi Yekutiel Yehuda Teitelbaum, the struggle between the intellectual soul and the animal soul is centered in the blood. When the higher soul governs, the very same inner heat and passion rooted in the blood become a source of atonement and elevation (Yitav Lev, Kedoshim). At the deepest level, the nefesh within the blood is rooted in the lowest spiritual world, yet it has the power to ascend to the highest. The Leshem explains that through refining the nefesh – the life-force embedded in the physical – we elevate both body and soul, reconnecting them to their Divine root (Leshem, Sha’arei HaLeshem).
Nourishment in Acharei Mot–Kedoshim thus unfolds as a progression: from abstaining, to discerning, to elevating, culminating in transformation. The Torah is not asking us to reject the physical, but to refine it so completely that even the most instinctive drives become aligned with holiness. When we learn to guide our inner ‘blood’ – our passions, desires, and life-force – toward Hashem, then nourishment itself becomes Divine service, and the body becomes a vessel for the soul’s highest light.
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