Question:
 
I am so embarrassed I don't know what to say. I bought a tomato sauce in the supermarket last week that I thought was kosher. I always buy this brand, but this time it seems I chose a different flavour than usual. After cooking with it and feeding my family, I read the ingredients, and to my horror, the sauce wasn't kosher! When I say not kosher, I mean as not kosher as you can get. It contained..... ham! I will do whatever I need to make my kitchen kosher again, I know that can be fixed. But what devastates me is, what can I do about what I ate, and fed my family?
 
Answer:
 
You have a rare opportunity before you, one that even the holiest people never have. You can now make pig kosher. Here's how.
 
Every food has its nutritional value. Certain foods provide us with spiritual nutrition, and by eating them we become more sensitised to our souls. This is kosher eating. The Torah allows us to eat these foods, not because they are healthy for our body but rather they are healthy for our soul. On the other hand, non-kosher foods are the opposite, they block the connection between body and soul, deaden our perception of holiness and desensitise us from the world of spirit.
 
But there is an exception. There is a way that non-kosher food can elevate you. When the eating of non-kosher food itself stirs you toward spiritual growth, when you regret  what you have done, resolve not to do it again, and commit to being more careful, what was a fall in spiritual observance becomes a step up to a higher spiritual plain.
 
This creates an amazing turn around. The pig you ate actually made you more spiritual. The sin had the same impact usually reserved for a mitzvah, it made you closer to G-d.
 
This is the law of transformation. A dispute, when resolved, makes friends closer. An argument, when handled correctly, makes a marriage deeper. A mistake, when seen as a learning tool, makes you smarter. And a piece of ham, when you regret eating it, makes you more kosher.
 
You should never deliberately start an argument, and you should never choose to eat non-kosher either. But if it already happened, don't feel down. Turn it around, and make the pig kosher.

 

~ Rabbi Aron Moss

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