So too regarding refining our animal soul it is written (Mishlei 27:21): “A crucible is used to refine silver, and a furnace is used to refine gold, and a man is refined according to his praising Hashem.” “His praising” Hashem during prayer becomes his crucible of fiery love, where “impurities are removed from silver” (see Mishlei 25:4). Meaning, one’s spiritual impurities are removed, and the refined aspects of the animal soul are incorporated in holiness, meaning that the animal soul itself comes to love Hashem, like it says in the Shema “you shall love Hashem with all the aspects of your heart,” i.e., with the emotions of both the animal and Divine soul.
The words לְבָבְך ל בְכָ are interpreted by our Sages to mean with emotions of both the Divine soul and the emotions of the animal soul. They learn this out from word “לְבָבְך-your heart” which usually has one letter ב' and is spelled לבך, the double letter ב' means double amount of feelings, the emotions of the Divine soul and of the animal soul.
The unusable parts of the animal soul are expelled during the Shemona Esrai prayer when we say “forgive us Hashem for our sins”, and in the Tachanun prayer afterwards when we say “we have become guilty”, in order to remove the waste of the animal soul and push them away.
However, we find that there are two types of eating: 1 - weekday eating, 2 - Shabbos eating. These two types of eating are referred to in the verse (Mishlei 13:25): “A righteous man eats for the satisfaction of his soul, but the belly of the wicked will be lacking.” The Alter Rebbe will explain how the above verse references these two categories of eating:
Weekday Eating
The purpose of eating during the weekdays is in order to spiritually refine the food, removing any unholiness. This is expressed in the verse as “the belly of the wicked will be lacking,” meaning that the forces of unholiness are deprived of their sustenance when a Jew eats in a holy manner, disconnecting the food from unholiness.
We see this idea also in the Zohar that says: “With Wisdom-Chochma they will become refined,” (Zohar Vol 2. p. 254b), meaning, that the food becomes “blood, which life depends on”, and with the energy of that food he prays to Hashem, thus, the food which was originally under the control of the ‘Ministering Angels’ that gave it life from kelipas noga, becomes transformed into holiness through becoming the energy used to pray to Hashem. It therefore, because it came from kelipas noga, contains spiritual waste that needs to be refined.
Shabbos Eating
However, the purpose of eating on Shabbos is “for the satisfaction of his soul”, meaning as described in the verse (Yeshaya 58:13-14): “And you should call Shabbos a delight... and then you will have enjoyment in Hashem’s revelation.” This idea is also found in the prayer said before Kiddush on Shabbos day (from the Arizal): “This is the meal of Hashem Who is called Atika Kadisha-the Holy Ancient One.”
The word חכמה-chochma -wisdom is the same letters as "כח מה" the power to nullify one’s ego to Hashem, which is the idea of prayer. So here by saying “With חכמה-Chochma they will be refined” it means through the nullification of ego to Hashem through prayer the food and other mundane things will be refined.
The word ע ת ִּיקָּא-Atika which is Aramaic and usually means “very old” or “ancient”, can also mean “removed” or “distant”, as in the word נעתק-removed. It refers to a level of divine revelation that is so high that it is many stages removed from being a source for creation. By analogy from the human soul, the power of pleasure is deeply removed from direct expression to another person. One can communicate their will and desire, and their intellectual understanding, but the motivation for those things is a deep sense of pleasure that the person can only experience in themselves. It can only be communicated to someone else indirectly through another soul power. For example, teaching the intellectual understanding of an idea can cause the student to feel some of the pleasure the teacher has in that idea.
Hashem’s revelation at the level of Atika corresponds to Hashem’s pleasure and satisfaction in our service of Torah and Mitzvos. This divine pleasure in our service is so deep that it is removed from direct expression in creation of the world. However, this lofty level is expressed in our divine souls on Shabbos; and when we eat the Shabbos meal, we are physically internalizing some of that divine pleasure. That is why we say, “This is the meal of Atika Kadisha” before the Shabbos meal.
Since the source of food on Shabbos is divine pleasure and not kelipas noga as during the week, there is no waste drawn into it (Shabbos food) at all, and it doesn’t need spiritual refinement.
There is a similar distinction regarding the prayers of the weekday, which involve spiritual refinement of the animal soul as explained above. On Shabbos, the prayers involve drawing Hashem’s pleasure into us, as it says, “and you will call Shabbos a pleasure”.
It was implied earlier that the fact that food contains physical waste elements that cannot be digested is because it comes from Kelipas Noga that contains spiritual waste elements. If so, then on Shabbos when the food derives from Hashem’s pleasure, why does it still contain physical waste elements? One answer is that food in general is on the level of kelipas noga. Food remains physically the same before, during, and after Shabbos, so its physical existence is connected to kelipas noga the whole time, and only the spiritual aspect of the food changes on Shabbos. Therefore, it physically contains waste elements even though it spiritually does not.
