You’ve probably heard that all kosher animals wear shoes. Well, actually, they’re called hooves. To get into the Kosher Club, you need cloven hooves, meaning that the hoof is split in two. If that’s not status enough, cloven hooves also get you into the even-toed ungulates order of mammals called Artiodactyla—along with cows, goats, sheep, deer, giraffes, antelopes, okapis and pigs.

Yes, pigs. But the pigs got booted from the Kosher Club because they don’t ruminate (meaning, they don’t chew their cud). Turns out that the Kosher Club has even higher standards than the Artiodactyla.

So what do the Artiodactyla have to do with the Kosher Club?

Well, you see, according to the Kabbalah, when we eat food, our job is to reconnect the food with its spiritual source. Non-kosher animals are those animals that are so out of touch with their angelic source that when we eat them, we’re not able to re-establish that connection. Kosher animals, on the other hand, are those animals that we can reconnect—if we slaughter them properly and eat them with the proper respect and intent.

Now, every animal on earth is really a mere reflection of some angel or set of angels above. So the physical features of the animal somehow must reflect the spiritual nature of that angel. That’s why the kosher animals have hooves: because a hoof means—like I said in the video—that even as you are here on this earth, you still remain a little above it. You didn’t sink in all the way; you can still reconnect.

The same with everything you do. If you want to raise up your world and reconnect it to its spiritual source, you need to stay a little above it at all times. Remember that these things you do in the world to survive, that’s not the real you. Get into some rituals every day to remind yourself of your true identity—a G‑dly soul, here on a divine mission. Be within, but stay above.