Editing Kashrus (section)

== The Importance of Keeping Kashrus ==
The Rebbe explains that being particular about kashrus in eating and drinking stems from the fact that food and drink become the blood and flesh of the person, and therefore they influence the person with the same characteristics they possess. Therefore we don't eat food from predatory animals - non-kosher ones, since through forbidden eating the person receives the cruel nature of predatory animals and the like.

Similarly regarding cholov nochri, the Rebbe expressed that one should be careful to avoid drinking it, because it causes doubts in emunah.

In seforim it brings a mashal regarding the importance of keeping kashrus: A simple person eats coarse foods and they don't harm him at all, but a prince who is used to eating fine and delicate foods, if he eats coarse food - the food will harm him. And the more elevated a person is, his food is also more refined and superior. So too Bnei Yisroel who are children of the King of kings, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, cannot eat forbidden foods, but must eat only kosher foods so they won't be harmed. And the higher and more elevated a person is, the more they need to be particular about keeping the kashrus of foods they put in their mouth, which is expressed in additional stringencies and various hidurim.

This mashal appears slightly differently in Rashi's commentary: A mashal to two sick people, one who has a chance to recover and the second has no chance. The doctor tells the one with a chance to eat only certain things that won't harm him, but tells the second to eat whatever his soul desires, since anyway he has no chance.

In Chassidic seforim it also brings on the possuk "v'nitmeisem bam" - that the reason it's not written with an aleph (v'nitmeisem) is because non-kosher food blocks up a person's heart and mind.

The Rebbe expressed that the reason why according to doctors' research Jews suffer from stomach problems more than non-Jews, is because for already 30 generations, three thousand years Jews have been careful with kashrus and their stomachs got used to these foods, and this passes through inheritance from father to son, and when they start eating other food that isn't kosher, it's hard for the stomach to adjust to the changes.

==== The Responsibility of Jewish Women ====
By virtue of the woman's role as akeres habayis on whom the foundation of running the home rests, among her roles is being particular about keeping kashrus, which affects the whole family and the entirety of Am Yisroel.

Besides the woman's responsibility for keeping the kashrus of foods in the home, she has the power to influence family members also regarding their eating outside the home, since when family members eat kosher food at home, it influences their way of thinking, and it becomes easier to influence them to be particular about kosher foods also outside the home, and additionally, after they get used to kosher foods, it's easier for them to maintain the habit.

==== Feeding an Infant ====
In response to R' Ovadia Stroks, the Rebbe wrote that regarding baby food that needs various kashrus accommodations, one should follow the Rav's instructions after presenting him with all the details of the situation accurately, and this is not from the things where one should be more stringent and mehadrin beyond the Rav's ruling.