First of all, lets put aside all the ignorant assumptions like

• Because it was stylish at the time, since pagan religions all had dietary laws
• They did not have refrigeration in the time of Moses, so the laws were made to protect the health of Israel
• Pork is a dirty animal
• Pork is a carrier of disease

Within the Torah, it explains to us which animal is kosher, and which is not kosher. However, the laws of kosher fall into the minority of laws called chookeem, which means that they have no apparent reason. As opposed to, not stealing, not murdering, etc. Even though the depths of the kosher laws fall into the category of chookeem, they do have one sound reason... "For I am the Lord you God, sanctify yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am holy." (Lev. 11:44). This is said right after the giving of the kosher laws.

When Israel accepted the Torah, the entire nation, in unison said, "Naaseh v'nishmah." "We will do and we will hear." In other words, first we will accept, since it comes directly from the Divine wisdom, and then we will try to understand.

The small amount of insight which we receive from the above verse (Lev. 11:44), fits in well with all of the esoteric understanding of Torah.

ESOTERIC:
To begin with, as many of you have already learned from our Tanya classes, The soul is a union of the Divine, and the soul has been placed within this world of sitra achra (other side), a world which is a shell, if you will, disguising and hiding the Divine light. Our job is to reveal all elements of this Divinity in order to allow the Shechinah (Divine Presence) to become apparent, or to dwell amongst us without being hidden. Therefore, we slowly, through the mitzvot (commandments), strip away the shells, one by one, until Hashem becomes obvious to all. However, this process does not only consist of an outward reviling, in other words, one should not only concentrate on striping the shells of ones exterior surrounding, but this process of striping the shells start within the individual. His soul must become revealed and in control of his body and his mundane desires. As long as a person is only drawn to the shells of the world, the Divine will never be completely revealed to him, only an inkling of it's existence in order to convince the person to search on. It is the nature of man to search the world for peace of mind, and this so often is done by way of toys, lusts, and other mundane quests. However, as is common knowledge. Money can't buy love, and rich people do have problems.  As long as a person search outside of himself for happiness, his quest will never cease.

I mention that it is the way of man to search... However, a more exact truth is that it is the way of the soul. The soul is a strong fire, and as is the nature of a fire, to always rise, so is the nature of a soul, to always rise and try to return, and attach itself to its source. It's essence.  Every since Adam the first was exiled from paradise he has been struggling to return.  Now, since the soul has little strength within this world, the world of the body and mundane, the soul is chained within the desires of the body.  The only way that a soul can express itself on earth is by way of the three garments, thought, speech, and deed. And all three of these garments are expressed through the flesh and blood. The physical body. Now we are presented with a problem. On one side, the soul is driving to find its source, this signal reaches the intellect and then is registered within the ways of the body, and the body continues this urge only to relieve itself with the things that it recognizes as fulfillment. The problem here is the basic order of man, he does not allow his soul to dominate his body. There is too much static, confusion, emotions, mundane knowledge.  Mans tendency (or the bodies tendency) is to pull strength from below rather than from above.

The Torah is the kindness of Hashem. The Torah is His grand Wisdom. Just as man has an idea and then nurtures it until it becomes a reality, Hashem as well brought into His Wisdom Torah, and from that came the creation of the world. Later, the Torah went down, level by level, until it entered into the physical realm of parchment and ink, and each man absorbs it according to his intellect. But this does not mean that the essence of Hashem's Wisdom has been removed, quit to the contrary. The lowering of levels, until it reached the state of parchment and ink, is only another obscurity (shell) which needs to be stripped away. We do not understand the Torah as do the higher beings, and we surely do not understand it as does Hashem.  We speak of the esoteric (kabbalah), and this deep understanding of Torah is a level which does not reside within the basic intellect of the common man, but rather, it is closer to that of the angels' understanding of Torah. As it says in Torah, "Though shall not steal." Do the angels have use for such commandments? Of course not, but the basic understanding of this commandment is "I have this, you have that. I make do with what I have, you make do with what you have. If I take what is yours, I do not have what is mine, and therefore, I can no longer function properly within the order of my world but I have now infringed on your world"

Through the esoteric understanding of Torah, we uncover that one of the greatest kindness of Hashem is that if one uncovers the Divine light within the hidden, he then becomes deserving as well. As commented by Rashi on the verse in Torah...

Rashi on Beresheet 1:4 : "God saw that the light was good, and separated":

...[we will need to rely on our Agadic Midrashim in order to understand better]. He saw it, that it does not deserve that the wicked use it, and He set it aside for the righteous for the future [The Light]. According to its simple meaning, explain it as follows. He saw it that it is good, and it is not proper for it and the darkness to be functioning in a jumble...
[Rashi indicates here that the purpose for the separation was because "He saw that the light was good." This Pure and Holy light is too good for the wicked. Only those who toil in the wisdoms will be able to bear such light, much less understand it. It is the pure light of (Emet or Truth). and one may not utilize it for free. It must be appreciated and comprehended. ]

One goes with the other, hand in hand. If you strip away the peel from an orange, you are deserving to eat the orange as well and enjoy it's sweetness.  Step by step, through the 248 positive commandments in the Torah (there are 248 organs in the human body as well), we begin to refine the soul and we begin to teach it how to dominate the body. If, Heaven forbid, we fall into the 365 negative commandments of the Torah (there are 365 veins and bones in the human body and 365 days in a physical solar year thus representing all bodily and mundane anchors) we give strength to the body, thus remove the strength from the soul.

Each issur (forbidden, also "chained") food is part of the mundane, and has not strength within it other than the strength it can give the body, that is why the word for forbidden is also the word for chained, because these foods are chained to the material hidden world of this creation, and Divinity cannot be revealed through it. On the other hand, kosher foods have within them the spark of Divinity. This spark fuels the soul, much as vitamin A might help the eyes and so forth. When a person consumes kosher foods, he is giving strength to his soul, much needed strength, which will help it to perform the commandments without such great struggles with the body. As the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Sneur Zalman, of blessed memory, writes in his sefer Tanya,  "There are two kings within the heart..." Each one is trying to rule, however, both cannot rule simultaneously. And being that we live within the domain of the bodily and mundane king, he usually has the upper hand.

Since the body is a only a microcosm of the Holy Temple, we are instructed within the Torah as to how it will function according to the Divine will, and how it will be able to achieve the conquest of mind over matter/body. Hence...

I think that this verse gives us enough reasons... "I am the Lord your God... therefore." "...be holy for I am holy." In other words, If it's me that you want (the revelation of the hidden Divine light), you must be as Me, otherwise you will not recognize Me. I will be a stranger, because My true essence cannot be seen within the mundane, only a scarce reflection."

The above classes are being prepared, among others as well. Please check back often to see the advancement.