Life Along the Route 9 Corridor:

Watching the southbound traffic pass the store's picture window this morning as my water was being tested at the place my plumber recommended, I noted a significant number of kosher food delivery trucks.

Sure, it's a straight shot from New York to Lakewood along Route 9.

I never got the mystical aspect of kosher:

To explain the power of kosher food, we must turn to Chassidic teachings based upon the mysticism of the Ari-Zal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria).

The Ari-Zal gave a literal interpretation of the verse, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by the word of G-d” (Deuteronomy 8:3). He explained that it is not the food itself that gives life but rather the spark of G-dliness – the “word of G-d” – that is in the food.

All matter has within it some aspect of the “G-dly sparks” that give life and existence to the world. When we eat, the digestive system extracts the nutrients while the neshamah extracts the G-dly spark found in nature.

The Divine energy in the food is thus the actual source of its ability to sustain and nourish the body.

Kosher food has a powerful energy that gives spiritual, intellectual and emotional strength to the Jewish neshamah, while non-kosher food does the opposite.

The kosher diet is truly the health-food diet for the soul, containing the spiritual nutrition necessary for Jewish survival.

See also Kashrut - Wiki

Of course I should know better. Of course there's a spiritual dimension to something as mundane as eating. Sounds a lot like Eucharist.

Ess gezunterhait.