The Power of Chicken Soup

The Zohar Hakadosh teaches us that Shabbos is the source of all good things. This means everything from our livelihood to our health to our spiritual blessings all flows through the gift of Shabbos. What particular aspect of Shabbos is the source of refuah, good health? Anything a Jew does has significance and should not be taken lightly. Certainly that is the case with matters of halacha and minhag, but this also applies to things we call “culture.” A prime example is the well- known Jewish culture of the “Jewish penicillin” - a.k.a. chicken soup! If chicken soup is what every Yiddishe bobba tells us to eat when we are sick, and it is a well-known and fundamental part of our Shabbos menu, perhaps we have just pinpointed which aspect of Shabbos holds the blessing of healing and good health! But what is it about chicken soup that heals? To answer this, we must understand the two basic needs of every neshamah. The first is the side of the neshamah that wants nothing more than to escape this earthly world and return to where it comes from — our Father in Heaven. A second part of us knows that it has a mission to achieve to make the world a better place, and that even though it entails being a little less heavenly. This mission can only be fulfilled down here, in this world. When a person is hungry or thirsty, we must understand that it is not only a physical experience, but rather a spiritual one as well. What is the neshamah telling us? Eating ties us to this world in a very re