LEV115 The third sin that relates to desire (in order of priority after theft and promiscuity) is that of prohibited foods. These include things that are ritually unclean or an admixture of this kind, combinations of meat and milk, prohibited animal fats, blood, food cooked by non-Jews or with utensils of non-Jews, the wine that they use for libations, and their wine in general. Cleansing oneself of all of these areas requires great meticulousness and firmness, in order to [deal with] the instinctive lust for good food and the monetary losses incurred as a result of the prohibitions of admixtures and the like. [Additionally] their web of details is complex, as reflected in their numerous laws, which are [widely] known and clearly defined in the works of the halachic authorities. Furthermore, one who is lenient where they have directed him to be stringent is only destroying his own soul. It says in the Sifra (Shemini 12:3): "'And do not make yourself impure with them [for then] you will be [further] defiled through them' [this verse] means that if you do file yourselves through them [by transgressing them] you will ultimately be defiled by them!" This is telling us that prohibited foods literally infuse the heart and soul of an individual with defilement to such an extent that the sanctity of the Shechinah departs and distances itself from him. This is also what they said in the Talmud (Yoma 39a): "'You will be [further] defiled by them' means that you should not read this as: 'You will be defiled' (v'nitmaytem) but rather as 'You will become stupefied' (v'nitamtem). The sin stupefies the heart of man, for the true wisdom and the faculty of intelligence that the Holy One Blessed be He imparts to the pious will depart from him, as it states (Mishlei 2:6): "For the Eternal imparts wisdom." Such a person remains bestial and corporeal, immersed in the coarseness of this world. In this regard prohibited foods involve a more serious consequence than all other prohibitions, since they are actually absorbed by a person's body, becoming a part of his flesh.