A person whose being reflects the Godly image is elevated through eating living things. The inverse is also true, [as one who does not reflect the Godly image is brought down by eating living things].

Eating fish arouses the desire for marital relations.

God is made known in the world through Grace after Meals.

Reciting Grace after Meals brings the country’s government relief from disputes and wars.

When a person studies Torah with pure thoughts, so that he eats with such holiness that he is nourished by the sustenance of the angels, his enemies are sentenced to strangulation. This is alluded to [by the verses], “And it was on the third day, in the morning...” (Exodus 19:16); “then in the morning there was a layer of dew” (ibid. 16:13); “And it was at the morning watch...” (ibid. 14:24). (I heard this explanation from the Rebbe’s holy mouth: ‘“And it was on the third day, in the morning’ was said during the Giving of the Torah and refers to a person who studies Torah with pure thoughts. ‘Then in the morning there was a layer of dew’ was said about the manna, the food from which the angels draw sustenance, as our Sages taught (see Yoma 75b). ‘And it was at the morning watch’ was said at the splitting of the Red Sea, when the Egyptians were drowned, which is an aspect of strangulation, as our Sages taught (see Ketuvot30b).” Rebbe Nachman learned from one “morning” and applied it to the other, thereby deriving the above {insight} from the Torah.)

Whoever cannot taste the food he eats should know that God has removed Himself from him.

When Tzaddikim eat, it is [an act of holiness] even greater than bringing sacrifices, and on a higher level than even their marital relations.

Fish grow fatty in the merit of the sacrifices.

A person bitten by a dog clearly has had Heaven’s mercy removed from him. It is also a sign that he has eaten forbidden food.

Whoever is careful not to eat forbidden foods is saved from wild beasts.

One whose enemies have gained prominence succumbs to a lust for food.

A person’s lust for food causes him to favor one child over the others.

“L’chu lachmu v’lachmi u’shetu b’yayin masakhti (Come eat of my bread and drink of the wine that I have mixed)” (Proverbs 9:5). The first letters of L’chu Lachmu V’Lachmi U’shetu spell LULaV (לולב). B’yayin (ביין), with its four letters, has a numerical value (76) equivalent to that of the first letters of etrog (אתרוג), hadas (הדס) and aravah (ערבה); and maSaKhTiis similar to SuKkoT. By fulfilling the mitzvot of the Four Species and sukkah, a person is rewarded with food, drink, clothing and a revived spirit. Through the mitzvah of sukkahhe merits clothing, as in “When I made a cloud its garment” (Job 38:9). By virtue of the willow branch he merits sufficient drink; through the myrtle branch he brings vitality to the soul; and through the palm tree and the citron tree, both of which bear edible fruit, he merits having enough to eat.

One’s food and drink come from observing the Torah’s statutes and laws.

Drinking rouses a person to sing and play musical instruments, whereas eating does not. This is because [in the wilderness] the Jewish people sang the praise of God over the well, but not over the manna.