Warning: Tim trying to derive spiritual teaching from dry halacha
If a chicken lays an egg naturally, if it is unfertilized, it is pareve (neither meat nor dairy), unlike the hen, who is meat. (If you hit a chicken and cause it to lay an egg, the egg is not kosher because it is considered a limb of a living animal.
If a hen is shechted (slaughtered in accordance with the laws of kashrut), if there are eggs inside, although the minhag now is not to eat them - and I doubt they could be sold in the US anyway, there are different opinions about whether the egg would be considered pareve or meat, depending on how highly developed they are. (The laws are fairly complicated, so I am oversimplifying.)
Rashi says that if the yolk is fully formed and nothing else, it's a pareve egg and not part of the hen. (The Shach concurs in cases of hefsed merubah, great monetary loss.)
The Rashba, with which the Shulchan Aruch concurs, says that if the yolk and eggwhite are fully formed, even without a shell, it's a pareve egg.
The Orchot Chaim, with whom the Rama and, b'dieved, the Shach, concur poskens that if there is a soft inner shell, it's pareve.
The Rashbam (Rashi’s grandson), with whom the Rama and the Shach l’chatchila concur, poskens that it requires a full shell.
Here is my question:
What is the correlation between the four parts of the egg and the four lower parts of the soul (chayah/yolk, neshama/eggwhite, ruach/soft shell, nefesh/hard shell) and the corresponding worlds (Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, Asiyah)? What do each of the four positions have to say about each part of the soul – how do we become fully pareve/ourselves in each of the four sections? These correlations are something I want to think more about and – perhaps – might form the basis of a kavannah for consuming eggs.
And a follow-up question:
Am I consuming too much Dr Pepper before learning halacha and is this giving rise to these questions?
