4303. 'Therefore the children of Israel do not eat the sinew of that which was displaced, which is on the hollow of the thigh' means that no truths containing falsities were assimilated. This is clear from the meaning of 'eating' as being joined to and made one's own, dealt with in 2187, 2343, 3168, 3513, 3596, 3832, and from the meaning of 'the sinew' as truth, for truths within good are like sinews within the flesh, and truths are also meant in the spiritual sense by 'sinews' and good by 'flesh', 3579, 3813. 'Sinews' and 'flesh' have a similar meaning in Ezekiel,

Thus said the Lord Jehovih to these bones, I will lay sinews upon you and cover you with flesh, and I will put spirit within you I looked, and behold, there were sinews upon them, and flesh came up. Ezekiel 37:6, 8.

Here the new creation of man, that is, the regeneration of him, is the subject. But once truths have been distorted they cease to be truths any longer; and the more they are distorted into the reverse of truths the nearer they get to falsities. This is why 'the sinew of that which was displaced' means falsity. For 'the hollow of the thigh' means the point where conjugial love is joined to natural good, and therefore the point where the influx of spiritual truth into natural good takes place, see 4277, 4280. From this it is evident that 'therefore the children of Israel do not eat the sinew of that which was displaced, which is on the hollow of the thigh' means that no truths containing falsities were assimilated. The reason why these things are said concerning the children of Israel is that 'Israel' means the Divine celestial-spiritual, 4286, while 'children' or 'sons' means truths, 489, 491, 2623. So the meaning is that the truths belonging to the Divine celestial-spiritual did not assimilate any falsities as part of themselves.

3513. 'And I will eat' means in that way making it its own. This is clear from the meaning of 'eating' as being made one's own, dealt with in 2187, 2343, 3168, 3503. It is made its own when, by means of forms of pleasantness and delight, truths, that is, cognitions of good and truth, are instilled into the natural; and when these truths are allied to the good in the natural, communication is effected with the truth and good of the rational and so with the rational itself. It is this communication that the expression 'being made one's own' is used to describe, for those truths belong to the rational within the natural. Indeed truths in the rational are related to those in the natural in the way that individual parts are related to their general wholes. It is well known that a general whole is the product of its individual parts and that without the individual parts no general whole can be produced. It is the general whole produced from the individual parts belonging to the rational that is manifested in the natural. And being a general whole it takes a different form, doing so according to the order of the individual constituent parts, and so according to the form that results. If it is the more specific and the consequent individual parts of celestial good and spiritual truth that give form to the general whole within the natural, then it is a celestial and spiritual form that is presented, and something of heaven is represented as a kind of image in the specific parts constituting the general whole. But if the more specific and the individual parts which give form to the general whole within the natural do not consist of good and truth but of evil and falsity, something of hell is in that case represented as a kind of image in the specific parts constituting the general whole.

[2] Such are the things meant by eating and drinking in the Holy Supper, where again eating and drinking mean making one's own; that is to say, 'eating' means making good one's own and 'drinking' making truth one's own. If good, that is to say, love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, gives form to the internal or rational man, and by way of this rational man gives form to a corresponding external or natural man, the person becomes in particular and in general an image of heaven, and therefore an image of the Lord. But if contempt for the Lord and for the good and truth of faith, and hatred towards the neighbour give form to the rational man, the person becomes in particular and in general an image of hell - the more so if at the same time he eats and drinks in a holy manner, for profanation then results. Consequently people who eat and drink worthily make eternal life their own, whereas those who do so unworthily make [eternal] death their own.