Some individuals require special food and drink, things commonly regarded as luxuries, for their peace of mind.
If they lack these things, their concentration and clarity of mind [are] adversely affected.
Thus, the Talmud quotes the Talmudic sage Rava as saying, “Wine and fragrance have made me wise”—that is to say, the effect they had on him was to open his mind to Torah study.
A person such as Rava can “eat fat beef and drink spiced wine” and elevate them to holiness, for he does this to the end of broadening “his mind for the service of God and His Torah.”
This extreme example illustrates the extent to which a proper intention can elevate elements that are in themselves kelipah: a person is not only partaking of the material world but of luxuries, of things that serve not the body’s needs but whose only purpose is to give pleasure.
Nevertheless, because he is doing this for a particular and expressly intended goal, the purpose of serving God, he raises these elements to the aspect and level of holiness.
—Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz