20 Aug LIVING TO EAT, EATING TO LIVE

In Order to Live
We need to eat and
drink in order to
live. After eating
and drinking, waste
must be expelled. We
must have the proper
approach to the food
we take into our mouths
and understand the
focus of food in Yiddishkeit. Do we live to
eat or eat to live?
We know that food can be a source of illness
and undermine our health. If we overindulge
in food, so much damage can result that
Chazal say that just as we should daven that
Torah should go inside us, we should daven
that delicacies do not enter our stomach.
The desire to eat makes a person coarse. Yet
is food a very bad thing? Every significant
event on the Jewish calendar is marked by
meals—three meals on Shabbos followed
by melaveh malkah, meals on Yom Tov, and
seudos mitzvah for various occasions. In
the Beis Hamikdash, the korbanos offerings
involved eating. Is food, then, good or bad?
When we eat food because it is a mitzvah,
does it elevate us or lower us spiritually?
Both sides of the coin are true, and it all
depends on how we view food. Obviously,
the easiest recourse would be to refrain
from eating since it can result in a spiritual
downfall. However, this is not possible since
we need food in order to survive.
Eating is part of what we do as we aspire to
be a holy Jew. The desire for food is harder
to control than other desires since one who
wishes to refrain from other desires can avoid
them altogether. However, food is essential
to life. Because of this, we must make sure to
eat properly. Since Hashem made it necessary
for us to eat, and this is something that we
do on a daily basis, we must understand
what eating is all about. Perhaps we need to
ponder: Why do we get more excited over
a good piece of steak than a good piece of
Gemara?
With All of Our Actions
The Shulchan Aruch says that we should
have Hashem in mind with all of our actions,
even when it comes to mundane acts such as
eating and drinking. A person should have
in mind that he is eating to live, which is
praiseworthy. The Shulchan Aruch says that
this seems to be the ideal, although most
people cannot achieve this level on a daily
basis. The Mishnah Berurah says that before
eating and drinking, pious people would say
that they are eating and drinking in order to
have strength to serve Hashem.
In truth, Hashem provided us with food on
this world so we can enjoy it. The Meshech
Chochmah states that when Hashem told

Adam, “From all the fruits of the garden you
may eat,” it was a mitzvah for him to eat. The
Yerushalmi says that when a person leaves
this world, he will have to answer to Hashem
for not tasting certain foods that Hashem
created.
In the parshash of the sorer u’morer, the pasuk
says that he does not listen to his parents’
voices nor walk in their path, and his parents
describe him as being a glutton and drunkard.
What makes his behavior so predictable,
even though he did not yet commit a crime,
is that he stuffs food down his throat without
exercising self-control. Therefore, we do
not allow him to live. Although there never
was such a wayward son, we learn about this
concept in order to reap reward.
Growing up in a home with fancy foods and
delicacies and an expensive wine collection
leads to the downfall of the sorer u’morer. Of
course, various dishes should be served, but
we must be disciplined. Do we own food, or
does it own us? Do we rejoice on Shabbos
and Yom Tov with divrei Torah and zemiros,
or do we spend all our time talking about
food? A person who is a slave to his stomach
is rarely a servant of Hashem. We must pay
attention to the food we eat. Although it
tastes good and we keep on eating, we must
realize what the food is doing to us.
A Constant Battle
Our relationship with food is a constant
battle. Lechem, bread, has the same letters
as the word milchamah, battle. Eating, in
essence, is a battle: We have an appetite and
a desire to eat, yet there is a struggle to eat
the right foods in the proper amounts. Will
the food overcome us, or will we overcome
the fight?
The pasuk says, “You set a table before me
in the presence of my adversaries.” Harav
Tzadok explains this in the following way:
when I sit at the table and see the many
appetizers, main dishes, and desserts, I
am across from my adversaries. Why did
Hashem create us in such a way that we
constantly face this battle and our stomachs
do not shut down when we are full?
The Gemara says that Kiddush is only
recited when there is a seudah. Besides for
the halachah, there is a deeper meaning here
as well. There is kodesh, holiness, only at the
time of our meals (Kiddush and kodesh share
the same root word).[19] The world today is
filled with obese people who overeat. Hashem
wants us to make choices that give our life
meaning. If we had been preprogrammed
to act in a certain way, our lives would lack
meaning. The more disciplined we are,
the more we are like Hashem. We must be
mindful when we eat. Hashem gave us food
to enjoy, but when we cross the border and
eat more than we need and at times when we
do not need to eat, such as very late at night,

we lose the battle.
A Direct Connection
We must realize that food was given to us so
we can survive. Hashem is the one who gives
us life, and we need food in order to sustain
this life. Food is able to sustain us because it
contains a spark of Hashem and His holiness.
Each time we eat, we are connecting to
Hashem, the source of life. More than
any other physical action, eating serves to
connect us to Hashem. Even a tzaddik who is
immersed in Torah learning must stop to eat
since a person who does not eat will forget
who is the source of life.
We must think about the fact that eating
gives us a direct connection to Hashem.
A person who does not eat will die, and a
person who eats will live. This is the method
Hashem chose to ensure that we live. If we
keep this in mind, then each time we eat, we
will connect to Hashem through food. Eating
in this manner should bring us to feelings
of humility since without the energy that
Hashem put into food, we would not be able
to survive. Hashem required us to eat in order
to connect to Him.
If we take life for granted, we will not think
about Hashem. We therefore must stop
whatever we are doing and eat in order to
remember Him. Hashem does not want us
to live a life of ingratitude. The snake must
spend its life on the ground and find its
food in this manner, yet this is a curse. We,
on the other hand, must work for our food.
Although it may seem like a curse that we
have to work to obtain food, this is really a
blessing because it enables us to connect to
Hashem.
The obsession that people have with food was
meant to be an obsession for a relationship
with Hashem. If, when we eat, we do not
think that we are connecting to Hashem, we
will ultimately forget Him. A person who
indulges in food will inevitably be affected
by this. Such a person will have no kedushah
and will not remember Hashem. He will not
be able to daven properly, and his heart will
be as hard as a stone.
Before We Eat
Before we eat, we should think about the
food we are eating. We should ask ourselves:
Am I an animal that indulges in every
desire, or am I eating for a purpose? While
we should enjoy our food, we must realize
its purpose and feel grateful to Hashem for
it. One should realize that the good taste of
the food does not come from spices or other
ingredients; it comes from Hashem.
One should also realize that by eating the
food, we are fulfilling the purpose of why this
food was brought into the world, which is to
serve the person eating the food. One would
think that food only serves the person who

is eating it, but the deeper idea is that food
is brought into this world for us to enable it
to fulfill its purpose—which is to lift us up
by eating it for the proper reasons. There is a
reason why this food came your way.
The brachah we recite before eating should
put us in the proper frame of mind and
help us to remember that the food is from
Hashem. Therefore, we must be careful
not to swallow our words when reciting a
brachah and prepare ourselves to have the
correct mindset. The food should not be
so important to us that one does not think
about the brachah and runs through it so he
can get to his piece of meat, losing out on
making a brachah properly. The brachos we
say emphasize that Hashem is in control of
everything, and it enables one to realize that
there is a Creator in the world who made this
food.
It is also important to eat slowly since eating
quickly fuels one’s desire for food. When a
person eats quickly, he is usually not thinking
about Hashem. When we chew our food
slowly, we can think about the purpose of the
food and realize that we are meant to come
close to Hashem through eating.