09 Nov 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