Life without bread – Ekev
When Frenchmen were without bread, Marie Antoinette said, “Let them eat cake!” If you lack bread you are not likely to have cake either. But, as the sidra reminds us, even with bread life is not necessarily satisfying: “Not by bread alone does a person live” (Deut. 8:3).
What do we need beside bread? The Torah’s answer is. “By every utterance of HaShem does a person live”.
Hertz explains, “Apart from the normal sustenance, there are Divine forces which sustain man in his progress through life”. Fine words, but there was a time when people were too busy being materialistic to care much about faith, culture, refinement. The disease hit religion itself; some synagogues were judged by the size of the budget and the magnificence of the building.
Now there is a different mood, a new concern for spiritual dimensions. Life became too empty of meaning, the lack of idealism gave way to boredom, there was a void in human hearts and minds.
But we still have a problem in the synagogue, at least to some extent. It is summed up in the Midrash about Abraham and Isaac and their servants. Nearing Moriah, Isaac was awestruck by the majestic mountain with its summit enveloped in cloud; but the servants wondered what the fuss was about. All they saw was an ordinary looking hill. Said Abraham, “Then since you have no spiritual perception. you stay with the donkeys and I and the lad will venture ahead”.
Ask some what they see in the synagogue and they will see how it can thrill the heart, inform the mind and inspire the soul. Ask others and what you hear is that their seat ought to be in the front row and that membership should be cheaper. Truly, bread without the Divine word….
