Not by bread alone, because, well, bagels, pizza, and brownies!

Ironically, I write this as my wife leaves for the grocery store, with one of the items on her list being bread for me. She does eat bread, but not as much as I do. I mention this because as I sit down to write today's note, the Torah portion for this week contains a well-known passage to most of us: The assertion that one "does not live by bread alone."

Although, to be honest, somedays, I think that I certainly might be able to, because. well, see the title of this note!

Christians might think that Jesus was the original speaker of this aphorism, but in fact, Jesus was merely quoting from his cherished Torah, where this verse appears in Deuteronomy in our Torah portion for this week known as Eikev.

Through the centuries, it has often been iterated and reiterated that this quote refers to our needs for not just physical sustenance, but the so many other things we need to be whole and well-rounded people. (Although, if we eat enough bread--or bagels or pizza or brownies--we become very well-rounded people!)

This interpretation is certainly a great way to apply this verse, and the context of the verse is also quite interesting. Personally, I like knowing both a spiritual interpretation/application AND the contextual/historical aspects of Torah. Not only is looking at both more informative than only considering one point of view, and therefore more wholistic, it's kinda my job as a Rabbi to do so. So bear with me.

Furthermore, this verse itself invites us to look deeper, to live a life that isn't one-note! "Not only by bread," calls to us not to live flat and without depth, only by one thing. "Not only by bread." This means not even only by spirituality.

In today's culture, we might look at this in another way, that, one does not live by social media alone. We need others, in person, in real life, in the fabric of our daily lives. Or, that we don't buy into news stories or politics by way of sound bytes, but listen to the entire story and context. Or, that one does not apply Torah verses without also considering their context and history.

"Not only by bread."

So, we look at this verse from it's spiritual applications, AND we also turn and turn and turn the words again to see what other nuggets of thought it might uncover for us from its context within the text and history, and for that, we need to look at the whole verse, not just a small snippet, a sound byte, as it were.

Let's dig in.

Remember that at this point in the story, the Israelites are in the desert being reminded of their journey thus far, before entering the land of promise to which they have been traveling for a few decades. Moses tells them:

"G!d subjected you to the hardship of hunger and then gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your ancestors had ever known, in order to teach you that one does not live by bread alone, but one may live on anything that comes from G!d."

This message is profound. It is both assuring the people of two certainties on which they may stake their very lives, as well as an additional interesting note we will get to in a moment. First, the assurances:

1. G!d will provide, even in the wilderness, even when all seems lost and hopeless, G!d will provide. A way will be made. Don’t give up. Do not despair. Not even in times of deprivation.

2. there is more to living than merely existing, and more to existing than buying and consuming, working and toiling, eating and breathing. There is a spiritual dimension to life we need to acknowledge and embrace. As humans, we have the unique capacity to bring layers of meaning and depth into every aspect of our lives, including quelling our hunger.

In no previous time has food gathering been more available to us, where there are 24 hour eateries and convenience stores within easy accessibility for most of us most of the time. There are even 24 hour TV shows about food and cooking. We've all become more knowledgable about food, and foods from around the world are certainly far more available than ever before.

In an increasingly food-centric world, this verse reminds us that eating is not the end all and be all.

In addition to the assurances, there is another notion in this verse we ought to consider, that, "G!d subjected you to the hardship of hunger... in order to teach you."

The Hebrew word here translated as "subjected" (or "afflicted" in other translations) is anotecha (עַנֹּתְךָ). It's meaning can range from being humbled to being humiliated, impoverished, or deprived of independence.

During their wilderness journey, the Israelites were not yet entirely free and independent people, able to grow food, hunt and gather as and when they wished, or make other decisions for themselves. They were most definitely humbled, dependent, and deprived of independence. They were no longer slaves in Egypt, but not yet completely free.

Instead, they depended on manna in the wilderness to keep them going.

Let's recall that manna is basically untranslatable but likely means something akin to "What is this stuff?" During the wilderness journey, manna began appearing on the ground every sunrise. Unlike any other food they had ever known, manna melted in the sun, and rotted when kept overnight in their tents. They could cook and eat only one day’s portion for each person. All of this was true, except on the sixth day of the week. On that day only, they were able to gather and cook a double portion of manna, to eat on days six and seven, and it did not rot overnight. The Torah story tells us that this is so they could learn to observe Shabbat rest. A sort of Shabbat training ground.

But this verse begs the question, "Are we 'tested' by G!d? Does G!d afflict us and have us go through hardships in order to teach us valuable life lessons?"

Personally, my answer to this is, it depends on how you think of and use the term "G!d." Is G!d some entity with super powers, external to us, in control of weather, the universe, other people, events, situations, etc?

This is certainly not my concept of G!d nor how I use the word. But a deeper discussion of that is best left for another day.

Perhaps a discussion of the Hebrew word translated as "being tested by G!d" is pertinent here. The Hebrew verb “to try or test” can also mean “to have an experience of” in the phenomenological sense. Because "manna" basically means, "What is this?", manna both enables and represents an experience of G!d as a reminder of the limits to human consciousness and solely human efforts. "What is this?" they asked. The answer is that it is that "something more" of life, it is the others with whom we interact and care, and who return that care to us.

Not by bread alone has a far deeper meaning here, which is that ultimately, we know that we cannot do everything on our own.  We will always be at least partly dependent, at the very least, not just on G!d, but even more so on other people and on nature. While we can often improve our lives by making good choices and taking definite actions, there will always be surprises, random events of both bad and good things which will happen, responses from other people we did not expect, and other situations over which we have very little or absolutely no control.

This is called not falling for the fallacy of our autonomous self-sufficiency, or, in simpler words, life on life's terms. When we fall for the fallacy, it can only result in a huge disconnect in our lives. This is, in fact, the main theme of this Torah passage.

While we have little control over life on life's terms, we are in absolute control over our reactions and responses to life on life's terms. We can choose whether to feel humble, or humiliated; whether to feel grateful for what we have, or resentful over what we don't. And one thing we most definitely need is others in our life.


I will pick up here and continue this important line of thinking in tomorrow's post.....