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Meaning in Mitzvot -
Lesson 27

Breaking Bread and Rules for the Meal

21.09.2014
Text file

 

Rav Ganzfried provides us with no less than ten seifim describing how to (break) bread! He tells us which loaf to start with, how to hold the bread, what part of the bread to take first, how big a piece to take, how to distribute pieces to the guests, and so on. The detail he goes into testifies to the special importance bread has as "the staff of life."

 

We explained in siman 35 that bread is a uniquely human food. Culturally, bread is the simplest food of all - the "staff of life." It is considered the minimal human staple to the extent that we describe a subsistence diet as "bread and water." Yet technologically bread is the most COMPLICATED common food. Bread requires plowing, sowing, and reaping (like other produce); it requires threshing, winnowing, and milling to be made into flour; it requires kneading to be made into dough, rising and baking to become bread.

 

Each of these stages is indispensable, and without each there will be no bread. The very status of bread as a basic food demonstrates what an incredibly high cultural and technological level humans have attained.  For human beings, it seems that even the simplest things are not so simple.

 

The Torah recognizes the unique cultural status of man, and places tremendous halakhic value on human dignity. (See what we wrote on siman 9:20). However, the Torah does not stop there. On the contrary, the mitzvot are constantly challenging us to ascend from mere DIGNITY to SANCTITY. Bread is an ideal focus for realizing this challenge. Bread is the symbol of food in general - in English as in Hebrew, the word "bread" means by extension all food. So it is the natural place to underscore the need for sanctification of our material needs. In addition, it is the symbol of our special technological and cultural sophistication, in so far as we fulfill our basic needs with such an advanced food. This makes it the natural focus to underscore the need to sanctify our economic activities.

 

This is the theme that explains the special attention given to the laws and deportment relating to eating bread, and the theme which will help us understand the specific laws and customs mentioned in our chapter.

 

HAMOTZI LECHEM MIN HA-ARETZ (Seif 1)

 

Rav Ganzfried mentions that the special blessing on bread is "ha-motzi lechem min ha-aretz" - Blessed are you . . . THE ONE who brings bread forth from the earth." The gemara (Berakhot 38a) prefers this formulation over saying merely "motzi lechem min ha-aretz" - "Who brings bread forth from the earth." The latter formulation indicates thanks only on the past (as if we had said "Who BROUGHT bread forth from the earth)"; the former indicates thanks on the present as well. We are thanking God not only for having provided us with this particular piece of bread, but also for His ongoing role as sustainer of the universe, as the one Who is continuously responsible for nature's bounty.

 

AVOIDING AN INTERRUPTION (Seif 3)

 

Rav Ganzfried explains that it is best to cut the bread a bit BEFORE the blessing, so that we may get to eating the bread as quickly as possible AFTER the blessing. Why all this effort in order to save a mere few seconds between the blessing and the eating?

 

As we explained in the Introduction, citing the Sefer HaChinukh, the halakha educates us not abstractly but concretely. An awareness of God's providence is not inculcated by reading edifying texts, but by saying a blessing every time we eat food. In this way, our spirituality does not alienate us from our environment but on the contrary connects us to it. We are plugged into the hidden holiness in our seemingly secular and profane world.

 

That is why halakha very strictly prohibits saying a blessing in vain - a blessing not said on something which we are actually going to eat or drink (as we mentioned in siman 39). Such a blessing creates a partition between our encounter with God and our experience of the world, whereas the entire mission of the Torah is to unite them! (See what Rav Kook writes regarding the blessing of tefillin, Olat Reiyah pp. 30-32.)

 

We say a blessing only on a specific morsel of food which we have before us and which we are going to enjoy. In this way our praise of God is grounded in our personal experience. In order to make this connection as direct and powerful as possible, we go to great lengths to make the time between blessing and eating as short as possible.

 

 

TEN FINGERS, TEN MITZVOT (Seif 5)

 

The Kitzur mentions that one should grasp the bread with all ten fingers, corresponding to the ten different commandments which are performed during the process of creating bread.

 

Examining these mitzvot, we see that they correspond to the many different stages in making bread.  The mitzvot and the corresponding stages are as follows: not working with mixed animals - during plowing, not using mixed seed - during sowing, leaving the abandoned sheaf - during harvesting, not muzzling the animal - during threshing, separating the teruma - after winnowing and gathering into the silo, separating challa - after kneading.

 

Thus, placing our ten fingers on the bread as we bless has a deep and powerful message. At the simplest level, it connects us with these various stages of production themselves. Modern life has the tendency to alienate us from our sustenance, and unlike the ancient farmer who was familiar with all ten stages, the average modern consumer only vaguely recognizes any of them. The symbolism of the ten fingers holding the bread representing the many stages of production connects us with the process of making bread, acting as an antidote to this alienation.

 

But deeper yet is our RELATION to these stages. We do not relate to these steps as technological processes alone; rather, we relate to them via the HALAKHIC obligations connected to them, which endow these seemingly mundane acts with immense sanctity. Our ten fingers connect us, body and soul, to the entire MATERIAL matrix of our existence while awakening us to the incredible SPIRITUAL potential which enlivens it.

 

SALT (Seif 6)

 

Rav Ganzfried mentions that it is appropriate to have salt on the table as we slice the bread in order to emphasize the likeness of our dining table to the holy altar, on which every sacrifice was brought with salt (Vayikra 2:15).

 

This well-known likeness contains a seeming paradox which is in fact the key to a deep secret. As Rav Ganzfried explains, we make efforts to keep salt on the table due to the likeness of the table to an altar. Like the sacrifices, our seemingly mundane eating is meant to be an offering to God, a dedication of the material to the service of the Almighty.

 

The paradox arises when we examine the reason for the salt on the altar itself. A reason prominently mentioned is - because the altar is like a table! We offer to HaShem only what is choice and desirable, and a dignified human meal would not contain unsalted meat. (See Tosafot Menachot 20a, s.v. "sheken.")

 

The fact is that only food suitable for HUMAN consumption is brought on GOD's altar. The sacrifices brought on the altar of the holy Temple are not magical potions or wild animals. The sacrifices consist of bread, properly slaughtered meat, wine, and oil - the staples of HUMAN nutrition. By offering these basic foods to HaShem, we emphasize that our own eating is also meant to be a sacrifice to God.

 

We don't eat bread and drink wine for the purpose of our own enjoyment, rather we elevate our meal to an element of our service of God. But we are still aware of the special importance of enjoyable food, and we offer sacrifices to HaShem in a way that WE would enjoy eating them - cooked and salted. Our dignity and delight in eating are not only legitimate but even holy, so long as they are devoted to God.

 

Today we have no altar, but having bread on the table reminds us of the holy altar and of its message which in turn is focused on our own tables: our material needs should be conducted in a refined CULTURAL fashion (we don't eat unseasoned food) which is a stepping stone to elevated SPIRITUAL conduct.

SIMAN 42 - CONDUCT DURING EATING

In this chapter Rav Ganzfried outlines our sages' guidelines for proper table conduct. Most of these rules could be classified as table manners. Torah leaders throughout the generations have always emphasized the importance of refined conduct - as a stepping stone to something higher. Through culture and refinement, man is elevated above the beasts. Through the commandments, covenental man - specifically the Jew - is elevated above the rest of mankind.

Most of the seifim require no explanation, since they correspond to models of proper etiquette which all of us recognize. However, several halakhot convey special and important lessons.

CARING FOR ANIMALS (Seif 1)

Rav Ganzfried explains that we should feed our beasts before we eat ourselves (if it is their feeding time). The Yaavetz (Sheilat Yaavetz I:17) explains why we have a special obligation to the beasts. Animals in their natural environment have all of their needs provided by God. Cows and sheep graze, birds seek seeds, and so on. When we domesticate animals, we deprive them of their natural sources of food. It is bad enough that we have deprived them of the ability to receive their sustenance directly from their Creator and thereby compel them to receive it from us. (This is considered a terrible degradation - see what we wrote on chapter 131:16, and see Rashi on Bereshit 8:11.) If we have made them dependent upon us for their food, the least we can do is provide it in a dependable way.

The problem does not usually arise with regard to drinking, since usually even domestic animals are provided with water in a way that they are able to drink by themselves when they like.

DISCUSSING TORAH AT THE TABLE (Seif 5)

Rav Ganzfried mentions the mitzva of discussing Torah at the table - though not in the middle of eating. (This is mentioned in the famous mishna in Avot 3:3.) We have explained that the basic theme of the laws of table conduct is to create an awareness that our material sustenance, as represented by the food, and our human dignity, as represented by table manners, are meant to be used in the service of God. There is no better way of showing that the ultimate goal is serving HaShem then by discussing His Torah.

CONTINUITY IN EATING (Seifim 19-23)

In these seifim Rav Ganzfried outlines what kinds of interruptions are thought to constitute the end of the meal. Once there is a significant interruption, then the meal (or snack) is over. This means that a final berakha must be said, and no further eating is permissible without saying a new beginning berakha.

This halakhic principle has it basis in a principle of etiquette. A firm principle of dining in Jewish law is that of "keviut" - fixity and settlement. An ideal halakhic meal is one based on bread, that takes place in one place during one defined period of time (perhaps a long one) among a defined group of people. At a state dinner we don't expect the principle guests to be coming and going in the middle or eating on their feet, and this illustrates the extent to which fixity contributes to dignity.

Bread provides importance and a proper foundation for the meal; unlike other foods, it is accompanied by washing hands before the meal and the special grace after meals afterwards. A change of place raises questions if this is one meal being eaten in two places or two different meals, and eating with an interruption - a long period of time or a non-eating activity - raises the same question. When there is a defined group of people then even if one person leaves, the others can provide a sense of continuity to his eating so that it still be considered one meal - as Rav Ganzfried explains in seif 20. Furthermore, a bread meal eaten in a group of at least three men enables them to make a special invitation to grace, as explained in siman 44.

However, the halakha recognizes that people's busy lives don't allow every meal to attain this ideal, so Rav Ganzfried discusses the halakhic status of different types of interruptions, telling us which ones are considered a new meal and which a continuation of the old.

 

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