“When I break for you the staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will return your bread by weight, and you will eat and not be satisfied.” (Leviticus 26:26)
Third Reading: Hidden Blessings
Shabbat Shalom. This Shabbat we conclude the book of Leviticus; it is a Shabbat Chazak (“Be Strong”), so we need to strengthen ourselves.
Shabbat Bechukotai opens with the promise of blessings “If you follow My statutes” then “I will give your rains in their season... I will grant peace in the land... I will set My dwelling among you....” The parashah then continues with what will happen if we do not heed God's voice and details the opposite, the curses. This is also why there needs to be a break between reading Parashat Bechukotai and the holiday of Shavuot.
However, the Baal Shem Tov and especially his disciple's disciple, the Alter Rebbe teach that all the curses are actually hidden blessings.
“When I break for you the staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will return your bread by weight, and you will eat and not be satisfied.” In its simple meaning, this curse signifies famine – God breaks the staff of bread—an image for the source of livelihood—and there is so little grain (and wood for ovens) that ten women must bake bread in one oven, and even then, the baking does not go well, that a loaf does not come out, but rather pieces of baked dough that must then be divided precisely by weight, and ultimately, the worst part, "you will eat and not be satisfied." The Alter Rebbe interprets this entire verse positively, as a blessing in the inner service of God.
“When I break for you the staff of bread”—The Descent of Torah into Physicality
The Alter Rebbe explains that "When I break for you the staff of bread" is related to the secret of the breaking of the vessels—the breaking and falling of the sparks of Tohu [the World of Chaos] into the lower worlds, which necessitates and drives our Divine service by elevating the sparks known as the service of refinement. He begins with a question often repeated in Chasidut: why does man derive nourishment from the vegetation and animals below him? There is an order of inanimate-vegetable-animal-human, and one would expect each to receive its vitality from what is above it, but in practice, God created the world so that each one is nourished by what is below it. Why? Because the higher sparks fell to lower places, and they sustain those who consume and elevate the sparks. Thus, "man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of God," but that which "proceeds out of the mouth of God" is clothed within the bread, and when it is eaten, one is nourished by it.
The Alter Rebbe explains that "the staff of bread" is a symbol for the Tree of Life, and here he connects the whole matter particularly to the Torah, about which it is said, "Come, eat of my bread." Following the breaking (which is manifested in the Torah as the breaking of the Tablets), the Torah also fell—or more precisely, descended—into the lower worlds. The Torah speaks about the physical world, "he who exchanges a cow for a donkey" and the like—the Torah, which is "the utterance of the mouth of God," descended to be clothed in physical bread, as it were, and we must receive our inner vitality from it.
"Ten women will bake your bread in one oven"—Baking the Torah in the Fire of Love of God
To eat the bread and receive vitality from it—so that the food penetrates the body's cells and nourishes them—it must be properly baked. The primary role of an educator—the occupation of those sitting here—is not only to teach Torah but to ensure that the students receive their vitality from the Torah, and for this, the Torah must be 'baked' within the soul. How do you bake the bread of Torah? The verse continues, "Ten women will bake your bread in one oven."
"Ten women" are the ten faculties of the soul—from Keter to Malchut (if not counting Da'at) or from Chochmah to Malchut (if counting Da'at). The Alter Rebbe explains that specifically, the inner dimension of the ten faculties of the soul is a feminine dimension—a dimension in which a person is entirely receptive to Heaven, with the awareness that he has nothing of his own and all his work is "give Him of His own, for you and yours are His" without taking any credit for himself. In general, our inner work is like a woman before God—"we are Your wife, and You are our beloved"—and "ten women" are the ten faculties of the soul in the aspect of a woman, in the work of inner nullification before God.
How do you bake the bread of Torah? The baking is in an oven, hinting at the work of contemplation. The oven is a vessel that receives heat within it, and in inner work, contemplation is the vessel that arouses in the soul a fire of love for God. Contemplation on the unity of God—"Hear [contemplate], O’ Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One"—arouses in the soul the love of God, "and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." This contemplation is hinted at by the phrase "one oven"—an "oven" of contemplation-arousing-love in "[God is] One."
“And they will return your bread by weight”—Mental Balance and Judgment
The continuation of the verse, "and they will return your bread by weight," the Alter Rebbe connects to a deep concept in Kabbalah—the secret of the balance (weight). The deepest part of the Zohar is the Sifra DeTzniuta, which opens with the sentence “before there was balance, we did not look face to face.” The world of Tikkun is a world of balance, and only when there is balance can we look at each other face to face—"we did not look face to face." In the world of Tohu, all relationships are in the aspect of back-to-back—everyone lives with the consciousness of "I will rule." Everyone’s worldview is egocentric, he acts solely based on personal interests, and he is in fear of territorial infringement, as the Ari explains. To create true face-to-face relationships, one must reach a state of balance—a person who has mental balance, who is stable, can leave himself and truly see the other.
"And you will eat and not be satisfied"—Perpetual Taste in Torah
The fourth stage, "and you will eat and not be satisfied," is the peak of this 'curse.' Therefore, even when turning it into a blessing, this phrase—which sounds very negative—must be interpreted as the peak of the blessing. The Alter Rebbe explains that "and you will eat and not be satisfied" means that a person has such a delight in Torah that he can repeat one matter "countless times." When a person studies Torah in this manner of "ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will return your bread by weight," he reaches the state of "and you will eat and not be satisfied"—no matter how much he learns, he does not know satisfaction, and he is capable of returning again and again to any matter in the Torah, "her breasts will satisfy you at all times, with her love you will be intoxicated always."
(from a class given on 20 Av, 5776)
