Natural Love
It’s not an insult to Yitzchok because that’s human nature. Hashem put it in our nature. If you enjoy what you're eating, you’ll bring along your mind in a much greater way — the good taste, your taste buds, will inspire your mind to greater heights. And that’s the reason for the mitzvah of the korban Pesach, םƒיָּמַּב לָֻּׁ̆ב¿מ ל≈ָׁ̆בּו ‡ָנּוּנ∆ּמƒמּלו¿כ‡ֹּ̇ לַ‡ – Don’t eat of it if it’s half-broiled or cooked in water; יƒּכׁ̆≈‡ יƒל¿ˆ םƒ‡ – it has to be broiled on the fire. Because how much you enjoy the Pesach, that’s how much you’ll gain from the Pesach. How you eat, that’s how you’ll love Hashem more and more.
Part III. Eating for Love
The Eating Experience
Now, once we realize that one of our biggest jobs is to love Hashem with all our hearts, and that we need external catalysts to accomplish that best, so we’ll understand how important it is to employ the function of eating to help us. The experience of eating is a very important part of our progress toward loving Hashem.
Now, don’t misunderstand that word ‘experience’. We’re not talking about a restaurant experience. No; menus and music and waiters, that’s not important at all. You can eat at home better than at restaurants. Not only do restaurants cost money, but there are dirty fingers in the kitchen. The food that you eat, they touch with their dirty fingers — he wipes his nose and touches it. That's the truth behind closed doors. Whatever he brings you on the plate, all kinds of germs are sticking to all of it. Who knows what kind of food you're getting? You pay more than money for that experience of eating out. No, I don’t like that minhag of eating out. You have plenty to eat in.
But whatever eating you choose, it's a glorious opportunity for making progress — not in gaining poundage; we’re talking about gaining intellectual weight. And so it’s a pity that most people never learned how to eat. It’s one of the great tragedies of mankind because the experience of eating is a very important part of our progress in this world.
Start Young
Now I must tell you what the Gra writes in one of his seforim. He’s talking there about ahavas Hashem and he says you shouldn’t wait to teach the subject of ahavas Hashem to people who are great people. Don’t wait until you have all the madreigos that are necessary. Start right away.
It means even little children. Even a little child can love Hashem.
“Is that possible?” you say. “Is it really possible to teach little children to love Hashem?”
Absolutely. Because children eat too. So how do you start it with a little child? He’s sitting on his highchair and you’re giving him something to eat, or you’re giving him a candy, so you say, “This is from Hashem. Don’t you love Hashem for it?”
Now, that’s a seichel’dig approach. It’s a very logical way to feed a child. “I’m only handing it to you, but Hashem is the One Who is really giving it to you.”
So he’ll say, “Yes, yes,” and he’ll take the candy. He wants the candy; he’s not so interested right now in ahavas Hashem. But it goes in. Little by little it goes in.
Making Up for Lost Time
Now it could be your mother didn’t tell you that when you were eating in the high chair. She didn’t learn this Gra maybe. So now you have to make up for lost time. That’s how we should talk to ourselves. When you sit down to breakfast, you should also say that to yourself. “I’m going to eat now and enjoy the food. And I’m going to utilize the enjoyment to love Hashem.”
That’s the purpose of food. Like we say always in birkas hamazon that He gives us food „∆ס∆חּב ן≈חּב יםƒמֲחַרּבו. He doesn't give us merely tasteless white pills to nourish us — He could have made white pills to eat with all kinds of vitamins inside that would keep you going. Even better, He could have put a battery inside of you to keep you going. Who needs food?
No; instead He gives us food ן≈חּב. It has a taste and a flavor, sometimes a color too. And as you chew it, your saliva flows and you enjoy it; the taste, ah! It’s a pleasure to eat because Hashem feeds us „∆ס∆חּב יםƒמֲחַרּבו. He feeds us — not with bland, tasteless foods. He makes it tasty with savor, with flavor, with color, with a pleasant smell! He gives you onions, and He gives you pepper and garlic and other things in order to make it stimulating to your palate.
Why does He do that? לֹו„ָּ‚ַה ֹמו¿ׁ̆ רּבוֲﬠַּב – For the sake of His great Name. He wants us to recognize Him and love Him, and by feeding us tasty and delicious foods, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is trying to persuade us. “Wake up,” He says, “and recognize what I am. I am ס≈נ¿רַפ¿מּו ןָז. I am the One giving you all these good times!” And why does He do that? He wants you to love Him! לֹו„ָּ‚ַה ֹמו¿ׁ̆ רּבוֲﬠַּב. That’s the purpose.
Talking During the Meal
So here's a man sitting down to a meal and he decides that he’s finally going to make use of his meals for what Hakadosh Baruch Hu intended. And so when his wife walks out for a moment so she can't hear him, he says, “I love You, Hashem.” You shouldn't say when she hears — it will sound funny to her. So when she walks back in, you’re eating and eating, that’s all. Of course, you should stop your chewing to tell her it's good food that she prepared. Swallow first and then you should tell her a compliment. “The food is delicious,” you say. “It’s very good, the chicken.” You should say that.
But as soon as she walks out to the other room and she doesn't hear, you should say, “I love You, Hashem. My wife, she prepared the chicken, but You created it. And You created me with a tongue and with taste buds so that I should enjoy it.”
Taste Buds, Saliva, and Gastric Juices
Taste buds! A wonderful thing! On your tongue, you have maybe 5000 taste buds! To this day, they don’t know exactly how the taste buds work. Years ago they were thinking of all kinds of schemes to explain it, that the taste buds have little hollows in them and the particles of the food fit inside in certain ways; they plug in the hollows. All kinds of wild suggestions. And even today, they can’t explain exactly how taste works. But one thing we know is that it works. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu put them there so that you should enjoy eating. It’s a pleasure.
And while your tongue encounters the taste sensation, the stomach juices are beginning to flow because the juices in the stomach down below respond to the feeling that the taste buds have. The taste buds work together with the nervous system and they tell the stomach to get ready, to begin producing. And you need that juice. It’s preparing to digest what’s coming down soon.
The saliva too; the saliva begins to flow. But it’s not one saliva; there are various components. One kind comes in the mouth to help you digest the food. The food has to be soft and the saliva softens the food. Another kind greases the esophagus, the interior of your throat. That's why you have a thicker kind of saliva too; so that the food will slide down more readily. But the third type of saliva is to make it more enjoyable! It's a remarkable thing that when you chew a piece of bread for a minute, it tastes sweeter than it was when you began, when you put it into your mouth. Because the starch of the bread is broken down by the ptyalin in the saliva and it turns it into sugars, and it becomes sweeter in your mouth.
And so, as soon as you put the food in your mouth, that's the beginning of a wonderful process. The whole body gets involved working in cooperation because that’s how Hashem made it. It’s such an important experience that everything, all parts of the body, go into action now to make it successful and enjoyable.
Back to the Seudah
And so, when you finish loving Hashem for the chicken, you start now with the browned potatoes. Ooh, browned potatoes! I love You, Hashem! And onions! Onions add so much! Ah! What would this world be without onions?! Onions and potatoes. What’s better than that?! ֹוּ„¿סַח םָלֹעו¿ל יƒּכ בֹטו יƒּכ 'הַלּו„ֹהו. Baruch Hashem for onions! Onions make us happy! And so this eved Hashem, he’s smacking his lips and enjoying the browned potatoes and the onions and the roasted chicken.
That’s avodas Hashem! That’s what the korban Pesach teaches us, that whenever you sit down at the table to eat, it's a glorious opportunity. You sit down with the intention, “hineni muchan u’mezuman l’kayeim mitzvas ahavas Hashem – I'm going to gain now more love of Hashem.” That's how to do it! There are many ways of loving Hashem, but eating is one of the most fundamental means because it hits the spot.
Noshing for Love
But not only when you sit down at the table. You pick up an apple and you sink your teeth into that delicious ‘bonbon’ — it’s created to be delicious; the sweet flesh and a little bit of sourness from the peel are a perfect combination — and it even has a red blush color. Hashem colors it and flavors it and also He gives it a slight fragrance.
And so it’s as clear as day that there's plan and purpose there — and the purpose why the apple was made red and sweet is in order you should enjoy it more. But that’s not the greatest benefit. The highest benefit from the apple is not the fact that it nourishes your body. The greatest benefit is how it nourishes your mind. It gives you a new mind if you eat it properly.
Drinking for Love
Drinking too, when you drink a glass of water — what a wonderful elixir of life that is, you couldn’t buy anything more precious in the drug store than a glass of water. It is a chemical — hydrogen mixed with oxygen in the right proportions. Sometimes there are other beneficial materials in it. And it is the most important ingredient in the body. It is most of our body weight. It lubricates all our joints; it gives a sparkle in our eyes. It’s our blood. It’s our everything. All of our functions are made possible by water.
But it’s fun too! When you’re thirsty and you pour a cup of water down your throat it’s a big pleasure. And therefore it’s a good idea once in a while — if possible, more than that — to prepare beforehand. Not only a bracha; that of course, that’s fundamental. But prepare to love Hashem. While you’re drinking, as it’s quenching your thirst, you imagine that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is pouring the cold water into your mouth — He is! — and you love Him for that.
Greatness at the Dinner Table
And that's what the Gemara means: הָימƒ‚¿ל הָלֹו„¿ּ‚ – how great is the business of eating, יםƒ ֹ̃חו¿רָה ̇∆‡ ̇∆ב∆רָ ̃¿ּמ∆ׁ̆ – that it brings close people who are far away (Sanhedrin 104a). Because if a person learns to eat with this thought in mind—I’m not saying you do it all the time; but to think about that a few times during a meal. Why not? And the more you do it you begin to feel it more and more. And as the days and the weeks and the years pass by, if people apply themselves, they will come to an actual palpable ahavas Hashem.
Of course if people are not interested then their lives will go by and they'll eat like the cat under the table is eating or like the dog in the yard is eating. There are people like that. But it’s a sad life, a waste of opportunity. A big part of their lives are wasted because a person eats mountains of food during his life. I once made a calculation — you’ll eat more than a hundred thousand pounds of food in your life!
And so there are pounds and pounds of opportunities for ahavas Hashem! A person can more readily come to ahavas Hashem through eating than through any other way — only that he has to practice up on thinking. If you’re willing to activate your mind during your meals you’ll be utilizing your life properly and you’ll continue to grow mentally because your body is in full agreement with the ideals you’re trying to acquire and slowly but surely they permeate your personality.
Have a Wonderful Shabbos
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