If you will say in your heart: These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them? [Then] you will not be afraid of them (Deut. 7:17-18)
It is only when a Jew admits that that nations of the world are more physically powerful than he, and that only with G-d's help can he prevail, that he will cease being afraid... (Shaloh)
And he afflicted you, and suffered you to hunger, and fed you with the manna (Deut. 8:3)
Even though the manna could assume the taste of any delicacy in the world, the Jews still complained to Moses, "Our soul is dried away, there is nothing at all, we have only the manna to look to." Because they could not actually see the different foods they were eating (the manna always looked the same), it contained an element of "affliction" and "suffering"; moreover, this inability to see prevented them from being fully sated. From this we learn that lighting Shabbat candles, i.e., making sure there is enough illumination at the table, enhances our pleasure of the Shabbat meal. (The Chida)
And He fed you with the manna...that He might make you know that not by bread alone does man live (Deut. 8:3)
In the same way that when the Jews in the desert ate the manna ("bread from heaven") they recognized that they were being sustained in a miraculous manner, so too must we be aware that it is not the physical "bread from the earth" that nourishes us, but the G-dly spark it contains. (Keter Shem Tov)
Reprinted from the Parashat Eikev 5761/2001 edition of L’Chaim
