A Life Lesson from the Parsha
When the Beis HaMikdash was standing, the blessing of parnasa flowed through a channel of kedusha, namely the Shulchan with Lechem HaPonim (showbread) on it.
Since we don’t have the Shulchan of the Beis HaMikdash today, what can provide a channel of kedusha for the blessing of parnasa to flow through it nowadays? Let’s take a look at what the Torah tells us in this week’s parsha (Emor) regarding the mitzva of Lechem HaPonim:
וְלָקַחְתָ סֹלֶת וְאָפִיתָ אֹתָהּ שְתֵּים עֶשְרֵּה חַלּוֹת ... וְשַמְתָ אוֹתָם שְתַיִם מַעֲרָכוֹת שֵּש הַמַעֲרָכֶת עַל הַשֻּׁלְחָן הַטָהֹר לִפְנֵי ה'.
And you shall take fine flour and bake it [into] twelve loaves...And you shall place them in two stacks, six in each stack, upon the pure table, before HaShem (Vayikra 24:5-6).
In Pirkei Avos (ch. 3, mishna 3), our sages of blessed memory teach us:
שלשה שאכלו על שלחן אחד ואמרו עליו דברי תורה, כאלו אכלו משלחנו של מקום ברוך הוא, שנאמר (יחזקאל מא), וַיְדַבֵּר אֵּלַי זֶה הַשֻּׁלְחָן אֲשֶׁר לִפְנֵי ה' .
Three people that ate [a meal] at one table and spoke words of Torah [during the meal], [it’s considered] as if they ate from the table of the Omnipresent, Blessed is He, as the verse in Yechezkel (41:22) says, “And he spoke to me, [saying], "This is the table that is before Hashem.”
From lessons taught by the Sefas Emes, based on the above mishna, we learn that through the Torah spoken during a meal - and specifically when the Torah is the ikar (the most desired part) for us there - our table, to some extent, receives the status the Shulchan with Lechem HaPanim, which serves as a channel of kedusha through which the blessing of parnasa flows into our world. (See Sefas Emes on Torah, Emor 5652)
(Interestingly, typically our Shabbos seudos is when the Torah at the table is the ikar. And regarding the Lechem HaPonim on the Shulchan, the verse in our parsha says: בְיוֹם הַשַבָת בְיוֹם הַשַבָת יַעַרְ כֶנּוּ לִפְנֵּי ה' תָמִיד מֵּאֵּת בְנֵּי יִשְרָאֵּל בְרִ ית עוֹלָם -On Shabbos day, on Shabbos day he shall arrange it in front of Hashem continuously...)
