Chapter 3 Mishna 4
“Three who ate at one table and spoke words of Torah over it — it is as if they had eaten from the table of the Omnipresent, as it says (Yechezkel 41:22): ‘And He said to me, «This is the table that is before Hashem».’”
We must understand why it says “from the table of the Omnipresent” (shulchano shel Makom) and not “from the table of Hashem” (shulchano shel Hashem). (Hashem is called Makom — the Omnipresent — because He is the “Place” of the universe, and there is no place where He is not present.)
This can be clarified based on what the Shach wrote on the Torah (Parshat Terumah, under “U’bZohar kohanei”) — that the Lechem Hapanim (Showbread) on the Table at the Beit HaMikdash was sacred, and the kohanim (priests) would eat it in order to weaken the force of the Yetzer Hara (Evil Inclination), which is called hatzfoni (הצפוני: “the northern one”), and therefore the Table was positioned on the north side. Just as the priests weakened the Yetzer Hara through the Showbread, so too, every person can weaken the Yetzer Hara, which lies tzafun (צפון: hidden) in his heart, by speaking words of Torah at his table.
Therefore, the Tanna precisely said “as if they had eaten from the table of the Omnipresent” (Makom — lit. “Place”), alluding to the specific place where the Table stood — in the Sanctuary, on the northern side — which had the power to subdue the Yetzer Hara. This teaches us that we too, through physical eating, can sanctify ourselves and subdue the hidden Yetzer Hara within us, if we speak words of Torah at our table, just like the priests who ate physical bread and were sanctified through it.
Additionally, the reason it is called “the table of the Omnipresent” (shulchano shel Makom) can be explained according to the Maharsha (Berachot 40b): “A place that holds physical things has limits and cannot hold more than its capacity. But a place that contains spiritual matters has no limit and can hold more and more spiritual content”. The Tanna wished to allude that at the table of the Omnipresent there is always space to add more spirituality and holiness. Thus, when a person speaks words of Torah at his table and draws spirituality and holiness upon it, his table becomes “the table of the Omnipresent” — a place with capacity to receive ever more holiness.
