[Avodah] Eating and Sustenance

[Zev Sero]

On 15/11/2011 6:17 PM, kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
> In the thread "Chillul HaShem when NJ are the observers", R' Zev Sero wrote:
>
>> The Malbim asks how the angels could eat Avraham's food. It's
>> easy to understand how they could *pretend* to eat, but the
>> Torah says that they actually ate, and to eat ("le'echol")
>> means to derive sustenance.
>
> I'm curious exactly how the Malbim phrases this, and exactly which word
> he used for "to derive sustenance".

"Inyan ha'achila yitzdak bechol davar sheyitkayem al yado."  "The term
'achila' applies to anything by whose means one continues to exist.  A
fire eats wood, for through the consumption of the wood the fire exists.
The bread of a soul and its ma'achal is the word of Hashem, as in 'lechu
lachmu belachmi'.  The korbanot are called 'Hashem's bread' because by
their means the shechina continues to rest below.  The spiritual mann is
called 'lechem' because the angels eat it. [...] Each mitzvah creates an
angel [...] These angels were angels of chessed, who were sent or created
by the merit of the mitzvah of Avraham's gm"ch and hospitality, and
through this mitzvah Sarah was healed to give birth, and Hashem was
revealed to Avraham, and Lot was saved, and Sdom who did bad things
against the midah of chessed, an angel of chessed was the shliach to
destroy them.  So the food that Avraham Avinu gave the guests, this was
these angels' life and sustenance (chayutam vekiyumam) and this was for
them 'ma'achal' and 'lechem abirim', lehachayotam ulkaymam."


> For nidon didan, I think the exception of salt is notable, because
> I think we'd all agree that the word "le'echol" DOES describe what
> we can do with salt

I don't know.  Does it?  Can you find a text that explicitly uses that
word for salt?

-- 
Zev Sero        If they use these guns against us once, at that moment
zev at sero.name   the Oslo Accord will be annulled and the IDF will
                 return to all the places that have been given to them.
		                            - Yitzchak Rabin