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The following is from the new translation of RSRH's commentary on
Chumash. As I read it, I could help but think of the Chillul HaShem
that has occurred recently. YL<br><br>
Devarim 8:3 <font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><b><i>He had you
live in want; He let you go hungry, and then He fed you with the manna
which you did not know and your fathers did not<br>
know, in order to teach you that not on bread alone can man live; rather,
man can live on anything that comes from the mouth of
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>God</font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>.<br><br>
</i></b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>Bread is the joint
product of nature and of the intelligence with<br>
which man masters the world. Thus, bread represents the intelligence
by<br>
which man, through social cooperation, produces the means of his
existence.<br><br>
But it would be erroneous to believe that this creative human power<br>
is the sole requirement for man’s existence on earth. The prime factor
in<br>
man’s sustenance is God’s providence; His generous care is evident
in<br>
every morsel of bread with which we sustain yet another moment of
our<br>
existence. To forget this would mean to fall prey to a most
dangerous<br>
delusion on which our devotion to duty would founder. The concern to<br>
provide for one’s wife and children is in itself such a legitimate
motive<br>
for our activities that it could easily cause us to lose sight of all
other<br>
considerations, once we persuade ourselves that we and only we
ourselves<br>
can provide our own sustenance and that of our dependents. We could<br>
then persuade ourselves that any gain wrested from nature and from
our<br>
fellow men will assure our sustenance and that of our dependents
regardless<br>
of the means we employ for this purpose. If this is our attitude,
then<br>
we will not care whether, in so doing, we observe God’s
commandments,<br>
earning our daily bread only by means within the limits shown us by<br>
God, or whether we obtain our sustenance by skillful manipulation
without<br>
considering whether God would approve of our methods.<br><br>
Even if the notion that we can look to human power alone for our<br>
daily bread will not cause us to stray from the paths of duty and
righteousness,<br>
it may well lead our thoughts beyond the necessities of the
immediate<br>
present, further and further into the remote future, so that we<br>
will come to think that we have not done our duty unless we have
assured<br>
the means not only for own future but also for the future of our
children<br>
and grandchildren. As a result, the concern for breadwinning will
become<br>
an endless race, leaving us neither time nor energy for purely
spiritual<br>
and moral concerns.<br><br>
That is why God led us for forty years in the wilderness. There, in
the<br>
absence of all the factors that normally enable man to win his bread<br>
through a combination of natural resources and human energy, He<br>
brought out in sharp relief the one factor which under normal
circumstances<br>
is only too easily ignored. Instead of nourishing us with the bread<br>
that bears the stamp of human achievement, He fed us with the manna<br>
allotted by God alone, and He had it come to us day after day, to every
soul<br>
in our humble dwellings, in a manner that clearly demonstrated God’s<br>
personal care for every soul, both great and small. Hence, in this
course<br>
of preparatory training for our future life, we learned the following
basic<br>
truth: Human existence does not depend on bread alone — i.e., on the<br>
natural and human resources represented by bread. Rather, man can
live<br>
by </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>anything
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>that God ordains. Even
the bread that he obtains by his own<br>
skill is ordained by God. Therefore, man is not lost if, for the sake of
his<br>
allegiance to God, he is compelled to forgo all that can be obtained
from<br>
human and natural resources; indeed, man must know that even in the<br>
midst of plenty derived from the resources of man and nature, he still
owes<br>
his sustenance solely to God’s special care. (See Commentary,
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Shemos
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>16.)</font></body>
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