Not by Bread Alone

 This morning atBreakfast and a Class, we explored one of the most familiar verses in theTorah: “Man does not live by bread alone.”But what does that really mean? After all, HaShem did sustain the Jewish peoplein the desert with the manna—a miraculous form of bread. The lesson is not thatwe do not need physical sustenance. We do. The lesson is that the bread isnever the true source. The food, the doctor, the paycheck, the customer and theopportunity are all vessels through which HaShem sends His blessing.  Webegan with a lighthearted insight from my friend Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzkyabout the difference between what we need and what we want, and from there wefollowed the manna into the desert, entered the cave with Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai,and returned to our own breakfast table. The question is not whether we enjoythe physical world. The question is whether we remember Who placed the blessingwithin it. Listen to this morning’s class, “Not by Bread Alone: What We Need, WhatWe Want, and Who Sustains Us.”