Miller's Musings Parshas Toldos: Food, G-dliness, Food

בס''ד

We all know that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but we will still be surprised to see how much of an integral role food plays in our Parsha.  Yitzchok, poised to give Eisav a blessing that will decide his and his descendants future, requests that his son bring him some food.  But not just any food; it must be tasty food!  Are we to believe that a man so entirely detached from physical desires, as Yitzchok undoubtedly was, would deem it necessary to make the blessings contingent on there being some sumptuous meal as a prelude? 

One of the facets of Judaism that sets it apart from many other religions, is its belief that the highest level of spirituality is not through total abstinence.  Whereas other faiths may see those who deny themselves of worldly pleasures as being the greatest among them, Judaism views all physicality as a means to achieving our purpose, by infusing them with holiness through appropriate and prescribed usage.  In fact those who are on the loftiest spiritual level can feel within any mundane article how much sanctity has been imbued within it.  Eisav who was known to excel in honouring his father, brought him food that in that very act of pleasing his father, permeated the dish with the holiness of this Mitzva.  This, says Reb Shimon Schwab zt’l, is the taste that Yitzchok wanted to savour and what Yitzchok wanted to experience before bestowing the blessing on his son.  He wanted to feel the worthiness of Eisav, at least in this act, that emanated from the food that he would bring him.

The message that we are here to bring holiness to all that is around us, is something many of us may have heard before.  It will hopefully have helped us to appreciate the beauty of the world Hashem has given us and the unique path he has set for us.  However we may not have taken the next step of thinking practically about what this means for our day to day living.  Yet if we consider the implications of this philosophy we must necessarily start to consider how we are bringing G-dliness to all we possess.  Are we trying to bring sanctity into all our possessions and are we looking for means by which we can do this?  We are fortunate to have so many blessings from G-d, but we must start to think of ways that we can take all that we have and use them for the betterment of others, for the betterment of our own spiritual lives and thereby bring the betterment of all existence.  What else would we be doing with them!

*May the holiness of Shabbos imbue all we have with its sanctity*

לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם 

לעילוי נשמת שרה יעל בת גרשון