This morning at
Breakfast and a Class, we explored one of the most familiar verses in the
Torah: “Man does not live by bread alone.”
But what does that really mean? After all, HaShem did sustain the Jewish people
in the desert with the manna—a miraculous form of bread. The lesson is not that
we do not need physical sustenance. We do. The lesson is that the bread is
never the true source. The food, the doctor, the paycheck, the customer and the
opportunity are all vessels through which HaShem sends His blessing. 

We
began with a lighthearted insight from my friend Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky
about the difference between what we need and what we want, and from there we
followed 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 enjoy
the physical world. The question is whether we remember Who placed the blessing
within it. Listen to this morning’s class, “Not by Bread Alone: What We Need, What
We Want, and Who Sustains Us.”