The Talmud's view on eating reveals your SELF-WORTH

finally the bmov says what gives you the right to deprive God of his sustenance the guy was intrigued turns around huh B says gotcha okay friends The Story begins we are diving into the secrets of the talmud unpacking its Timeless and most valuable lessons we're on BR blessings brot 35a on the link that I had sent it's the third last paragraph in Hebrew it says Tan in English it says the sages taught the sages taught in the to that's the third to last paragraph over there one is forbidden to derive benefit from this world which is the property of God without reciting a blessing beforehand um Ju Just to point out by the way for those who are following in the English um you might not see this if you're listening to the recording you'll see bold and you'll see non-bold writing right the Bold is the original translation the non-bold are added words uh often based on commentaries to make it flow but you wouldn't see that in the Hebrew if you were just reading in the Hebrew you'd be left to figuring it out there's there's benefit to that because it's commentary and it's Clarity the limitation is you're picking a specific commentary and excluding other commentaries so right you have to kind of the translator has to has to make that decision and that's why it's always good to just be familiar with the original when necessary um anyways one is forbidden to derive benefit from this world which is the property of God without reciting a blessing beforehand and anyone who deres benefit from this world without a blessing is as if he's guilty of misuse of a consecrated object it's prohibited to use something from the basa mikdash like something that's designated for a sacrifice um that that that's a a specific sin and similarly using a uh eating something or benefiting from something in this world prior to making a without making a blessing falls into that category the gamarra adds what is his remedy what do you do he should go to a sage go to a sage you messed up you forgot to say a blessing you ate you ended up eating God's food without making a prayer go to a sage you know what the sage is going to do I don't know I didn't realize that's a Jewish thing you mess up what are you g to go confess like what what are you supposed to do right the gor's puzzled he should go to a sage what will he do to him how could the sage help after he has already violated a Prohibition the premise of this question and this is important by the way is that when it comes to shua when it comes to repentance it comes to returning to God we have to do it we're left to our own devices nobody's going to make change for you it's not like you believe in some sort of Savior and now you're good no we have to come within our own s so why should you go to a sage rather Raba said this is how it should be understood he should go to a sage initially in his Youth and the sage will teach him blessings so that he'll not come to be guilty of this type of misuse of consecrated object in the future so now to go to a sage to remedy a mistake that happened in the past but to prevent a mistake that happened in the future that that might happen in the future by studying studying the laws of blessing which could be quite intricate by the way similarly Ruda said that shimu said run the last paragraph one who deres benefit from this world without a blessing is as if he had enjoyed objects consecrated to the heavens as if it is stated the Earth and all it contains is the Lords the world and all who live in it RAB Ley expressed this concept differently rabby Ley raised a contradiction it's written the he the Earth and all that contains is the Lord is the Lords right everything belongs to God and it's written elsewhere elsewhere the heavens are the Lords and the Earth is given to mankind so one verse implies that everything belongs to God another verse implies the heavens belong to God the Earth belongs to man and we have agency and with what to um with how we can treat this world there's a clear contradiction with regard to whom the Earth belongs he himself resolves the contradiction this is not difficult he says here the verse that says that the Earth is the Lord's ref refers to a situation before a blessing is recited we're going to scroll to the next page 35 B and here where it says that he gave the Earth to mankind refer to after a blessing is recited prior to making a blessing it's belongs to God after making a blessing it belongs to human beings okay we're going to read one more paragraph rabina Bara said anyone who deres benefit from this world without a blessing it's as if he stole from God and the community of Israel as it is stated in the verse proverbs whoever robs his father and mother and says it is no transgression he is the companion of a destroyer okay we'll stop right there so we have three different teachings teaching number one anybody who derives benefit essentially eats food without a blessing it's as if they had eaten from consecrated from sacred items in the temple prohibited number three sorry number two anybody who eats without reciting a blessing it's as if he ate from Heavenly sacrifices similar idea number three anybody who eats without a blessing it's as if he had stolen from God point is that there's something special about food and to whom it belongs and somehow making a blessing redeems it and the commentaries ask what what exactly are you stealing who are you stealing from like didn't God put food in this world for us to enjoy like like what what exactly is going on here so I want to start with the Mah the Mah whenever you're learning talmud and especially when you're learning um a which is the non although this is a part of talud as well kind of is both overlaps but whenever you're learning a god whenever you're learning htic um ethics in the talud the Mahar is very often one of the go-to commentaries and he says very simply you're stealing the food it doesn't belong to you asking uh um reciting a blessing prior to eating redeems it it's as if you're taking uh um as it's as if you're receiving permission from God to eat that food very simply that's how always always understood it as a kid as well right it's hey God can I please have this right you're asking permission that's how the mahara explains in the 1800s the early 1800s till mid 1800s there was a famed talmudic scholar prolific scholar his name was Rabbi yiva AER and Bea AER is it's um it's hard to kind of describe the the level of academic genius he was when you read his talmudic writings when you read his glosses on the it's just like whoa um he had this incredible balance with of academic ttic Brilliance yet a very practical it was good practical application as well in the year 1831 he was living in Prussia and the apparently a big epidemic took place and people were dropping like flies people were getting ill and sick and nobody wanted to go out nobody wanted to be near Anybody Everybody Was isolating and quarantining right we've we've had one of these situations and he saw that there were sick people that needed to be taken care of nobody was going to take care of them because nobody wanted to get sick and he risked his life and went around helping people and saving people and taking care of sick people apparently it was like a big deal the news got around and the King of Prussia whom I forget his name was so impressed that he summoned Raba AAR to the palace and offered him a reward in public and for this award ceremony RAB AA AER appened a a drasa a um like a sermon that he was going to pres present and among I didn't I'll be honest with you I didn't read the full sermon I read an excerpt from it among the among what he uh the concepts he was teaching in front of the King of Prussia he cited this section in the town mod that somebody who eats without making a blessing it's as if they're stealing from God stealing from the people of Israel and he says how are we stealing who am I stealing from and he says because when you don't thank God you're not recognizing who the blessings came from where did the food come from well I got it from the store right but where does the food ultimately come from where does the money to purchase the food come from where do the resources to make the food ultimately it comes from God and he says if we're not going to recognize that we're going to stop that flow of divine energy because God's going to say oh really you think it's from you okay figure it out right go go try and he says the moment we do that we're putting oursel in a situation where we're blocking God's blessings and we're stealing we're stealing from other people if we don't recognize where our blessings come from where our sustenance comes from We're Not only hurting ourselves we're affecting other people that's what he says which is along the lines of somebody not making a blessing they're stealing who are they stealing from from other people the commentary Rashi has a very different approach Rashi RI from the 10th Century says what are you stealing you're not stealing the food if you don't make a blessing you're stealing you're not stealing the food you're stealing the blessing that's what Raji says I never thought about it this way you're stealing not the food you're stealing the blessing where are you stealing the blessing from you're stealing the blessing from God what's the implication over here according to From rashi's perspective God needs your blessing and you're taking it do you ever think that you could steal from God to me that's just fascinating there's a big discussion um a big Ruckus I should say on YouTube among various rabbis Manis fredman being one of them as well as other rabbis is it acceptable to say that God needs you some say Manis Freedman being one of them I bring him as an example just because he's really into this now of course God needs you he created you for a purpose he obviously needs you right he needs you to fulfill your mission in this world to illuminate this world to others say how could you ascribe God to having needs how could you humanize God how could you reduce him to be dependent the epitome of God is Independence or God is the epitome of Independence how could you say have God has needs now I think it would be fair to say that God has needs but not the way humans does do humans are dependent on the needs God chooses to need okay that's an easy answer but the reason why I bring this up is because it seems like Rashi saying that God has needs he needs this blessing you're stealing it from him you're stealing a blessing from God why does God need our blessings why does God need me to make a blessing on this food do you see what I'm saying over here according to the Mahar the earlier commentary we mentioned if you don't make a blessing You're simply stealing food that doesn't belong to you according to Rashi it's not the food that doesn't belong to you you're stealing the blessing the blessing itself has some sort of inherent value that you're depriving god of what is the value of that blessing to which we're depriving God and I there's multiple angles we could approach this but let's start with a simple angle on a very simple level you know what a blessing is recognizing where things come from God needs that the Zohar says that the whole purpose of creation is to get to know God well why can't I know God in heaven in fact if I if I wasn't born wouldn't I know God even better if my soul stayed where it came from wouldn't I be more intimately aware of God wouldn't God be more clear to me if I stayed in heaven so what is this get to know God the point is that not your soul gets to know God you get to know God and part of getting to know God is to bring him down in your life and to realize your dependent on him and to realize that your needs come from him going back to the 1700s the bov founder of theic movement felt that he had a mission part of his mission was to literally go around to people say how are you doing what's up and he'd get them to say thank God and he said success and he'd walk away that's what I'm here for right to get God's name known in this world that's essentially what the Messianic era is Right Isaiah says that in the Messianic era the whole world will know God the world will be filled with the knowledge of God as the Earth will be covered the sea so literally just saying thank God is a messiah moment there a Messianic moment that brings Messiah closer it brings the Messianic era closer the BTO felt it was his mission to to um create space for people to experience the a deep and simple relationship with God everybody and that people saying thank God simple blessing not even a there's no like formal text right had inherent value the B once walked into a sh and there was a fellow there known as a parush you know what a parish means trying to think of a good English translation it literally means a um somebody who's separate from the world like aloof from the world almost like a monk but he was Jewish a rabbi um this guy had been sitting in the sh he would sit there every day with his Talis and Fillin for 50 years 5 studying Torah day and night he would dove in in the morning he'd eat a little bread he'd study the entire day he'd take off his Fillin he'd wrap it up and that's what he'd do for 50 years and grossed in a spiritual close connection with God through Torah study and he was called a par because Parish means separated he was separated from the world separated from distraction imagine 50 years uninterrupted this was I guess not common but it certainly wasn't rare was wasn't unheard of but wasn't the norm BM walks in and says sees the guy with his tance filling on studying uninterrupted for 50 years how you doing sup and the guy the guy doesn't pay any attention you he doesn't want to get distracted he's studying yo I I I'm embellishing over here right but paraphrasing the B says again what's going on and the guy kind of just like shoes the B away like you know don't distract me I'm I'm in the middle of a thought here and I'm studying I'm connecting with God via study Torah study and the B tries again and again and he sees the guy studying he's getting very flustered but he's not answering the B the B is trying to squeeze a out of him finally the B says what gives you the right to deprive God of his sustenance the guy was intrigued turns around huh BOS says gotcha no I'm kidding sorry I had to go there the the the B says you're depriving God because right now you're focused on your connection with God the Torah study and that's very important and you've been doing that for 50 years but God needs you to say thank God he needs you to recognize him he needs the he needs it from every body and he quoted a a verse that we say ining toil Isel You Are Holy you sit with the prayers of Israel or you reside you're settled in this world when we praise you us praising God in this world actually makes him relevant in this world when we recognize that our food comes from God by reciting the appropriate blessing we are making God relevant in this world relevant to the food relevant in the physical world we're sustaining him because we're justifying the purpose for existence purpose for existence isn't so we could eat the purpose of food is so we can make that blessing and allow his presence to illuminate that food and same thing with every other Mitzvah the um going back to what the talud said that were you to not know the blessings go to a sage and have them teach you so the maharal of prag of prag from the 1500s writes that this is actually part of the process it takes humility to go to a rabbi and ask what blessing do I make teach me the blessings teach me something right it's because it's in some ways it's like simple and maybe I should know this already and it it could be uncomfortable asking a rabbi and the maharal says that disc Comfort is you setting yourself aside for God's honor you're putting your honor aside for God's honor that allows God to illuminate and shine in this world you're stepping out of the way to allow God to shine in this world that's what the maharal says also in the 1500s there was a rabbi named Horwitz he wrote a very extensive he has extensive writings a lot of writings there are two people that come to mind by the way when I think of extensive writing really three people Rashi has a lot but like it's a running commentary but the maharal that we had just quoted has like a a ton and a ton of books known as the or for short it's the Shah has a very long many many essays on the talmud on the par and and on many other works on Hal philosophy cabala and he points out an interesting parallel in the tal in our section of the T where we're talking about the blessings over food it says if you don't make a blessing over the food you're you're stealing you can't eat the food right he draws a parallel to a different section in t tra kbot where it talks about marriage documents and it says that we're a couple to get married without the blessing theas that are done under the they're prohibited to get married they're prohibited sorry to live together as husband and wife and the Shah says interesting interesting parallel here you have food no blessing you can't eat it you're stealing husband and wife they get married but no blessings they can't live together you see the parallel here he says what's the connection he said says in order for a husband and wife to live together and to really connect and become one there has to be the light of God in their life that's the unifying factor in fact a different section of the T TR says that the Hebrew word for man ish the Hebrew word for women is ISA is and Isa have similar spellings with a onlet difference ish has a yud Isa has a he together it's the yud and the he the name of God and if they come together and uh properly they're going to channel the light of God and there's going to be an unbreakable Bond and unbreakable joy and unbreakable Unity similarly if we approach food properly with a blessing we could channel the light of God from our Tanya studies we know that food is a um food is kipa but it's redeemable kipa there's different types of kipa kipa means negative energy kipa means that you know what kipa is just to refresher some of us know what kipa is but um and I'm I'm I'm speaking to anybody watching this video The Wider public in case you may be less familiar with the term kipa kipa literally means a shell or a peel if I were to be holding an orange over here with the peel on and I say hey what do you see I see an orange no you don't you just see the orange peel if I ask you what am I holding the accurate answer is an orange but if I ask you what you see the accurate answer is a peel because that's all you see yet you identify what you see as the orange kipa the peel is this negative force is this uh reality where we see things from a very superficial perspective when we focus on what life looks like on the surface but not what it truly is on the what not on the why on the presentation but not on the essence on the body and not on the soul that's kipa when we see food and we say hm that looks good that's kipa right it's superficial there's much more to the food if we see the food and say we see that's energy that's not just for my pallet but it actually will give me energy to serve God or that's a shabus dinner that's sacred that's not kipa that's kadha that's Holiness because that allows the lot of the light of God to shine so how do I make how do I take food and transform it from kipa to kadha from something that hides God to something that channels God a a blessing recognizing where the food comes from by saying bless you Hashem or the word bar also means to channel you Hashem El Our God you are the king of the world or whatever the appropriate blessing would be for what you're eating everything is created by the word of God by recognizing that this is from God we're able to channel this to be something that we we're able to turn this into something that channels God rather than just serves us and hides God or we to neglect that like Rashi says we're stealing from God himself the late 1800s there was a rabbi named RAB ysf Kim from Baghdad a Safar rabbi and he wrote um extensive commentary on the talmud he has some interesting works on the par as well and some other stuff he was known as the Benish the benai writes that he has an interesting question he says look let's look at the history of blessings for a second he says you're asserting to me that when you make a blessing when you recite a blessing prior to eating you're redeeming it from kipa to kadus you're allowing it to channel the light of God rather than hide the light of God he says well I have a question for you when did were blessings invented they were invented pretty much after the destruction of the first Bas of mikdash during the Babylonian exile during that 70-year period by the Anessa by the men of great assembly toward the end is yeah sort of certainly not the beginning of the biblical era so he says well wait a minute had Jews been stealing for hundreds of years thus far for a thousand years thus far since Mount Si it's been about a thousand years blessings weren't invented until a thousand years into the into the start of Judaism have Jews been stealing from God have we been depriving God of blessings have we been m channeling food so it's self focused rather than god- focused and hiding the light of God rather than channeling it what have we been doing up until now this is the question the venai asks so the venai says that there was a time where the recognition of where that food comes from was more intuitive and you could imagine that during the first B mdas during the first temple where there was more open Miracles and spirituality was in the air and all the Jews did live together were in Israel as one unit you know during especially under the reign of King Solomon where it was King Solomon is schlomo from the word Shalom it was a time of spiritual peace you can imagine that our heart and mind was in the right space and recognizing where the blessings came from where the food came from where our sustenance came from and how this channels God was intuitive it's no longer intuitive because of the Exile we have to articulate it that's what the benai says I was reading a talk I want to leave you with this thought I was reading a talk from the and he says well wait a minute the tal says if you don't recite a blessing you're misusing um something that as it's as if you're misusing something concentrate consecrated for the Bas of M it's as if you're misusing something designated for God as if it was a sacrifice that you're misusing so how does reciting a blessing redeem it wouldn't that make it more sacred right I have this diet coke here and it belongs to God it's not mine okay I'll recite a blessing okay I just channeled the light of God no I for sure can't eat it I just made things worse how is the blessing gonna help one may argue that I shouldn't make the blessing so that it remains profane and I could just eat it like a regular human being so the Rev in this talk asserts you're G to love this that when you make a blessing when you recite a blessing prior to eating you're not just affecting the food and bringing it down to your level you're affecting yourself bringing yourself up to God's level because when you say a blessing you say my God our God you are are the god of the world you are the king of the world you are relevant in this world you matter in this world you're elevating yourself and now you're like a Cohen who is able to eat from these sacrifices you're not misusing sacrifices you're not misusing sacred items in the temple because you belong there when we recite blessings when we Channel God's light in our life we lift ourselves up to this space where we actually belong we put ourselves where we need to be we not only Channel God in this world we bring ourselves up to God's world okay that's my story and I'm sticking to it