In this week’s torah portion, Eikev, the Jewish people stand on the eastern bank of the Jordan River about to enter the land of Israel and Moses speaks to them as he does throughout the whole book of Deuteronomy, reminiscing about the past 40 years and giving the Jews words of rebuke and strength for the future. In chapter eight of this Parsha Moshe says to the Jewish people: “God fed you manna to eat in the desert, which your ancestors did not know, in order to afflict you and in order to test you…And you will say in your heart it is my strength and the power of my hand that has produced all of this bounty. And you shall remember God because it is God that has given you this power…”
The Talmud is perplexed by the verse and its equitation of the manna with affliction. The Talmud answers, “You cannot compare one who has bread in his basket with one who has none.” The manna was indeed a great gift, it came when it was required, supplied all one’s nutritional needs, and required no work. But there was a downside to the manna also, for one who receives manna has, “no bread in their basket,” no control over their life and sustenance. Sure, it is great to be a child and have one’s needs met, but one must also grow up and take responsibility for one’s self, just as the Jewish people are about to do as a nation when they enter the land.
There is though a great danger in working for and producing one’s own sustenance. The danger is phrased in the next verse: “You will say it was my strength that produced all of this.” It is hard to forget God when one lives on manna from heaven. The Jewish people must now rely on themselves but also run the risk of thinking God is not a part of it, risk congratulating only themselves.
How does one avoid the danger? How does one remember God and not see the harvest only as one’s own accomplishment? Several verses prior in our Torah portion the Torah gives the Jewish people the answer. The bircat hamazon, the grace after meals.
The only blessing that is actually biblical is the grace after meals. It would seem more logical to bless God when one is hungry, when one is about to eat, not after one has eaten their fill. But this of course is the foremost time one must bless God. When one is satiated one is more inclined to attribute their success to themselves. It is easy to thank God when one is hungry, more difficult when one is full; and so precisely then, when we are full, when we have brought in the harvest and wish to marvel at our own accomplishments, then must we remember it is not us but God who makes the rain to fall and the produce to grow from dirt.
Shabbat Shalom.