The Secret of Eating in Holiness: The Path to Sweeten Suffering and Anger
Class No. 2 | Thursday, Parashas Kedoshim, 27 Nissan 5755 - Morning Class at the Yeshiva
Why does an abundance of knowledge and study sometimes bring a person anger and pain? Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a delivers an in-depth class on the danger of studying without awe of Heaven, and the surprising way to sweeten the harsh judgments and merit the Geulah (Redemption) – through the spiritual work of eating and the joy of performing a mitzvah.
He Who Increases Knowledge Increases Pain
Why does a person experience sorrow every day? The root of this sorrow lies in studying Torah without awe of Heaven. King Solomon says: "He who increases knowledge increases pain" (Ecclesiastes 1:18). A person can study Torah, but if the learning is done without awe of Heaven, he becomes filled with arrogance. As a result, "from an abundance of wisdom comes an abundance of anger." The more of a Torah scholar he becomes, the more prone to anger he becomes.
The reason for this is that wisdom without self-nullification leads a person to think that he is "entitled." He believes he deserves more honor and more appreciation, and therefore, whenever something does not go according to his will, it awakens harsh judgments and anger within him. All the suffering a person endures stems from the fact that he acquires knowledge and becomes arrogant from the Torah, which consequently causes severe judgments to rest upon him.
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov teaches us how to sweeten this situation. The advice is through eating in holiness. Even when a person eats, he must eat slowly and with a settled mind, lifting his eyes upward each time. It is brought down in the holy books that with every mouthful, with every bite, one must lift his eyes to Heaven, set everything aside, and yearn only for Hashem, may He be blessed.
The Sorrow is Only an Illusion
Rebbe Nachman reveals to us in Torah 250 that all the sorrow a person experiences is merely an illusion. In truth, you have no sorrow at all. Even if, Heaven forbid, a person suffers physical afflictions, that is not the true sorrow—these are only your illusions. The entire feeling of sorrow and suffering stems from a person lacking true spiritual knowledge.
How is sorrow brought upon a person? His knowledge is removed; his intellect is taken away. When the intellect departs, the person begins to look outward: he sees the nations of the world succeeding, he sees the wealthy and the powerful, and this becomes his suffering. As it is stated: "Sweet is the sleep of a laboring man... but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep" (Ecclesiastes 5:11).
The wealthy man, out of sheer jealousy, cannot sleep. If there is someone more honored than him, his sleep wanders. This is what happened to Korach. Korach saw that Elitzafan was being honored more than him, and he could not bear it. The Midrash relates that Korach saw the honor given to Elitzafan and said, "Now I know that Moshe is false and his Torah is false." His conclusion was that if someone else is honored more than him, it must all be a matter of favoritism, and therefore he decided to incite the entire congregation to rebel.
Moshe Rabbeinu tried to explain to him: "We have one Holy Temple, one Torah. How many High Priests can there be?" Among the nations, when two priests argue, each one opens his own church. But for us, there is only one truth. Moshe wanted everyone to be on the level of High Priests, as it is stated, "And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation," but the problem begins when a person cannot tolerate the success of another. "No person can touch what is prepared for his friend even a hairsbreadth"—so how can one possibly be jealous of another?
The Secret of the Eating of Boaz and Ruth
To be saved from anger and arrogance, one must merit awe of Heaven, and this awe comes to a person specifically during the time of eating. Boaz said to Ruth the Moabite: "Come here, and eat of the bread." Boaz wanted to see how she ate, and through this, to know if she was worthy of the royalty of the House of David and of bringing forth Mashiach ben David.
The Sfas Emes says an awesome thing: If Boaz had brought Ruth fatted calves and given her a richer meal, Mashiach ben David would have been born immediately. He tested her through eating, because "at mealtime, come here" hints at Malchus (Kingship), which is the aspect of awe. When a person eats in holiness, he merits receiving awe of Heaven.
The Power of a Little More Joy
The Midrash states three startling things about the missed opportunities of the greatest figures in the world:
Had Aharon the High Priest known that it would be written in the Torah, "And when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart," he would have gone out to greet Moshe with tambourines and dancing.
Had Reuven known that the Torah would write about him, "And he delivered him out of their hands," he would have placed Yosef on his shoulders and returned him to his father.
And had Boaz known that it would be written, "And he reached her parched corn," he would have fed her fatted calves.
The Sfas Emes teaches us a tremendous foundational principle: Each one could have brought the Geulah (Redemption), if only they had performed the mitzvah with a little more joy. Aharon was already glad in his heart, but had he added tambourines and dancing, the complete Geulah would have arrived immediately, without the need for the Ten Plagues or the Splitting of the Red Sea. We would have entered the Land of Israel straight away and built the Holy Temple.
Every second that a person performs a mitzvah with a little more joy, a little more dancing, he brings down fire from Heaven. It is related in the name of the great-grandson of the Kotzker Rebbe: Rabbi Yehuda bar Ilai would dance before the bride with one myrtle branch, whereas Shmuel bar Yitzchak danced with three myrtle branches. And what was the difference? For Shmuel bar Yitzchak, a fire descended from Heaven and formed a canopy for him, purely in the merit of adding two more myrtle branches and a little more dancing.