Rabbi Avigdor Miller zt”l explains to us about the Lechem HaPanim,
In this week’s sedrah the Am Yisroel is commanded by Hakodosh Boruch
Hu to bake twelve loaves of bread and to display them on a golden table in the
Beis Hamikdash: וְלָקַחְתָּ סלֶֹת וְאָפִיתָ ֹ אתָהּ שְׁתֵּים עֶשְׂרֵה חַלּוֹת– You should take fine wheat
flour and bake it into twelve loaves … and you should set them up in two stacks, six
in each stack, on the pure table, before Hashem (Emor 24:5-6).
Now, there’s a question here because we’re talking about the holiest place
on earth now, the place where the Shechina resides; it’s the place where every
act, every procedure, was kodesh kodoshim and here the Am Yisroel were
commanded, by means of their representatives, the kohanim, to be bakers! Not
to meditate in the words of the Mesillas Yesharim or Chovos Halevavos but to
bake twelve loaves of bread and to leave them sitting on the table all week long.
Now I must tell you beforehand, I must apologize because the Rambam
says he doesn’t understand the idea of the shulchan with lechem hapanim. A
table with bread from which the kohanim eat on Shabbos? He says he has no
explanation (Moreh Nevuchim 3:45).
While reading this on Shabbos, I couldn’t help but think: Is there a Geulah connection to the timing of our Shmittah and the (overlapping) planned destruction/confiscation and non-availability of food products for the world? Why are we seemingly heading to a famine, as in the days of Yosef. Will Hashem allow another famine to reach Eretz Yisrael? Do we appreciate the abundance of edibles we have previously experienced? Rabbi Miller brings us to understand that this world we live in was created from “nothing.” The bread (Challah) is nourished by and comes from the air. I cannot help but think that the disintegration of planet earth, via air, land, water, soil, and all we have known about living on planet earth is taking us to the end of six thousand years and what awaits us thereafter.
What does G–D want us to realize and learn from all this? What are we to do?
And so we’ll say as follows: it’s noteworthy that these loaves are the sole
instance of an offering in the Sanctuary which is kept for display. It’s true that
the bread was eaten on Shabbos, but that was only the culmination of a weeklong
exhibition. And all week long, whatever avodah the kohen was busy with,
every time he passed by he took note of the bread being showcased on the
golden table. And therefore it is obvious that the function of this avodah is to
emphasize the supreme importance of bread.
Now, it could be that we don’t see what’s so special – it’s only bread after
all. But that’s exactly the point! We’re learning now that it’s not just bread – it was
kodesh kodoshim, it was holy bread. And you know why it’s so holy? Because it’s
teaching us daas; it’s giving us a mind. Bread is one of the great testimonies to
the Creator’s wisdom and the lechem hapanim is a symbol that the function of
bread is to make us aware of Hakodosh Boruch Hu.
Now don’t make any mistake about this; it’s plain common sense what I’m
telling you now only that it requires some thought. Because if you look at a piece
of bread like a horse looks at bread, you’ll have the mind of a horse. But if you
learn how to look at bread, you’ll begin gaining a Torah mind.
How are you supposed to look at bread? Well, if you ever admired a beautiful
diamond and wondered at the texture, the sparkle, the beauty of it, you should
know that it’s nothing at all compared to a piece of bread. Bread! Bread is
unequaled in creation; there is nothing in the whole universe like it. Except your
brain - you’ll agree that your brain is superior. But bread is a miracle! Not one
miracle – it’s miracles upon miracles.
You know, there’s a statement in the Gemara (Pesachim 118a) that קשִָׁין
מְזוֹנוֹתָיו†שֶׁל†אָדָם†כִּקְרִיעַת†יַם†סוּף†, a man’s mezonos, his food,
is as difficult as tearing apart the Yam Suf. And it’s a maamar that is misunderstood by
everybody because when you ask a person, “How is business?” so if he knows a
little Gemara he replies with this statement. “It’s not easy; it’s k’kriyas Yam Suf.”
But actually that’s not true at all because most people do get their food;
look around and you see that most people are eating. Unless they’re trying to
reduce, everybody is gaining weight. But let them try to split the Yam Suf.
So you must say that this statement means something else. It means that
it’s more difficult for Hashem — for Hashem to give you food, it’s more difficult
than opening up the Yam Suf.
Now, we know of course nothing is difficult for Him but it means that when
it comes to bread there are even bigger miracles, more miracles, than took place
at the Yam Suf. And since we know עַל†הַיָּם†לָקוּ†חֲמִשִּׁים†וּמָאתַיִם†מַכּוֹת†, that 250 nissim
took place on Yam Suf so it means there are at least 250 miracles when you eat
bread. When bread is produced, it’s a succession of hundreds of miracles.
Now when I say hundreds, I’m understating it. The truth is that the number
is so remarkable that you won’t believe me. “A guzma,” you’ll say, “He’s just
exaggerating.” But the plain truth is that millions of details need to cooperate to
make bread. I won’t be able to take up the time now and describe for you all the
nissim taking place in the making of food — first of all, I know very little; and
even if I would tell you the little I do know we would never be able to leave this
place; you’d never go home.
Bread comes out of nowhere every day. Hundreds of thousands of pounds
of bread materialize out of the atmosphere every day. Don’t think it comes out
of the earth. The aretz gives only a tiny contribution to the lechem. We say המַּוצֹיִא
לֶחֶם†מִן†הָאָרֶץ†because the roots of the wheat are in the earth but actually only a
tiny part comes from the earth; the majority comes from the air. It’s mavhil; it’s
just unbelievable. If you ever studied any science, you’ll know that bread comes
out of nowhere. You hear that? Bread is air! You have to become excited when
you hear that!
How does air become bread? It’s a nes! How did the starch come about?
How did the plant produce starch? It’s using the sunlight. The sun is sending its
rays from 93 million miles away to the plant and the plant has a little chlorophyll
— another nes — a material that is able to take the sunlight and produce starch.
But sunlight is not enough. To make bread you need some carbon dioxide
too – it’s part of the recipe. So the plant takes in some carbon dioxide from the
air and it combines with the sunshine and gets to work making starch.
Now, carbon dioxide is only three parts out of ten thousand in the air. And
the plant is standing here sucking the carbon dioxide from the air around it. In a
minute, it has exhausted all the carbon dioxide. So the plant should die. No!
Hakodosh Boruch Hu made the wind. אִי†אֶפְשָׁר†לְעוֹלָם†בְּלאֹ†רוּחוֹת†– Without the
winds, the world couldn’t exist (Taanis 3b). The wind keeps the air moving, so as
the plant exhausts the carbon dioxide from the air around it, the wind pushes
some new air into place and the air keeps on moving – nissei nissim.
And so, a little bit of water and carbon dioxide, some sunlight and
chlorophyll, and the little wheat plant gets busy combining them and producing
starch. That starch is the wheat; that’s the bread. That’s cheilev chitah – that’s
the fat of the wheat. And so if you’re holding a piece of bread you have to know
that you have in your hand a piece of miracle.
That’s why our Sages decreed that אֵין†זוֹרְקִין†אֶת†הַפַּת†– you can’t throw bread
(Brachos 50a). Derech eretz! Let’s say your son says, “Abba, throw me a piece of
challah please.” “Oh no,” you say, “I don’t play catch with challah. Challah is a nes.”
Would you throw let’s say the urim v’tumim?! Imagine the Kohen Gadol said to
you, “Hand me the urim v’turim please,” would you throw it? You would take it
with the biggest derech eretz when you hand it over to him.
You have to be polite with bread. It’s Hakodosh Boruch Hu’s miracle. The
urim v’tumim is such a rare miracle, but bread is no less. The truth is it’s bigger!
The piece of bread is more nissim than the urim v’tumim – more nissim! It’s a
life-giving product that’s created from sunshine combined with a little carbon
dioxide and water. Not that the sunshine helps the food come into existence; the
sunshine becomes part of the food. You’re eating sunshine and carbon dioxide
when you eat bread. That’s what it is.
[…] Now, that’s how a kohen was thinking when he saw the lechem hapanim.
He’s busy with the avodah; he’s walking past the open doors of the heichal
carrying dam of the korban or whatever else he might be doing and out of the
corner of his eye he sees the lechem hapanim; “Ooh wah! Lechem! Loaves of
bread on a golden table!” And he’s reminded to think about these things.
Other things too. He’s thinking about the wheat seed. The farmer puts a
wheat seed into the ground and it rots away and it produces a root and a stem.
The seed rots away and a root and a stem begin growing out. How does such a
thing happen? And the root always grows down and the stem always up. Never
the opposite. No matter how you put the seed it never happens that the root
goes up and the stem down. It’s a miracle, chochmas Hashem.
Now, I’m just talking kindergarten talk now because it’s a million times
more complicated than that; in that little seed after all, is all of the machinery
needed to make wheat plants. Only it’s so minute, so microscopic, that you don’t
realize what’s doing. There’s marvelous machinery there – it’s like a big factory
a block long – and it’s all concealed in the cells of that seed.
Not only machinery but all of the information, all the instructions needed
to make the bread are there. If you would try to write it out in books, the biggest
library in the world will not have enough books to record all the information.
They try; they’ve written books but they can’t go through the whole subject. The
real library, you know where it’s written? It’s written on the helix of the DNA
molecule in each seed. Instructions in the millions for how to produce wheat.
And each bit of information is precisely numbered to step forward in sequence
– not a second before it’s needed and not a second too late – in the right moment
it comes in and gives this bit of information.
Now, all of that and much much more was on display in the Beis Hamikdash
at all times. It says לֶחֶם†פָּנִים†לְפָנַי†תָּמִֽיד†. Tomid means it’s on the table without even
the slightest interruption. Even when the kohanim come on Shabbos to remove
the bread, as they’re taking off the old bread, they’re already pushing on the new
bread; the display of Hashem’s wisdom shouldn’t go lost even for a second.
That’s the lesson of the lechem hapanim, the twelve loaves of bread that
were on display on that golden table. It’s so that we should know how to look at
bread; we’re training ourselves to make use of the bread that we see all the time
and make sure to engrave the lessons of the chochmas Hashem on our minds – it
means that the bread is for the purpose of creating our minds.
Now, everything that was done in the Beis Hamikdash was a lesson – what
took place there was only a hint, a mashal, for the thoughts that we’re expected
to have in our heads; all of the procedures that we read about in the Torah
symbolize something important that we’re expected to study. And therefore,
when we talk about the lechem hapanim, let’s keep in mind that it’s mechayev us;
that bread that was displayed on a golden table obligates us to always keep in
our minds the importance of bread.
[…] All the things we learn with our minds, that’s not the chief accomplishment
of life, oh no. Many people understand and know and nevertheless have never
absorbed, have never taken into their inner consciousness the real truths of life.
דְּעֵה†חָכְמָה†לְנַפְשֶׁךָ†means to know the wisdom, to be margish it, to feel it.
How will you know wisdom for yourself? How will you acquire the
wisdom that will be a crown on your head in Olam Habo? שְׁמורֹ†שַׁבתָּ†קדְָשֶׁך†– by
keeping Shabbos properly.
More Than Shomer Shabbos
Now it doesn’t mean merely to be a shomer shabbos – of course that in itself
is extremely valuable but that’s not enough if you want to acquire a crown for
yourself. Shemor Shabbos kodshecha means to keep it the way Hakodosh Boruch
Hu intended. And He intended Shabbos as one of the great opportunities to
acquire a mind in this world. What’s the purpose of Shabbos? The purpose of
Shabbos is to acquire daas!
We’re learning something new about Shabbos now. It’s the day that’s set
aside for creating a Torah mind. Of course, every day is good for that; on
Wednesday you can also accomplish a lot; but which day is the best day of the
week for creating a mind? No question about it, it’s Shabbos. That’s what the day
of leisure is all about – we rest from melacha so that we can be free to acquire
daas; to fulfill the words of that song: דְעֵּה†חָכמְָה†לנְפְַשֶׁך†– Teach yourself daas, והְִיא
כֶתֶר†לְרֹאשֶׁךָ†– and that will be your crown in the Next World.
[…] Did you ever hear of such a thing, to make things out of nothing?! ב†דְִּברַ†השַּׁםֵ
שָׁמַיִם†נַעֲ†ׂ†שוּ†, just by the word of Hashem the heavens came into existence, ובּרְוחּ†פִּיו
כלָּ†צבְאָָם†. The sun, the moon, the winds, the rain, the soil, the stars, whatever you
see, all are nothing but the devar Hashem. That’s called ayin. Hashem willed it
into existence.
That’s the first and most obvious of all the lessons of Shabbos, that ברְּאֵשִׁית
ב†רָָּא†אלֱ†ֹ†קיִם†; Hashem made the world out of nothing. Now this is something that
has to be absorbed in our minds. It’s easy to say it, to talk about it, to think about
it, but that’s only chochma and we want more than that; we want ,דְעֵּה†חָכמְָה†לנְפְַשֶׁך
we want to transform that wisdom into deah, into real knowledge. We want to
accustom ourselves that whatever you see in the world, it’s devar Hashem. And
it needs a great deal of training until we get into that mood.
[…] “I’m eating the Word of Hashem.” Not only did it come from nothing
but it’s going to change again. You’re chewing and you’re thinking about how as
soon as your teeth get to work, immediately the starch begins converting into
sugars. By means of the enzymes in your saliva the starch turns into sugars in
your mouth.
And once you swallow the bread, then begins the great adventure. It goes
down into your gut and it’s propelled along the digestive tract by nissei nissim;
they give it a name – peristalsis — but a name doesn’t change the fact that it’s
moving along with millions and millions of miracles.
[…] Even if you knew all the sciences of today, you cannot enumerate a small
fraction of the wonders that are taking place with that piece of bread as it travels
through your system. Once it gets inside of you, it starts going through thousands
of transformations.
It’s breaking down into all the various components that are then
reassembled again into the materials needed by your organs; your kidneys need
some things, your heart other things. Your eyes, your toes, your scalp; there are
so many different places the bread has to go. And each destination needs
something else. And so by means of miracles the bread is replacing the used up
materials that your organs, your body, lost by your working, by your using them.
Miracles upon miracles are taking place now. If you can explain to me,
without writing a whole library of books, how bread becomes eyes. Bread
becomes eyes! This bread that came from nothing, and now it’s making me. You
have to think about that while you’re eating. Your eyes are the result of what you
eat. Your skin, your heart, your brain, your blood. Everything is now revitalized.
You’re not the same person today that you were yesterday because your
materials have been broken down and carried off in the waste or breathed out
by your lungs. Every day you’re a new man. Your shape is the same. You have the
same sized nose, the same lips. That’s the plan of Hakadosh Baruch Hu you
shouldn’t get lost, that people should continue to recognize you. But the truth is
you’re not the same as you were last week. You’re new material! The food that
you ate changed you. You are the bread you ate. It means that sunshine became
challah and then the challah became your eyes! Nissei nissim!
One should give considerable thought to what is occurring in the world now: the preplanned and deliberate interference with food production, delivery, and availability. The push to get people to eat fake meat and other lab-created food.
Compare this with our Shmittah and years of produce availability, and the promise by Hashem that we will have produce to eat in the 7th and 8th years, into the 9th when the new (non-Shmittah) crops will be available.
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