The Seeker Bread Project

“If there is no bread, there can be no Torah; If there is no Torah, there can be no bread.” Pirke Avot,

(ג) וַיְעַנְּךָ וַיַּרְעִבֶךָ וַיַּאֲכִלְךָ אֶת הַמָּן אֲשֶׁר לֹא יָדַעְתָּ וְלֹא יָדְעוּן אֲבֹתֶיךָ לְמַעַן הוֹדִעֲךָ כִּי לֹא עַל הַלֶּחֶם לְבַדּוֹ יִחְיֶה הָאָדָם כִּי עַל כָּל מוֹצָא פִי יְהוָה יִחְיֶה הָאָדָם.

Deuteronomy 8:3

(3) And He afflicted thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every thing that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

משנה אבות ג׳:י״ז

(יז) רבי אלעזר בן עזריה אומר, אם אין תורה, אין דרך ארץ.אם אין דרך ארץ, אין תורה.אם אין חכמה , אין יראה.אם אין יראה, אין חכמה.אם אין בינה, אין דעת.אם אין דעת, אין בינה.אם אין קמח , אין תורה.אם אין תורה, אין קמח.הוא היה אומר, כל שחכמתו מרבה ממעשיו , למה הוא דומה, לאילן שענפיו מרבין ושרשיו מעטין, והרוח באה ועוקרתו והופכתו על פניו, שנאמר (ירמיה יז), והיה כערער בערבה ולא יראה כי יבוא טוב ושכן חררים במדבר ארץ מלחה ולא תשב.אבל כל שמעשיו מרבין מחכמתו, למה הוא דומה, לאילן שענפיו מעטין ושרשיו מרבין, שאפלו כל הרוחות שבעולם באות ונושבות בו אין מזיזין אותו ממקומו, שנאמר (שם), והיה כעץ שתול על מים ועל יובל ישלח שרשיו ולא יראה כי יבא חם, והיה עלהו רענן, ובשנת בצרת לא ידאג, ולא ימיש מעשות פרי.

Pirkei Avot 3:17

(17) ...Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah says: If there is no Torah, there is no worldly occupation, if there is no worldly occupation, there is no Torah. If there is no wisdom, there is no fear of God; if there is no fear of God, there is no wisdom. If there is no knowledge, there is no understanding; if there is no understanding, there is no knowledge. If there is no flour, there is no Torah; if there is no Torah, there is no flour. He used to say: Anyone whose wisdom exceeds his deeds, to what is he compared? To a tree who branches are many but whose roots are few; then the winds comes and uproots it and turns it upside down; as it is said; "And he shall be like a lonely juniper tree in the wasteland and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places of the wilderness, a salt filled land which is uninhabitable." [Jeremiah 17:6]. But one whose deeds exceed one's wisdom, what is that person like? Like a tree whose branches are few, but whose roots are many; even if all the winds of the world were to come and blow upon it, they would not move it from its place, as it is said; "He shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not perceive when heat comes, but its leaf shall remain fresh; and it will not be troubled in the year of drought, nor will it cease to bear fruit." [Jeremiah 17:8].

עמוס ח׳:י״א

(יא) הִנֵּה יָמִים בָּאִים נְאֻם אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה וְהִשְׁלַחְתִּי רָעָב בָּאָרֶץ לֹא רָעָב לַלֶּחֶם וְלֹא צָמָא לַמַּיִם כִּי אִם לִשְׁמֹעַ אֵת דִּבְרֵי יְהוָה.

Amos 8:11

(11) Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, That I will send a famine in the land, Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the LORD.

“Once I was on a journey, and I came upon a man who went the way of heretics. He accepted the Written Torah but not the Oral Torah. He said to me: The Written Law was given to us from Mount Sinai; the Oral Law was not given from Mount Sinai. I said to him: But were not both the Written and the Oral Torah spoken by the Almighty? Then what difference is there between the Written and the Oral Torah? To what can this be compared? To a king of flesh and blood who had two servants and loved them both with perfect love. And he gave them each a measure of wheat and a bundle of flax. The wise servant, what did he do? He took the flax and spun a cloth. Then he took the wheat and made flour. The flour he cleansed, ground, kneaded and baked and set it on top of the table. Then he spread the cloth over it and left it until the king would come. But the foolish servant did nothing at all. After some days the king returned from a journey, entered his house and said to them: My sons, bring me what I gave you. One servant showed him the wheaten bread on the table with a cloth spread over it, and the other servant showed the wheat still in the box, with a bundle of flax upon it. Alas for his shame, alas for his disgrace! Now when the Holy One blessed be He gave the Torah to Israel, he gave it only in the form of wheat for us to extract flour from it, and flax to extract a garment… (Seder Eliyahu Zutta 2)

Yaffa Eliach tells the following story about survivor Tula Friedman:
A waiter came to the table with a basket of bread. Tula closed her eyes and inhaled the aroma of the freshly baked bread. She passed the basket to me without taking any…. She said, "You know, in camp I used to dream that one day I would marry a baker, and in our house there would always be an abundance of bread."
"For this basket of bread," another woman across the table said, "you could buy in camp all the jewelry you see at this bar mitzvah. Once in Bergen-Belsen, I exchanged a diamond ring for a thin slice of white bread."
The bread on the table was still untouched. The waiter came again to the table. "Ladies, I see that you are not hungry today."
"Not today," replied Tula, "and not ever again."
The waiter was about to remove the bread. "Leave it on the table," said another woman. "There is nothing more reassuring in this world than having a basket of freshly baked bread on the table in front of you." (The Five Books of Miriam, Ellen Frankel, Grosset/Putnam Books, New York, 1996, p.192.)

The story above was taking from a brief article in MyJewishLearning: No Food, No Torah-- which you may find an interesting resource for Sunday's session and our theme overall.