G‑d's Bread

6 Adar II 5782

[G‑d told Moses,] “The priest must burn [the sacrifice] on the Altar, as food for the fire, to G‑d.” (Vayikra 3:11)

“Throughout the Torah, G‑d refers to the sacrifices repeatedly and figuratively as His ‘bread.’ Just as consuming bread – and food in general – keeps our souls connected to our bodies, the ‘bread’ of G‑d – the sacrificial service – keeps G‑d, the soul and life-force of the world, bound together with the world. In this way, through the sacrificial rituals, Divine energy is drawn into the world.” (Daily Wisdom, Lubavitcher Rebbe)

It is not, G‑d forbid, that Hashem needs us to “feed” him. It says clearly in Tehillim (50:12–13), “Should I hunger, I would not tell you, for the world and all it contains is Mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?” Instead, by offering sacrifices to G‑d we assert the Divine reality as a manifest presence in our physical world.

“For without this power of the animal soul, the divine soul would not affect the body at all, since it is spiritual and the body physical and corporeal, so that body and divine soul are antithetical, as are the spiritual and material dimensions generally. The intermediary between them is the vitalizing animal soul clothed in man’s blood, which is in his heart and throughout his body.” (Lessons in Tanya, Likutei Amarim, end of Chapter 35)

This and the Chumash above can be explained by way of an analogy. Just as a person eats food to sustain his life, which is merely a manifestation of his soul’s power via its physical vessel, the body, so too does G‑d “require” sacrifices to sustain His presence in the physical world, which is merely a manifestation of His infinite power via a physical vessel. “The same is true of our personal ‘sacrificial services’: Our study of the Torah, our prayers, our charitable deeds, and our ongoing refinement and elevation of the physical world in general, are G‑d’s ‘bread,’ connecting the world with G‑d” (Daily Wisdom, Lubavitcher Rebbe).

By our Divine service, especially by performing physical mitzvos, we elevate the body using the power of our Divine soul by way of the intermediary of the animal soul in order to create a manifest presence of Hashem in this world.

“Sin says to the wicked, ‘There is none who need place the fear of G‑d before his eyes.’” (Tehillim 36:2)

So what does all this complicated Chassidus mean to us in our daily lives? It comes to teach us how to actually stay on the proper path, especially in this complicated world.

The yetzer hara often comes by way of doubt. It says, “You don’t need to constantly place the fear of G‑d before you. This one little thing won’t make a difference. Look how big Hashem is, look how big the world is. Do you think your mitzvos or your aveiros will make any difference?” To this one must answer with the clarity related above. Just as a person must eat to sustain his life, so too does Hashem “need” exactly your service to dwell in exactly your corner of the world. Nobody else is going to do it. Just as a person would never stop eating because he is so small and just one out of many, so too you should never stop performing mitzvos because you are only one small soul out of many.