Parshat Eikev

Moses seeks to provide wisdom and memory to a new generation that will be living a very different life than in the Wilderness.

Devarim 8:3 (Alter)

And He afflicted you and made you hunger and fed you the manna … in order to you know that not on bread alone does the human live but on every utterance of the LORD’s mouth does the human live.

Yoma 74b

There is no comparison between one who has bread in his basket and one who does not have bread in his basket. The affliction in eating the manna lay in there being no leftover food for the next day. Each day the people worried that they might not have any food to eat the next day.`

The discussion in the Talmud argues that the manna is itself an affliction? Why? 

How does hunger and being fed manna make one realize that material fulfillment is not enough? Wouldn’t it teach the opposite — make you more acutely focused on food?

In modern psychology (Abraham Maslow), there is the idea of a hierarchy of needs: only after you have overcome material needs can you explore spiritual needs. Is there anyway to reconcile Moses and Maslow?

Pirkei Avot 3:17-21

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; if there is no fear, there is no wisdom. If there is no understanding, there is no knowledge; if there is no knowledge, there is no understanding. If there is no bread, there is no Torah; if there is no Torah, there is no bread.

How might the aphorism by Rabbi Azariah help in understanding? (Or does it just restate the question?)

Mishlei 30:7-9

Two things I ask of you; do not deny them to me before I die:

Keep lies and false words far from me;

Give me neither poverty nor riches,

But provide me with my daily bread,

Lest, being sated, I renounce, saying, “Who is the LORD?”

Or, being impoverished, I take to theft

And profane the name of my God. 

In Proverbs, attributed in the tradition to Solomon, the wise man is saying that both wealth and poverty are spiritually dangerous. Why? 

Devarim 8:17-18

and you say to yourselves, “My own power and the might of my own hand have won this wealth for me.” Remember that it is the LORD your God who gives you the power to get wealth …

After the corner is turned, and you experience success in life, you may start to forget God’s role. Does this strike as an accurate perception of human nature? 

Sandra Day O’Connor

We don’t accomplish anything in this world alone … and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one’s life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that creates something.

What you can you do to remember this? How can you be aware and mindful of the weaving of the tapestry?

Devarim 10:12

And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God demand of you? Only this: to revere the LORD your God, to walk only in His paths, to love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and soul.

Pirkei Avot 1:17

The main thing is not the learning but the doing.