Spiritual Eating
We are constantly hungry in the natural flesh.
Why do we always need food? Why the constant need to be fed? We are told that the feasts of the L-rd are how HaShem makes His timeline understood by His people with understanding made available to those who keep them and want to understand them. There is instruction of the spiritual things of G-d that can be obtained in the natural by the methods he has expounded upon as the manner in which we are to remember them and all the finer points involved in that understanding by the things we do within each feast. These things include little things such as no leaven in the Pasach bread that reminds us how hard it is to git rid of sin. There is the third cup of wine of the four cups that are in a Pesach Seder which reminds us of the cup of redemption which is why we celebrate the cross and the payment for the penalty of sinning that was paid by G-d Himself putting His punishment on that thing He holds precious which is Word that created all things. There is also example of the places we eat, such as the Sukka when the time of Tabernacles comes around; reminding us of how we are all taken out of our own land of Egypt just as His people were so long ago.
This thing of eating, constantly eating and needing food does not just stop with the Feasts of the L-rd, but continues all year. The flesh yearns to be fed without ceasing. When we are full, just a little time passes and we need to be fed yet again and it never seems to end till the day we pass away to the next existance. All these natural things were created by HaShem to remind us of Him in some way. So, is it possible that the need to eat in the natural should be a reminder of how we should need to eat of that spiritual food in the supernatural?
In John 6 we are told that our bread is His word come into the flesh. The living waters are said to come from the inner parts of those who trust and believe in HaShem. But how can we understand exactly what we need in the spiritual and make that wisdom evident to the natural mind of man? One of the best examples we have is the way in the natural that we have this constant need to eat and be fed. Once again, our lives center around food and being fed, but now in the natural we have the example we need of what should be happening in the spiritual. We are in constant need of His spiritual bread in the Word of the Living G-d and the spirit demands to be fed continually. If it is not fed, then it will die and we now deal with the inner man who has a dead spirit. This deadness can only be revived by the Creator of that essence because it was from His breath from which it came and now exists. Only the Source can revive that which was created from the Source, exists because of the Source, and is then in constant need to be maintained and sustained by that same Source - Who is the L-rd Himself.
This is why we pray before food, thanking Him for creating this example that we have in the natural of things that should be happening in the spiritual. Jewish tradition based in scripture (Old and New) is that songs and Hymns of praise and thanksgiving be sung and serve as a reminder of how we are sustained in the natural by the food we eat, and how the spiritual food during times of prayer and reading the Scriptures sustains the spiritual man. We sing to Him for giving us this way of understanding His wisdom and not just for feeding our flesh one more time. It serves as the ultimate reminder, a daily living presence, of how the Source and our interaction with that Source is constantly needed and should be maintained.
To all who eat and feel the constant need to eat - here is to remembering how the flesh reminds us daily of the Spirit.