Parshat Eikev, 5767: Diet and Weight Management

Obesity is inappropriate for a Ben Torah

Obesity (other than when clinically induced) reflects a lack of control that is incongruent with the personality of a Torah Jew. Obesity is America’s biggest health challenge. But obesity is not only about health. In the UK too, more than 50% of young boys will be dangerously overweight by 2050.[1] But obesity is about more than lifestyle. We overeat[2] because we have lost the balance of spiritual and physical nourishment.

This loss of balance and its manifestation in obesity occurs as much in our religious communities as it does in any other demography. We have lost the art of eating and how to treat eating as an Avodah (a practice) and a beautiful part of a spiritual life. The Halachah (Jewish law) of having salt on the table and the custom of dipping bread into it after Hamotzi (the blessing for bread), are intended to focus us mindfully on the spirituality of a meal, but they rarely do. Salt, brought on the Mizbeach (Altar) with nearly all sacrifices, is a reminder that eating is not a mere physical act intended solely to satiate our ravenous appetites. Rather our tables are altars and our meals are practices of sanctity.[3]

The Ibn Ezra’s Theory of Nourishment

I refer you to a life changing Ibn Ezra on Devarim 8:3 and the Avi Ezer’s brilliant expansion of it. Moshe explains part of Hashem’s intention in feeding the Benei Yisrael Mannah during their forty year desert journey: “So that you should know that man lives not on bread alone. Rather, man lives on all that comes out from G-d’s mouth.”

On that the Ibn Ezra explains: Bread alone cannot sustain human life. Rather it is the energy contained in the bread (or in conjunction with the bread) emanating by Hashem’s instruction, from the Higher Powers that sustains human life.

The Avi Ezer explains this idea. Food sustains animals and humans in different ways. G-d injected the food of humans with an energy capable of benefiting their spiritual dimensions too. In this way, provided people eat in appropriate ways, their food nourishes their physical and their spiritual needs simultaneously. This is illustrated by the Mannah, Moshe explains to the people: You did not eat anything that grew from the earth (physical) but Mannah that rained from heaven (spiritual) and nevertheless you all lived healthy physical lives. This is counter to the laws of nature (that the spiritual can sustain the physical). So do not be amazed if eating physical food that grows from the ground nourishes you spiritually as well.

Spiritual Calories

The Ibn Ezra postulates an astonishing equation: physical and spiritual nourishment are interchangeable. Every grain of food is a source of both physical energy and also spiritual energy. Furthermore he says, spiritual energy can nourish physical needs as well as spiritual needs. The amazing outcome of this idea is that only a portion of our energy needs should be nourished by physical calories. If we eat appropriately, we can extract physical energy from the spiritual dimension of the food we consume, not only from its physical calories. Theoretically, in the extreme case, a fully evolved person should be able to nourish their physical needs from spiritual input alone! This would explain Moshe’s forty days on Mount Sinai without food, and stories in Gemorra of Tana’im and Amora’im who lived on insanely small amounts of food.

This idea also offers insights into why food is an important part of such spiritual occasions as Shabbat and Yomtov, as well as Se’udotMitzvah and Korbanot (sacrifices). Food nourishes our souls, not only our bodies. Flavorful meals beautifully presented in an attractive ambience with good company and conversation (as specified inHilchot Shabbat), nourish more than our bodies. They nourish our souls too.

In a way the Ibn Ezra’s equation is hardly surprising. We know that people eat more when they are unfulfilled. They try to find emotional comfort and spiritual satisfaction food. People intuitively understand that physical nourishment can sustain spiritual needs just as spiritual nourishment can satisfy physical needs. So they eat in the hope of finding spiritual comfort in their food. But that type of food introduces large quantities of energy that are often not used up in vibrant spiritual or physical exercise, and result in obesity. On Shabbat on the other hand, we have a need for additional spiritual energy.[4] Our food is used up in the production of that energy and should not add to our weight even if we are relatively docile physically. Provided, that is, we in fact exert the spiritual energy of the Neshama Yeteira in Shabbat practices and activities.

This idea also explains why sharing a meal is more nourishing than eating alone. There are countless stories (Victor Frankl documented some of them) of concentration camp inmates who survived because they shared their meager portions of food rather than attempt to take food from others. When you share food (for example the taking of Terumah, Ma’aser and Challah[5] and Hachnassat Orchim[6]) you add a spiritual energy to that food that enhances its capacity to nourish not only the soul but even the body.

Eating as an Avodah

What does the Ibn Ezra mean by his proviso that people need to eat “appropriately”? That means eating in ways that are mindful of the spiritual dimensions of food, its spiritual energy and the fact that a meal is an Avodah. How is this done?

Treat each act of eating in much the same way as a wine connoisseur drinks a glass of wine. He creates ambience. He prepares the wine and displays it beautifully. He learns about its origin and cultivar. He pours it with intention. Marvels at its colors in the glass and enjoys its bouquet before he even sips it. Sipping it he savors its complex tastes, swirling it and mixing it with air in his mouth to increase the pleasure of its unique taste. After a sip, he pauses and reflects on what he has enjoyed. Enjoy food in exactly the same way to access all of the nourishment with which G-d blessed it. And if it takes a little longer, that’s OK, it’s an Avodah after all.