Parashat Eikev 5782
Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah
Of Bread and Potential
A D’var Toraj for Parashat Eikev
By Rabbi Katy Allen (’05)
The grass dries out in the heat–
it’s brown now.
Flowering plants, and even shrubs,
are wilting,
their leaves dull and stiff,
the bright blue of the sky
day after day
broken only
by occasional fair-weather clouds,
as the temperatures soar
and relief doesn’t come.
Here in my yard,
the visible life and death question is
focused on plants,
and perhaps some pollinators
or creepy crawlers in the soil
(though the bunnies and woodchucks no longer graze outside my window,
and I’m wondering where and what they are munching instead).
Elsewhere, however,
earthlings
are dying.
Humans cannot live by bread alone, (Deuteronomy 8:3)
our Torah text tells us,
and some rabbis say this means
we actually can live on less–
although I find it impossible to imagine no need for water.
The text also says
that humans can live on anything the Lord decrees,
and thus the manna from heaven was Read More >
