Q:
You said before that a person should eat with appetite and thank Hashem for it, but from Mesilas Yesharim it seems like a porush should eat only what he must. Is this a contradiction?
A:
And the answer is no. A porush does not eat what is unnecessary for him, but whatever is necessary he eats with appreciation. As he takes his piece of bread and dips it in the salt and drinks with it a cup of water, he smacks his lips and chews with relish and he thinks what a great brachah it is that he can eat his bread and water.
Like Rabbi Yehuda who was so poor that he didn’t have a garment to go out into the streets. Finally, he and his wife bought a garment that was nondescript – it didn’t look like a man’s garment, and it didn’t look like a woman’s garment. And therefore when he had to go out, he took the garment, and when she had to go out, he remained home and she wore the garment. She wasn’t over on the issur of wearing a man’s garment because it didn’t look like anything; it looked like a rag, like a sack.
Now, when Rabbi Yehuda put on this garment he made a big bracha, ברוך שעטני מעיל – “I thank You Hashem, that You clothed me with a cloak; a royal cloak.” It means that to him it was a royal cloak; he was so happy! Now you understand already what kind of garment it was if you couldn’t discern if it was a man’s garment or a woman’s garment; it was a shmatteh, that’s all. But for him it was such a happiness that he said, “Boruch Hashem! I thank You that You clothed me with a cloak.”
And therefore, the porush doesn’t eat ice-cream and cake and soda and all of that garbage. But when he eats his piece of bread he enjoys it to no end. I always tell you the same thing. Bread has starch in it. And in your saliva, you have an enzyme called ptyalin that causes the starch to turn into sugar. So the longer you chew the bread, the sweeter it becomes. So this porush is eating his sweet bread and enjoying it more than the man who eats sugar cereals. And he thanks Hashem as if he’s eating the most luscious of all forms of appetizing food.
TAPE # 502
