In Rav Yehezkiel Abramsky’s sefer Melech B’Yofyo ( page 609) there’s a beautiful thought.
There are ten statements on the creation of the world. According to some, the last one is, “God said, Behold I am giving you all of the grass to be eaten, and all of the fruits of the tree to be eaten.” Why is that considered a creation of everything was already created.
The answer is that if Hashem didn’t say that the fruit and grass are there to eat, it would have been beautiful fruit, and everything would have looked great, but man would not have benefited from it. The fruit wouldn’t have had nutrients, vitamins and minerals necessary for man. In short, it would not have been food, and it would not have satiated man. So although everything was already created, we still needed a separate statement from God, saying “I gave it to you, and now you can benefit from it. Now all of the material and substance in the food will become fit for human consumption.”
That, he says, is the explanation for a pasuk, that according to many is one of the 613 Mitzvot- to remember the mann, which taught us that man does not live on bread alone.
(Devarim 8,3). Rather, he lives on what emanates from the mouth of God. That’s what the mann taught us. Mann had nothing substantial; no nutrients, other than the fact that God said, “This will sustain you.”
So what is the lesson to us?
Today, when we eat an apple or orange, we aren’t living from the apple, we are living from what emanates from the mouth of God- from the statement that God said, “It’s for you to eat.” It’s not the apple, it’s God’s words. It’s the fact that God said the apple is there for us to eat.
That additional statement is what gives man the ability to live from food.
He says that this isn’t only at the beginning of creation. This is at every moment. When a person thinks that he did it on his own, he forgets that you need God’s statement that It will be for you.
With this, we can understand a Zohar that seems very difficult at first glance.
(Zohar Section 2, Beshalach 62a)
The pasuk says, Poteach Et Yadecha
God opens His hands and gives everyone what they want and what they desire. But before that it says, “People look forth to God and hope to God they He will take care of them.”
Therefore, the Zohar says that it’s not enough for the Jewish people who believe in God to just look for Him. They actually have to ask, every singe day, for their food, from God. They have to ask for it and make a special prayer on their food.
Even though you already have food, you have to ask Hashem for it every single day. And this is is for every person, including the wealthy.
Why?
To show us this concept.
Even though we have the food, we still need an additional statement from God, saying that the food is there for us to eat.
Don’t assume that just because you already have the food, you’re good. Adam HaRishon could have had all the food in the world, but it wouldn’t have helped unless he had the food for him to eat.
Therefore, every single day, we have to pray for our food. In many siddurim, there’s a special prayer in Shomeah Tefilah, clearly asking for it. The Pele Yoetz, in his Sefer Orot Elim quotes this Zohar and says that most people don’t do this. But we should at least insert this standard prayer. A person has to realize this important concept. We don’t have it just because we have it, we have it because God gives it to us.
The Hovot Halevavot talks about this concept. He says that people can have assets but they’re just guarding them. He calls it a pikadon/ a deposit, because it’s not really yours- you aren’t going to benefit from it.
The same is true for a cupboard full of food. Just because you have it, it doesn’t mean it’s yours.
Therefore, you have to pray for your food, every single day. This is a statement of belief that I believe that I’m living today because of the words that emanated from God’s mouth that said, “You will benefit from your food.”
Therefore, you have to pray for it and ask for it.
We don’t have mann today, but the mann comes down. We remember the mann every day, which means the emanation from God’s mouth that says, “You can eat it,” comes down every single day.
This might be a deep concept but I hope I got the point across.