When we sit down to eat our food, we have to realize it’s coming directly from G-d.
Our prayers and berachot direct us to see this, though we might not realize it. The Bircat Hamazon is a perfect example: we Sephardim say,כאמור like it says,
פותח את ידך ומשביע לכל חי רצון
G-d opens His hands and takes care of everybody
Some people have the custom to say, before saying Hamotzi: “
עיני כל אליך ישברו
All eyes are on You
ואתה נותן להם את אכלם בעתו
And You give them their food at the right time.”
Every morning when we say Pesuke D’Zimra, we have to have kavana(concentration) and think “I am starting a new day and G-d is giving me my bread.” It’s not coming from the bakery.
These are fundamentals.
Masechet Ketubot tells a story about Rava, one of the great Amorim.
Rava once had a poor man in his home. He asked the man what he’d like to eat. The man asked for steak and expensive wine. Rava asked if the man wasn’t embarrassed to request such delicacies- after all, it was community money that was being used to feed him. The poor man rejected that claim and said, No, it’s Hashem that gives him what he needs, at the time he needs it, quoting the pasuk above.
Just then, Rava׳s sister, whom he hadn’t seen in years, showed up at his home, with steak and wine for her brother.
Rava realized that it was sent by Hashem for this man, at the time he needed it.
There’s a similar story, one of my favorites, about the great Rav Ezra Hamway, the chief of the Bet Din in Aleppo. He was asked by his wife one Motzei Shabbat what he’d like to eat for melave malka.
“I would like a plate of mejedra and leben.”
(Rice with lentils and yogurt)
When his wife replied that she didn’t have mejedra in the house, he said of course he’d eat whatever she served him, but since she’d asked what he wanted, he’d told her.
Just then there was a knock on their door. The cook of a wealthy neighbor entered, clearly upset and explained that she had accidentally cooked mejedra in a meat pot, and then added leben. She asked the rabbi what to do. Hacham Ezra asked her a few detailed questions to determine exactly how she had prepared the food. After some deliberation, he declared that the mejedra was kosher and she had nothing to worry about.
A few minutes later, the cook returned with a message from her boss and a plate of megedrah. “My master didn’t believe me,” said the maid, “He wants you to eat from it, to prove that it is, indeed, kosher.” And so the rabbi got to enjoy a plateful of mejedra and leben, exactly as he had wanted, delivered to his door.
We should realize these stories aren’t just from the olden days or from the Gemara. Every time you have breakfast this happens. Sometimes it’s more obvious, like what happened to me in shul a while ago.
I usually like to get to Seuda Sheleshit quickly so that I’m sure to have enough bread for Hamotzi. But one Shabbat night, I was delayed about ten minutes, after speaking with someone. I wasn’t thinking about the bread at all. I came down, washed and sat down. I noticed a man about three seats over holding 2 breads, about to make the beracha, so I motioned and signaled for him to include me in his Hamotzi, which he did. I didn’t think much of it. A little later, a man came over to me and in disbelief, explained to me that those were the last two loaves in the shul! It seems that because it was the first week after the clock was changed, the Shul had underestimated the amount of bread needed. Apparently more people wash on the longer days. That man had scoured the whole shul and found the last two loaves of bread to be had. And I just happened to saunter in, sit down, make a little signal his way and get the bread that I needed.
This is a miracle that happens to us every day. We just don’t always realize it. Hashem just showed it to me clearly to emphasize this point as I am teaching this lesson.
Hashem sends the Baal Bitachon bread to his table at all times.