What makes food taste good?

וֶהֱוֵי שׁוֹתֶה בְצָמָא אֶת דִּבְרֵיהֶם

“Drink in their [the Chachamim] words with thirst” (Pirkei Avot, 1:4)

Rabeinu Yonah says,

The soul of one who is satisfied from words of Torah “and” does not desire them will trample on them – even if they tell him pearls of Torah.

But one who is hungry for them, and desires to hear them, will find them sweet in his mouth and will be happy about it – even if he is told something that seems without flavor -it will become sweet to him, because of the fact that he knows the words are true, since  they are words of  his Rebbe, and that in itself is enough to make them sweet.

Q: Why does he begin with a description of one who is “Satisfied, to then add the words, “and” does not desire them?

Q: Does the sense of “satisfaction” lead to “not desiring them?

I think he is describing a person who may actually devote time to learning the words of Torah, even by setting a fixed time to learn. The danger comes when one may feel satisfied with himself since he says to himself  “I have fulfilled my “quota” for the day.  “I have completed this mitzvah”  “I am done” by focusing on the task,  rather than fixing Torah as his constant desire.

Rabeinu Yonah says this approach lacks flavor,  since the necessary desire is missing in this approach.

This leads to a distortion of taste buds!

1. Loss of recognition of the taste of the precious words of Torah.
2. To then treat the elevated words of Torah, that which is only good and the best with disdain.

The opposite is true as well according to Rabeinu Yonah.

A person who approaches Torah saying “I want more!” is someone whose sense of taste will consistently be attuned to taste the subtleties and enjoy the taste of Torah, as in Oneg Shabbos..   His statement of “I want more” ensures his senses work as they were designed,  so that he can hear the important signals and taste the sweet, powerful messages of Torah.   He can distill the nature of the food being offered as a source of nutrients, of truth or potentially poisonous.  He is not someone whose sense of taste is dictated by external influences of how it “should taste”.

It comes down to his approach. He comes to Torah  with a sense of urgency, desperation , life and death desire, meaning he can’t live without it; he needs to hear the words of his Rebbie,  he is someone who will bring the words of Torah alive, filled with flavors, just because of how he approaches learning Torah, and who he is learning from.  He is never sated as he knows there is always more, and seeks more. The words of Torah don’t need to be embellished or with added  flavoring for such a person to find it sweet.  He lives with a state of thirst for truth, and hearing the words become delicious food for the soul.  Such a person will undoubtedly uncover and reveal the beautiful colors and flavors in the words of Torah.  Such a person who is in a state of “I want more”^[1] is therefore seeking Torah “Lishmah”- כֻּלָּֽנוּ יוֹדְעֵי שְׁמֶֽךָ וְלוֹמְדֵי תוֹרָתֶֽךָ. (י”א תוֹרָתְךָ) לִשְׁמָהּ.

 

Kavanah:

וְהַעֲרֶב נָא ה׳ אֱלֹקינוּ אֶת־דִּבְרֵי תוֹרָתְךָ בְּפִֽינוּ

We ask Hashem to be people who  consistently approach Torah with intense desire so the words of Torah taught by our ultimate Rebbie, הַמְלַמֵּד תּוֹרָה לְעַמּוֹ יִשְׂרָאֵל  are sweet.

 

 

 

 

 

^[1]The phrase “I want more” is a phrase I have learned and heard from Harav Simcha L Weinberg, n’’y in his approach to Avodas Hashem.