73- Flavors of Torah

We eat in order to have strength to work, and we work in order to have something to eat, then we eat in order to have strength to work, and so on.

We should understand which is important and which is unimportant. It is simple: If you ask a person which of them he wants to relinquish, meaning we would like to give you one of them, and not that you will bind one with the other, of course he will say that he relinquishes the work and not the food, since he finds a good taste in eating, whereas in work, he finds a bad taste. Hence, if he could relinquish one act, he would relinquish work and choose food.

But sometimes people feel no taste in eating and eat only because it is necessary, for otherwise the body would not persist and they would not be able to work.

Why do they need to work? It is because they derive satisfaction from the work. In the work, they find a good taste because they see that they are doing something, whereas in eating, they feel no taste. This happens because of some illness or old age, as our sages said, “There is no flavor in an old man.”

Likewise, in the work of the Creator, eating is called Torah. There are those who eat in order to have the strength to work, or work in order to be able to eat, meaning to taste the taste of Torah. If they see that they still have no understanding in the Torah, they must learn Torah as a Segula [virtue/remedy/cure], meaning that through the power of the Torah they will have the strength to work, since “the light in it reforms him.”

It follows that he eats from the Torah in order to have strength to work. Accordingly, he then works in order to be rewarded with eating, meaning to understand the Torah, as in the flavors of Torah. And if he still finds no taste in it, he learns Torah in order to be able to work. It follows that the Torah is only a means to be able to work, while work is the main thing. And sometimes, the Torah is the main thing—when one is rewarded with the flavors of the Torah.