Ten Women, One Oven
“Ten women will bake their bread in one oven, they will place their bread on a scale, and you will eat and not be satisfied.”[1] This verse is from the “rebuke”, where the Torah tells of the terrible calamities that would befall the Jewish people if they would abandon G-d and his commandments.
Every verse in the Torah has multiple layers of meaning. The simple meaning of the word is the “body” of the verse and the mystical interpretation is the “soul” of the verse. The verses of the “rebuke” are no exception, they may seem to be describing terrible curses but like the body that contains a soul, hidden within these verses are powerful blessings.
On the surface, the verse, “Ten women will bake their bread in one oven” describes the process of baking literal bread. On the deeper level, however, the bread refers to the Torah which is the spiritual bread and nourishment of the Jew.
Bread is about more than just kneading the various ingredients into a dough. Bread must be baked. Dough that isn’t baked will not be digested properly and its nutrients will therefore not enter the bloodstream efficiently. The nutrients of the bread will not become one with the person eating the bread. The heat of the fire enables the bread, to be digested properly. The heat of the fire enables the bread to become one with the person eating the bread. The fire allows the nutrients of the bread to enter the bloodstream and become one with the person.
The same is true for the spiritual bread. The Torah that we study must become part of us, it must not remain a distinct entity just sitting in our mind. The teachings of the Torah must become part of our bloodstream, part of our character. Not just an intellectual idea to ponder but rather it must become who we are.
How does this happen? How do the words of Torah that we study become part of us? Well, like the any other bread, the Torah must be baked with fire. The fire enables the dough to unite with us.
The fire which bakes our spiritual bread is the fire of passionate love of G-d. The fire is the heart surging upward like a flame. The fire is the soul’s yearning to escape the grip of its wick, thirsting to reunite with its source.
“Ten women will bake their bread in one oven”. The great, yet hidden, blessing in this verse is that the fire of love will consume and involve all ten faculties of the soul, all ten women, and direct them to one oven, to one love. To the love of the one G-d.
And then comes the climax: “and you will eat and you will not be satisfied”.
As devastating a curse this is in the plain meaning so is the greatness of this blessing in the deeper meaning. “And you will not be satisfied”. Your love and yearning will never cease. You will never be satisfied with your spiritual state of being, you will always yearn to grow, to move closer. Your love will only intensify.
“You will not be satisfied”. You put on Tefilin today, you pray to G-d, you learned a portion of the Torah today, you’re in love. “You will not be satisfied”. Your love will not be satiated, it will intensify. When you don Tefilin tomorrow morning, the next time you pray or study Torah, your love will grow, the love will intensify ever stronger, and soar ever higher.
Bake your bread. Infuse your life with spiritual passion. Gather all “ten women”, to “one oven”, to one fire, to one love.
Most importantly, never be complacent. Always seek to grow. Always intensify the passion. “Eat, but don’t be satisfied”.[2]
[1] Leviticus. 26:26
[2] Based on Lekutey Torah Parshas Bechukosay.