Making a living or a life?

I like a good advert. Some years ago, McDonald’s was running a campaign, and in the centre of the full-magazine page was a big, fat, juicy double burger. It was literally bursting from the roll on either side. The bread was dwarfed by the beef, and the caption read, “Man does not live by bread alone.”

A good ad indeed. But no ad agency will convince me that scripture meant to teach us that bread is inadequate, and what man really needs in life is meat! No. The Torah is teaching us about the nature of men and women and the spirit of humanity.

“Man does not live by bread alone” is a verse from this week’s parsha, and refers to the miraculous manna which fell from heaven daily during the Jewish people’s sojourn in the wilderness. The conclusion of the verse is that man lives by the word of G-d, reminding us about the true source of human sustenance.

Contrary to popular belief, it’s neither our earthly toil nor the sweat of our brow nor all those conferences, meetings, and sales seminars that ensure our success. It’s actually G-d who sustains us. In the very same way as our ancestors trekking through the desert were totally dependent on Him for their daily bread, believe it or not, so are we. Wealth is a gift from G-d. At the end of the day, it’s not our hard work or business acumen alone that gives us prosperity, but blessings from above.

But “Man does not live by bread alone” means more than that.

The human spirit is such that we crave more than bread. Now, “bread” colloquially means money and symbolically refers to all things material. So, “Man does not live by bread alone” means that man simply cannot live by bread alone, that human beings cannot possibly be satisfied with bread, money, or materialism alone.

Money is important, but we cannot live by it exclusively. I know people who have it all financially, but are nonetheless unhappy. They’re very successful and very miserable. The successes we achieve don’t guarantee our happiness. After we’ve bought the house of our dreams and our fantasy sports car and all the latest electronic toys, we tire of them all. For satisfaction to be lasting, it must be more than material, it must be spiritual. We need more than bread and money; we need stimulation and a sense of meaningful achievement. To know that our lives have purpose and that, somehow, we have made a difference. We want to be assured that our work is productive and will have lasting value.

Men and women need to know that their life’s work is purposeful, materially and spiritually. When we understand that every good deed is attached to a complex spiritual system and that our every action has cosmic significance, then our lives become endowed with a deeper sense of meaning and purpose.

We desperately need to know that, in some way, our work is helping others – that we are contributing to society beyond our own selfish needs. Then, we are living. And then we are happy.

Man does not live by bread alone. We cannot. We dare not. There’s more to life than bread.