๐ SATURDAY PRAYER: HOD- GRACE FOR THE FIRST SHABBAT MEAL
READING: SUNSET FRIDAY
MEAL OF GRATITUDE
-by Rav Michael Laitman
Question: You have often recounted how your teacher held meals. Their meals included onions, olive oil, bread, salt, pepper. Was this simple diet chosen on purpose so that the food didnโt interfere with the intention? Or was there some other reason?
Answer: It was at the very beginning of my journey. When I came to class in the evenings, I went into the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee and saw simple plastic plates with slices of half-eaten bread and the remains of chopped, peppered onions sprinkled with olive oil. There were always a couple of empty beer bottles nearby.
It turned out that five to six students of my ravโs father Baal HaSulam, old people already more than 70 years old, gathered together for classes and every evening finished their day with a meal.
I donโt think they needed any other food; that was enough for them in the evenings. Such food represents a meal of gratitude to the Creator, gratitude to each other for the fact that they gathered, studied together, and comprehended the universe in their studies. It was with this gratitude to the Creator that they ended their day.