The Torah’s first reference to bread goes back to Adam in Gan Eden where he is admonished, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat bread” (Breishis 3:19).
The Torah (Vayikra 26:26) calls bread the staff (strong, supportive rod) [of life], because it is the basic food staple, which provides a significant portion of our daily energy and nutritional needs. Without bread a meal is – halachically – considered a snack. Only a meal with bread requires the Birchas HaMazon.
Bread, therefore, is a metaphor for Torah as in (Midrash Mishlei 31:14). To be healthy and fulfilled, a person must be nourished daily. Likewise, to be a healthy and fulfilled Jew, one needs to ingest Torah every day to nourish one’s soul.
Bread is also a metaphor for marriage (see Bereishis 39:6). It has been asked, aren’t there other foods that are tastier and more exciting than bread? Are we not instructed to consume “fat meat and old wine” to celebrate Yom Tov? Doesn’t bread seems so banal? Is that all that married life is, as exciting as bread?
The answer lies in seeing bread for what it is: the fundamental, reliable nourishment around which a meal is built. A person cannot eat “fat meat and old wine” three times a day for 70 years, but he can do so with bread. Marital bliss is not in those special and exciting events, wonderful as they may be. Its essence is in the daily bread, the whispering symbiotic trust, love, and security of the marital relationship, which you can count on in a good marriage every day for 70 years and more.
