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.” This is one verse from the rebuke, where the Torah tells us what is going to happen if we abandon G-d’s commandments.

Chasidus, the inner light of Torah, reveals and teaches that every verse in the Torah has a deeper meaning. The simple meaning of the word is the “body” and the mystical interpolation is the “soul”. This verse is no exception, it may seem to be terrible curses but truthfully under the surface they are great blessings.

This verse describes the process of baking bread. The bread in this verse refers to the Torah.

To make bread you must bake the dough. The heat of the fire allows the dough to be digested. If you eat dough that wasn’t baked with fire then it will just sit in your stomach and it will not be digested to become part of your bloodstream, part of you.

The Torah that you study must become part of you, it must not remain a distinct entity just sitting in your body. The Torah must become part of your bloodstream, not just an intellectual idea to study.

How does this happen? How can the words of Torah that I study become part of me? Well, the bread, the Torah must be baked with fire. The fire enables the dough to unite with me.

The fire is the love of Hashem. The heart surges upward like a flame yearning to escape the grip of the wick to join and reunite with its source.

The great but hidden blessing in this verse is that the fire will consume and involve all ten faculties of the soul, all ten women and direct them to one oven, to one love, a love that will transform every part of the person.

And then comes the climax. The greatest blessing: and you will eat and not be satisfied.
Your love and yearning will never cease. You will never be satisfied with your state of being, you will always yearn to grow closer, and the love will only intensify.

You will not be satisfied. You put on Tefilin today, you learned a portion of the torah today, well, you’re in love. Your love is so great that when you meet your beloved again tomorrow morning with the Tefilin you are excited as if it were the first time you are meeting. You take out a book of Torah as if you’ve never done anything like that before. You are excited and your heart is jumping like a flame on a torch.

Bake your bread. Gather all ten women to one oven, to one fire, to one love. Most importantly eat but don’t be satisfied.

(lekutei Torah Parshas Bechukosay)

P.S. while writing all this down I became hungry, I found a bagel, and after biting into it I discovered that it wasn’t so fresh. I put into the oven and I enjoyed a delicious, crispy and irresistible bagel.