The whole lamentable condition of gaining a scanty subsistence via sacrifice is expressed in the little word-bread (L-Ch-M). The Hebrew word for sustenance (T-R-F) carries the root meaning of snatched, for it must be ‘snatched’ in the struggle implies that in the same moment of struggle against nature, there is another struggle against one’s fellow, the struggle of all against all. Did we not have to direct our minds so much to obtaining our daily bread, strife between man and man would be not so pre-eminent, and the idea of property would not weigh so heavily in the scales. But now that part of man’s very existence depends on every little piece of bread which he must gain through sacrifice, after he has struggled to wrest it from nature, he at once starts the struggle with his fellowman to keep that which he has won, or even earlier, to get ahead of him at
the source in Nature.
Suggested Discussion Questions:
1. Why does Hirsh make the links between the struggle of humankind with nature for bread and the struggles between people and peoples?
2. Linking this to the punishment of Adam to be a farmer or taking the view of agriculture as punishment, what is the Torah and this commentary on it, suggesting about the risks and dangers involved with becoming dependent on cultivating nature for food?
Time Period: Modern (Spinoza through post-WWII)