וַעֲשֵׂה־לִ֨י מַטְעַמִּ֜ים כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר אָהַ֛בְתִּי וְהָבִ֥יאָה לִּ֖י וְאֹכֵ֑לָה בַּעֲב֛וּר תְּבָרֶכְךָ֥ נַפְשִׁ֖י בְּטֶ֥רֶם אָמֽוּת׃
Lalu buatkanlah untukku masakan yang lezat seperti yang kusukai, dan bawalah kepadaku supaya aku makan, agar jiwaku memberkatimu sebelum aku mati.
Sforno
ויברך אתהם. Our sages have already told us not to belittle the value of a blessing pronounced by a layman, a person of low social standing. (Megillah 15) The reason why the Torah tells us of Lavan’s blessing to his daughters is to remind us that when a father blesses his sons he does so wholeheartedly, with his material and spiritual faculties. We know that Yitzchok blessed with all his soul from his own words (27,4) When the one bestowing the blessing himself reflects the image of G’d he had been created in, then such a blessing is likely to be correspondingly more effective.
Rabbeinu Bahya
ויקח יתרו חותן משה עולה וזבחים לאלו-הים, “Yitro, Moses’ father-in-law took burnt offering and meat offering for G’d.” This is the only time when we find the Torah mentioning the attribute אלו-הים in connection with sacrifices. Everyhwere else we have the attribute Hashem in connection with sacrificial offerings to G’d. Yitro had not yet become aware of that dimension of G’d; hence he had to address the attribute he was aware of. Moses tried to educate him in this respect when he told him in verse 8 about what Hashem had done to Pharaoh on account of the Jewish people. Yitro’s motivation in coming, significantly, referred to what אלו-הים had done for Moses (verse 1).
Rabbeinu Bahya
On the other hand, my great teacher Rabbi Shlomoh (Aderet) felt that that the Midrash refers to a real meal which will be served to the righteous in the world to come. He understood the saying quoted in Vayikra Rabbah 7,3 by Rabbi Berechiah literally. [This is at variance with Maimonides who understood all such Midrashim as purely allegorical as Rabbi Chavell pointed out in his notes.] Rabbi Berechiah bases himself on the verse in Leviticus 7,24 which seemed to him extraneous and from which he derived that the righteous who had refrained from eating any diseased animals or any which had died of natural causes, i.e. טרפה ונבלה, would be compensated in the future by participating in a meal from the meat of the Leviathan. The text does not say that these righteous will feast on “Leviathan,” but “on the meat of Leviathan.” This word suggested to my Rabbi that the Talmud discussed a real meal. Naturally, what the sages had in mind with this meal was not something exclusively physical, designed to only provide satisfaction for the body; this would certainly not be germane to the domain of the world of the future.
We know that spiritual forces are awakened and strengthened through the intake of physical food. The idea behind this feast therefore is that seeing it would be extremely satisfying from a gastronomic point of view, the spiritual benefits derived from it would be commensurate. It is not unlike the time when Yitzchak asked Esau to provide him with tasty venison to enable him to bestow a spiritual blessing on him (Genesis 27,4). We also encounter such a spiritually uplifting meal when Moses entertained his father-in-law Yitro in Exodus 18,12 where the eating is described as taking place לפני האלוקים, “in the presence of G’d,” i.e. it was a spiritual experience. Another example of such a meal is recorded in Samuel I where we are told that the young prophets stood and prophesied before Samuel as a result of having taken part of that meal. At any rate, it is likely that the meal G’d will serve the righteous in the future will have a similar effect on them. Some commentators believe that the food i.e. both meat and fish served at that meal, possesses special properties as the animals from which it will be prepared had been the original ones created during the six days when G’d made the universe. Our present world simply does not deserve that the people in it experience such delights. This is why the people who will be invited to participate in that meal will be the ones who have led exemplary lives in this life, denying themselves any forbidden pleasures.
It is entirely possible that such pure foods had been prepared already when Adam and Chavah were still in Gan Eden prior to their sin. There may even have been an allusion to this when the Torah described the tree of knowledge as inspiring the desire to acquire additional knowledge (Genesis 3,4).
Nowadays we are already familiar with a variety of drugs which are helpful in this regard. If that is so, then there can be no question that under the ideal conditions prevailing in Gan Eden some of the plants which were created during the six days of creation must have possessed such power. After all, the manna which the Israelites ate during their trek through the desert, though physical food, was designed for people of an especially high intellectual level. It was meant to enable the Israelites to comprehend abstract concepts and phenomena such as angels. The manna did not contain any superfluous ingredients which had to be excreted by the body as we know from Psalms 78,25 לחם אבירים אכל איש, “each man ate bread designed for highly intellectual persons.” Our sages in Yuma 75 explain that this means that all of the manna was absorbed by the body.
Our sages have found an allusion to the food which will be provided for the righteous in the future when they said in Chagigah 12: “G’d grinds manna in the heavens for consumption by the righteous.” Perhaps the period when this meal will be served will coincide with the end of the period when man [his surviving soul? Ed.] will require physical food to sustain him. Subsequent to that meal the period which our sages have described as an era during which the righteous will “sit” with their crowns on their heads enjoying the splendour exuded by G’d’s presence will commence, so that the meal served from the remains of the Leviathan will be the very last physical meal these souls will ever imbibe. Just as the eighth day of the festival of Sukkot, שמיני עצרת, is so named as it represents the pinnacle of the previous seven days of the festival as well as its conclusion, so the meal consisting of the Leviathan may be the pinnacle of physical life on earth to be followed by life of a totally different, exclusively spiritual level.
We know that spiritual forces are awakened and strengthened through the intake of physical food. The idea behind this feast therefore is that seeing it would be extremely satisfying from a gastronomic point of view, the spiritual benefits derived from it would be commensurate. It is not unlike the time when Yitzchak asked Esau to provide him with tasty venison to enable him to bestow a spiritual blessing on him (Genesis 27,4). We also encounter such a spiritually uplifting meal when Moses entertained his father-in-law Yitro in Exodus 18,12 where the eating is described as taking place לפני האלוקים, “in the presence of G’d,” i.e. it was a spiritual experience. Another example of such a meal is recorded in Samuel I where we are told that the young prophets stood and prophesied before Samuel as a result of having taken part of that meal. At any rate, it is likely that the meal G’d will serve the righteous in the future will have a similar effect on them. Some commentators believe that the food i.e. both meat and fish served at that meal, possesses special properties as the animals from which it will be prepared had been the original ones created during the six days when G’d made the universe. Our present world simply does not deserve that the people in it experience such delights. This is why the people who will be invited to participate in that meal will be the ones who have led exemplary lives in this life, denying themselves any forbidden pleasures.
It is entirely possible that such pure foods had been prepared already when Adam and Chavah were still in Gan Eden prior to their sin. There may even have been an allusion to this when the Torah described the tree of knowledge as inspiring the desire to acquire additional knowledge (Genesis 3,4).
Nowadays we are already familiar with a variety of drugs which are helpful in this regard. If that is so, then there can be no question that under the ideal conditions prevailing in Gan Eden some of the plants which were created during the six days of creation must have possessed such power. After all, the manna which the Israelites ate during their trek through the desert, though physical food, was designed for people of an especially high intellectual level. It was meant to enable the Israelites to comprehend abstract concepts and phenomena such as angels. The manna did not contain any superfluous ingredients which had to be excreted by the body as we know from Psalms 78,25 לחם אבירים אכל איש, “each man ate bread designed for highly intellectual persons.” Our sages in Yuma 75 explain that this means that all of the manna was absorbed by the body.
Our sages have found an allusion to the food which will be provided for the righteous in the future when they said in Chagigah 12: “G’d grinds manna in the heavens for consumption by the righteous.” Perhaps the period when this meal will be served will coincide with the end of the period when man [his surviving soul? Ed.] will require physical food to sustain him. Subsequent to that meal the period which our sages have described as an era during which the righteous will “sit” with their crowns on their heads enjoying the splendour exuded by G’d’s presence will commence, so that the meal served from the remains of the Leviathan will be the very last physical meal these souls will ever imbibe. Just as the eighth day of the festival of Sukkot, שמיני עצרת, is so named as it represents the pinnacle of the previous seven days of the festival as well as its conclusion, so the meal consisting of the Leviathan may be the pinnacle of physical life on earth to be followed by life of a totally different, exclusively spiritual level.