This sheet on Deuteronomy 8 was written by Shai Held for 929 and can also be found here
Inching closer to the Promised Land, Moses instructs the people to remember the experience of being fed by God in the desert, specifically how “He humbled you by letting you hunger, and then fed you with manna... in order to teach you that one does not live by bread alone, but by everything that comes from the mouth of (al kol motza pi) the Lord” (8:2-3).
On the simplest level, the verse can be read as contrasting bread from the earth with “bread from heaven” (Exodus 16:4), i.e. manna: While wandering in the desert, Israel lived not by earthly bread, but by the food provided directly by God. According to Jeffrey Tigay, God sought to teach the people that “nature alone could not be relied on for food... Man does not live on natural foods alone but on whatever God decrees to be nourishing.”
Some scholars aver that the phrase “everything that comes out of the mouth (kol motza pi) of the Lord” refers not to providence in general but specifically to what God says. As central as divine law is for biblical theology, God’s word does not refer only to God’s law. “Everything that comes from the mouth of the Lord” surely includes God’s commandments, but it encompasses God’s promises and commitments as well. We should not understate the centrality of law for Deuteronomy, but we should not over-state it either: God does indeed offer “guidance,” but divine commandments constitute more than guidance—they are divinely-imposed obligations. Israel lives both by God’s command and by God’s promise.
Standing on the edge of the Promised Land, the people are taught that in order to survive and flourish, they will need both God’s providence and God’s word. Some might be tempted to choose between these two interpretive possibilities, as if the text were focused either on divine providence or on the divine word. But Deuteronomy’s point is precisely that Israel requires both God’s loving concern and God’s concrete commandments.
One can imagine a situation in which a lengthy sojourn in the wilderness is intended to teach independence and self-sufficiency. But for Deuteronomy, the point of Israel’s prolonged wandering is just the opposite: The people need to learn that they are always and everywhere dependent on God.
What the wilderness ultimately tests is Israel’s willingness to embrace dependence.
Rabbi Shai Held is President, Dean, and Chair in Jewish Thought at Hadar
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