Better a Meal Where Love Is
Better a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox with hatred.
In striving for a finer table, have I neglected the relationship with those who sit at it?
📝Reflection
What we eat matters less than with whom, and in what spirit, we eat. The Hebrew sage says the love flowing over a plain dish of herbs is better than the hatred hovering over a lavish feast. We often gnaw at our relationship with the very people we would share it with, all in the effort to provide something finer. Straining for a bigger house and a better table, we lose the warmth of those who live in that house. Material things are only the vessel that holds a relationship; however fine the vessel, it is useless if what fills it is cold. A simple dinner with an easy laugh outlasts an expensive one. In the end, what sets the quality of life is not the food on the table but the heart before it.
🌱Apply It Today
At a meal with someone dear today, give time to focusing fully on them, more than on the menu or the topic.
This verse is read as universal humanistic wisdom, not religion — no faith is promoted, and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.
