Parshah Eikev - Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25

Man does not live by bread alone, but by the utterance of G-d's mouth does man live (Deuteronomy 8:3)

This explains a most puzzling fact of life: how is it that man, the highest form of life, derives vitality and sustenance from the lower tiers of creation -- the animal, vegetable and mineral?
But the true source of nourishment is the "Divine utterance" in every creation, and, as the Kabbalists teach, the "lowlier" the creation, the loftier the divine energy it contains, like a collapsing wall, in which the highest stones fall the farthest.

(R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi)

As a man chastens his son, so G-d chastens you (8:5)

A father punishing his child inflicts greater suffering on himself than anything experienced by the child. So it is with G-d: His pain is greater than our pain.

(R. Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev)