Essential and Superficial
און יעדער איד פאַרשטײט דאָך, אַז מען דאַרף ניט מאַכן דעם עיקר פאַר אַ טפל און דעם טפל פאַר אַן עיקר
“And every Jew, of course, knows that one must not make an ikar of a tofel and a tofel of an ikar.”
This quote from the Likutei Sichos of the Lubavitcher Rebbe is something of a truism. We don’t confuse an ikar and a tofel, which is to say, we don’t confuse what is essential with what is superfluous.
But these words die when translated; saying ikar is essential or essence doesn’t really do it justice, nor does saying that tofel is superfluous. This is because these two words exist in necessary tandem.
We are introduced to this concept in Mishnah Berakhot 6:
הֵבִיאוּ לְפָנָיו מָלִיחַ בַּתְּחִלָּה וּפַת עִמּוֹ, מְבָרֵךְ עַל הַמָּלִיחַ וּפוֹטֵר אֶת הַפַּת, שֶׁהַפַּת טְפֵלָה לוֹ. זֶה הַכְּלָל, כֹּל שֶׁהוּא עִקָּר וְעִמּוֹ טְפֵלָה, מְבָרֵךְ עַל הָעִקָּר וּפוֹטֵר אֶת הַטְּפֵלָה:
“If they bring salted food to him to eat first and bread with it, he recites a blessing over the salted food and thereby exempts the bread, because the salted food is the primary (ikar) while the bread is simply secondary (tofel).
This is the principle: Any food that is primary (ikar) and a secondary (tofel) food is with it, one recites a blessing over the primary (ikar) and, in so doing, exempts the secondary (tofel) from its own blessing.”
This is an astonishing idea. We learn elsewhere that bread, and the HaMotzi blessing for it, covers all other food. It is the king of food blessings. Yet when we eat two things at once, like herring on bread, the rules change.
If someone is just using bread as a herring delivery system, then the bread is not going to receive the blessing, and is in fact covered by the blessing for the herring, a lower level blessing!
As a matter of fact, there are multiple food blessings that exist on many different levels, and one normally is to bless the food of higher priority and eat the food associated with it first. (One blesses and eats a cake before eating an apple, ditto with an apple before meat.)
But the principle of ikar and tofel together overrides it all.
Here we see the law spelled out in the Shulchan Aruch, the primary law codex of the Jewish people.
Orach Chayim 211:
כל שהוא עיקר ועמו טפילה מברך על העיקר ופוטר את הטפילה בין מברכה שלפניה בין מברכה שלאחריה לא מבעיא אם העיקר מעורב עם הטפל אלא אפי' כל אחד לבדו
“Whenever there is a primary (ikar) and secondary (tofel) food we bless over the primary food and this exempts the secondary food both from the blessing before and after; this is, needless to say, if the primary food and secondary foods are mixed, but it applies even if the foods are both separate.”
This shows us that not only does ikar override the normal blessing order when combined with the tofel, but that it overrides it even when they are separated and eaten together after the fact.
The Mishnah Berurah, the 19th century commentary on the Orach Chayyim section of Shulkhan Arukh written by the Chofetz Chaim, Yisroel Meir Kagan, goes one step further in his clarification:
כל אחד לבדו - בין שאוכל העיקר והטפל בבת אחת בין שאוכל העיקר תחלה והטפל אח"כ וכדלקמיה:
“Whether the ikar and tofel are eaten at the exact same time or the ikar is eaten first and then the tofel, the principle applies.”
This means that not only does this apply when the ikar and tofel are rolled into one food, but even when they are separated, and — even when you eat the separated ikar first and then the tofel!
This means you could bless a lower-order food, eat it, then eat the higher-order food without a blessing afterward.
Blessing food and knowing which blessings to use are very important in Jewish law. We learn that one who does not bless their food is considered to have stolen it from God. (In Berakhot 35):
תָּנוּ רַבָּנַן: אָסוּר לוֹ לָאָדָם שֶׁיֵּהָנֶה מִן הָעוֹלָם הַזֶּה בְּלֹא בְּרָכָה. וְכָל הַנֶּהֱנֶה מִן הָעוֹלָם הַזֶּה בְּלֹא בְּרָכָה מָעַל.
“The Sages taught: It is prohibited for a person to benefit from [anything] in this world without a blessing. Anyone who benefits from this world without a blessing has committed fraud.”
The section on blessings is the first part of the Talmud itself. Subverting the laws based on whichever food you like more seems to negates the purpose of making blessings in the first place. Such is the power of this concept.
Ikar and tofel necessarily go together as ideas, in the broader sense.
When the Lubavitcher Rebbe references the idea that Jews know the difference between ikar and tofel, what he means is that we know that between two objects, realities, and ideas, we know which one to focus on.
When something is the ikar and the other is the tofel, it is our choice, our focus, our desire that makes it so. If we decide, for example, between being a good person and a kind person, being good is the ikar, and kind is the tofel. What we are saying is, that both go together, but given a choice, it is wise to focus on goodness.
The theological ideas that stem from this are much larger than a decision between foods or even values. We have to decide whether we focus on the pleasures and pains of this world, or on Torah and God. Both are equally real and they go together. In our lives, we cannot have one without the other, but we have to decide which one we find to be most important. It is a subjective choice on our part. God cannot force us to see Him as more important than the world that is right before our eyes.
Here lies the true meaning. This is the famous Rebbe Nachman’s idea from Likutei Maharan, which was turned into a famous 20th century song. This is the original line:
וְדַע, שֶׁהָאָדָם צָרִיךְ לַעֲבֹר עַל גֶּשֶׁר צַר מְאֹד מְאֹד, וְהַכְּלָל וְהָעִקָּר – שֶׁלֹּא יִתְפַּחֵד כְּלָל
“Know that a person needs to cross a very, very narrow bridge, and the rule, the essence (ikar), is to not give in to fear at all.”
This tells us that people are in precarious positions in their lives because of the nature of this world: it is dangerous and treacherous, and there is much to fear. But the rule is to not fear, because there is a world beyond this world that sustains us.
When Rebbe Nachman says not fearing is the “ikar,” what he means is that the lack of fear we have because of God must be the subject of our focus, as opposed to the equally true reality of the danger and narrowness of this world.
This world is the tofel and God is the ikar. Both are real, we experience both of them, but which one do we desire? Which one do we focus on? It is our choice. Whichever we choose overrides the other one.
