EXOD254 As we continue our study of Talmudic ethics, it becomes clear that the Rabbis regarded the performance of the Mitzvot not as ends in themselves but as stepping–stones to Godliness. It was because "the Holy One was pleased to make Israel worthy that He gave them a copious Torah and many commandments; as it is said (Is. xlii.21): "It pleased the Lord, for His righteousness' sake, to magnify the Torah and to make it honorable" [Makkot 23b]. This purpose of our Halachah, and its network of regulations, emerges even more strikingly from a passage in the Tanhuma: "Does it then make any material difference to God whether one ritually slaughters a beast before eating it, or if he eats it without Shehitah? Or do you really think it is of such critical concerned to Him if one eats unclean things? No. The regulations governing our food laws were given, so that men through their observance, became purer and holier beings." It is natural that not only the laws themselves but all the wealth of details that grew around them were vested with divine authority. For these helped to teach the Jew to control his desire in appetite, apart from furthering in him regard for hygiene and a striving after holiness. "It cannot be emphasized too often dealing with the laws of the Torah, the Rabbis delved deep in order to discover their underlying ethical purpose. Even ritual laws, perhaps the least expected moral sources, were made to yield of moral laws!" [J.Z. Lauterbach, "The Ethics of Halachah", Central Conference of American Rabbis, Vol. XXIII, 1913]. The two loaves on the table on the Eve of Sabbath must be covered when the Kiddush is recited. Firstly, because the double portion of Manna which came down on the sixth day (of which the two Hallot are reminiscently symbolical) was covered with a fine layer of dew [this verse]. Secondly, perhaps to teach the virtue of consideration; for although the loaves were placed on the table as soon at the table – cloth was spread, they now find themselves "by-passed" by the wine which appeared on the table afterwards. Accordingly, we cover them that they should not, as it were, witness our slight of them. If inanimate things are so considerately treated, how much more so should man?