Manna -- the miracle and the meaning: Beshalach 5785

The miracle of the manna that fell from heaven and nurtured millions of people for forty years is one of the focal points of this week’s parsha. The Jewish people obviously needed daily nourishment simply to survive. However, the rabbis of the Talmud injected another factor into the miracle of the falling manna. They stated that “the Torah could only have been granted to those that ate manna daily.” The necessity for the manna was thus directly associated with the granting of the Torah to the Jewish people on Mount Sinai. No manna, no Torah. Why is this so?

Most commentators consider that only a people freed from the daily concerns of earning a living and feeding a family could devote themselves solely to Torah study and the life values that acceptance of the Torah mandates. Torah is a demanding discipline. It requires time, effort and concentration to understand it. Neither cursory glances nor even inspiring sermons will yield much to those who are unwilling to invest time and effort in its study and analysis. This was certainly true in this first generation of Jewish life, newly freed from Egyptian bondage and lacking the heritage, tradition and life mores that would, in later generations, help Jews remain Jewish and appreciate the Torah.

The isolation of the Jewish people in the desert of Sinai, coupled with the heavenly provision of daily manna and the miraculous well of Miriam, together created a certain think-tank atmosphere. This atmosphere enabled Torah to take root in the hearts and minds of the Jewish people.  

In his final oration to the Jewish people, recorded in the book of Devarim, Moshe reviews the story of the manna falling from heaven but gives it a different emphasis. He states there that the manna came to teach that “humans do not live by bread alone but rather on the utterances of God’s mouth.”

To appreciate Torah, to truly fathom its depths and understand its value system, one has to accept its divine origin. Denying that basic premise of Judaism compromises any deeper level of understanding and analysis. The manna, the presence of God, so to speak, in the daily life of the Jew, allowed the Torah to permeate the depths of the Jewish soul and become part of the matrix of our very DNA. The Torah could only find a permanent and respected home within those who tasted God’s presence, so to speak, every day within their very beings and bodies.

The rabbis also taught us that the manna produced no waste materials within the human body. When dealing with holiness and holy endeavors, nothing goes to waste. No effort is ignored, no thought is left unrecorded in the heavenly court of judgment. Even good intentions are counted meritoriously.

Let us feel that we too have tasted the manna.

Shabbat shalom, Rabbi Berel Wein