Lechem Abirim - Eikev
In this week’s parsha it speaks about the Mann –
ויענך וירעבך ויאכלך את המן אשר לא ידעת ולא ידעון אבתיך למען הודעך כי לא על הלחם לבדו יחיה האדם כי על כל מוצא פי ה' יחיה האדם (דברים ח:ג)
We have a more in-depth description of the Mann from שמות טז:לא andבמדבר יא: ז-י, that it looked like a זרע גד, a coriander seed and that it tasted like a צפיחית בדבש, a honey wafer (which is similar to the term used to describe the food eaten by Adam Harishon in Gan Eden (עץ יוסף, סנהדרין נט, ע"ב). Mann was a multipurpose food that could be ground like flour and made into cakes and baked or cooked in a pot.
Numerous miracles are listed for the Mann.
It manifested itself according to the spiritual level of the person eating it, if the person was a Tzaddik, the Mann arrived at his/her doorstep, ready to eat, eliminating any need for preparation. If the person was less pious, they would need to go and collect it and prepare it etc.
The Mann could taste like anything you wanted it to. It reminds me (lehavdil) of when I was a youngster back in South Africa, at the beginning of the vegetarian fad. A new kosher restaurant had opened called The Vegetarian and they had a rich menu of items made from eggplant. There were steaks, kebabs, spaghetti bolognaise, etc. and we visited there quite frequently and I was repeatedly amazed how they managed to make the eggplant taste so close to the real thing. The Mann was 1 million times better than that! All you had to do was imagine a food and the Mann tasted like whatever you wanted it to.
The Mann was totally absorbed in the body with no waste products. Bnei Yisrael never had to go to the bathroom the entire time they were in the Midbar. This became perverted into a source of contention when Bnei Yisrael complained to Moshe that it was “unnatural”.
The Mann first arrived on 15 Iyar, about three weeks before receiving the Torah. This was by design. HKB”H wanted to communicate directly with Bnei Yisrael, as He did initially when relaying the Aseret Hadibrot on Har Sinai. It says כי לא יראני האדם וחי (שמות לג:כ) that a human being cannot survive Hashem’s countenance. HKB”H therefore elevated Bnei Yisrael to the state of angels. In Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah, the Rambam describes three ways angels are different from humans –
They do not eat or drink
They do not need the bathroom
They do not engage in פרייה ורבייה
By giving Bnei Yisrael the Mann, HKB”H gave them Lechem Abirim, the spiritual food of the angels that did not leave any waste products, thus satisfying the first two conditions. In addition HKB”H told them ויאמר אל העם היו נכנים לשלשת ימים אל תגשו אל אשה (שמוץ יט:טו), thus satisfying the third condition. When Bnei Yisrael received the Torah, they were equivalent to angels.
The Mann was such a miraculous and wondrous form of sustenance, reminiscent of what Adam Harishon ate in Gan Eden, that HKB”H wanted us to remember it for posterity and therefore commanded Moshe to preserve a jar of the Mann next to the Aron Habrit in the Mishkan. It was secreted away, together with the Aron, by King יאשיהו before galut Bavel.
The Mann was the optimal food eaten by humankind since Adam Harishon. So why does it say in our parsha (עקב) that Hashem tormented and starved us when He fed us the Mann? ויענך וירעבך ויאכלך את המן. Eating the Mann does not really conjure up images of torment and starvation.
I think specifically in our generation we can understand this very well. We are living through a Corona pandemic, involving lock-downs and isolation for extended periods of time. When a pending lock-down is announced, what is the first thing people do? They make a run on the supermarkets and stock up their pantries! We feel more secure knowing that we have a reserve of food on stand-by if needed.
In the Midbar, Bnei Yisrael never had pantries. They collected Mann every morning and it was exactly enough to satisfy them until the following day. If anyone did try stock up on extra Mann, it became worm ridden. If someone woke up in the middle of the night for a midnight snack in the Midbar, there was nothing to eat! There were no midnight snacks.
Even though the Mann could taste like anything you wanted it to, it always looked the same. That is what Bnei Yisrael meant when they complained to Moshe בלתי אל המן עינינו (במדבר יא:ו). A huge component of our enjoyment of our food is its visual appeal, the different colors, the textures, the arrangement etc. There was none of that with the Mann, there was just Mann – pizza flavored Mann, watermelon flavored Mann, chocolate cake flavored Mann, etc. but none of the other visual and tactile cues to accompany the variety of flavors.
For anyone accustomed to eating regular food and anyone who has regular eating habits, this can appear to be torment and starvation! The insecurity of not having a supply of noodles in the pantry causes one to feel psychologically hungry and the absence of the “normal” visual cues can make the food seem boring in the extreme, which is a kind of torment.
It all depends on your point of view and your level of Bitachon in HKB”H. Those who had little Bitachon were in fact tormented and starved – their complaints were real! but they were a reflection of their low spiritual state. It was in fact a test of our Bitachon - למען הודעך כי לא על הלחם לבדו יחיה האדם כי על כל מוצא פי ה' יחיה האדם.
That is the way it was with the Mann in the Midbar and that is the way it is even today with the food we eat, which is not Mann. It is the same lesson – recognizing the True Source of our food, spiritual and physical. Our food today has elements of both the spiritual and the physical. It is brought forth from the earth, making it physical, but the very fact that it can be brought forth from the earth in the first place is only because of מוצא פי ה', a spiritual dimension which HKB”H programmed our natural world with during the 6 Days of Creation enabling it to give forth food. Do we consider our food as ultimately coming from HKB”H, or from the supermarket, being paid for with our hard earned money? The answer is obvious, both our food AND our livelihood exist only because of HKB”H.
Our food has an element of spirituality, what we put in our mouths not only determines the degree of nutrition we physically provide to our physical digestive systems, but what we eat and the way we eat also determines to no less of a degree a “nutritional value” for our neshama. Do we eat to fuel our body to perform its required task, or do we attach all other kinds of psychological “hangups” to our food, which usually lead to eating disorders – anorexia or obesity. The spiritual “hangups” can result in “physical “hangups”. When do Am Yisrael get into trouble? וישמן ישורון ויבעט, when we pervert the original purpose HKB”H intended for food – the intricate connection between the physical and the spiritual. If you leave out the spiritual, you teeter off balance.
That is perhaps why the only Bracha that is mide’Oraita is Birkat Hamazon ואכלת ושבעת וברכת, mentioned in our parsha. Birkat Hamazon has the power to elevate our food from the purely physical to the spiritual. It is an expression of our Bitachon in HKB”H and an acknowledgement of our True Source of sustenance. As it says -רבי שמעון אומר שלשה שאכלו על שלחן אחד ולא אמרו עליו דברי תורה כאלו אכלו מזבחי מתים (אבות ג,ג) – if you eat and do not say Birkat Hamazon, then the food you have eaten is purely physical.
The first bracha of Birkat Hamazon הזן את הכל was instituted by Moshe Rabbeinu for the Mann! Mann is not of the Five Grains, so why do you need to say Birkat Hamazon on it? It was a lesson for future generations, after the Mann, to combine the spiritual and the physical elements of our food, just like the Mann, just like the food eaten by Adam Harishon.
We all need to be more makpid with Birkat Hamazon. It is one of the primary mitzvot de’Oraita that we have an opportunity to perform on a daily basis. Even Tefila (Shacharit, Mincha and Arvit) do not share that status. We need to invest the same time and energy saying Birkat Hamazon that we invest in preparing and enjoying our food and be makpid to read it from the ktav and not to say it ba’al peh, whenever possible.
When we imbue our food with spirituality we rekindle the miracle of the Mann and we hasten the coming of Mashiach and the time where we will once again enjoy food like Adam Harishon did in Gan Eden – הקב"ה מביא רוח מבית גנזיו ומנשבה עליה ומשרה את סלתה ואדם יוצא לשדה ומביא מלא פיסת ידו וממנה פרנסתו ופרנסת אנשי ביתו (כתובות קיא, ע"ב).
Eliezer Meir Saidel
Showbread Institute
www.showbreadinstitute.com
To subscribe to receive these weekly shiurim by email, please send an email to machonlechemhapanim@gmail.com with the word SUBSCRIBE
