Parashat Beshalach, 5786, 2026: "Mann and Mystery"

 

Rabbi David Etengoff
 
ה' יעזור וירחם על אחינו כל בני ישראל בארץ ישראל ובכל חלקי הארץ
 
The mann is one of the great nissim found in our parasha:

It came to pass in the evening that the quails went up and covered the camp, and in the morning, there was a layer of dew around the camp. The layer of dew went up, and behold, on the surface of the desert, a fine, bare [substance] as fine as frost on the ground. When the children of Israel saw [it], they said to one another, “It is manna,” because they did not know what it was, and Moshe said to them, “It is the bread that Hashem has given you to eat.” (Sefer Shemot 16: 13-15, this, and all Torah translations, The Judaica Press Complete Tanach)
 
The mann was a paradox from the moment of its creation, since while it was spiritual and metaphysical in its inception and essence, its presence was wholly physical. In a word, it was simultaneously bread from Heaven (lechem min hashamayim) and food on earth. As such, its very presence in the terrestrial sphere was a contradiction in terms and, consequently, beyond our grasp and comprehension. The mysterious, ephemeral, and otherworldly nature of the mann is first found in the pasuk wherein our forebears declared to one another in wonderment: “Mann hu?” (“What is this?”). The Torah relates the reason for their amazement in a phrase that conceals far more than it reveals: “ki lo yadu mah hu—for they did not know what it was,” Sefer Shemot 16:15).  Rashi (1040-1105) opines “they did not know what it was,” really means that they did not know “so that they could [not] call it by its name.” (Translation, Rosenbaum and Silverman, brackets my own)
 
Rashi’s comment underscores the completely new status of the mann. It was so utterly different in kind and degree from any earthly substance previously encountered that our forebears could not even give it a name. Indeed, the Torah’s description of the physical properties of the mann continues to defy our understanding until our own present moment: “The layer of dew went up, and behold, on the surface of the desert, a fine, bare [substance] as fine as frost on the ground.” (Sefer Shemot 16:14) Even the closely parallel pasuk from Sefer Bamidbar 11:7: “Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance was like the appearance of crystal,” does little to add to our understanding of its constitutive nature. Little wonder, then, that although Moshe explicitly told them: “It is the bread that Hashem has given you to eat,” (Sefer Shemot 16:15) and could, therefore, have been called “lechem min hashamayim,” it has retained its title of mann forevermore.
 
While the mann itself remains an impenetrable mystery, we can nonetheless ask a simple and straightforward question: “Why did b’nai yisrael merit the mann?” The answer to this question is far from clear. Many of us are familiar with the legitimate arguments and complaints of Uzzah, the angelic representative of the Egyptians, in his dispute with Hashem that took place on the evening prior to kriyat yam suf. He bitterly complained to the Almighty that He was saving the Jewish people while the Egyptian hordes were drowning. To Uzzah, this was patently unjust, and a violation of Avraham’s famous question and theological premise: “Will the Judge of the entire earth not perform justice?” (Sefer Bereishit 18:25)
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I do not understand why You [God] support Your people, the Jews, and are angry at my people, the Egyptians. Your people do exactly what my people have been doing. These worship idols and these worship idols. They dress and look alike. So what is the difference really? What do You want from my children? You, Ha-Kadosh Baruch Hu, are just and truthful, so why do You want to punish my children? (Midrash Tehillim 15, Buber edition, translation by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zatzal in The Lord is Righteous in all His Ways: Reflections on the Tisha be-Av Kinot, p. 189)
 
We are now in a particularly strong position to reiterate our earlier question: “Why did b’nai yisrael merit the mann?” The great Chasidic master, Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter zatzal (1847–1905), known as the “Sefat Emet” after the title of his most famous work, offered the following answer to our query: “Beyond question [even given their past history], the entire Jewish people’s most heartfelt desires were [now] devoted solely to heaven; therefore, bread from heaven was given to them.” (Translation and brackets my own) In other words, according to the Sefat Emet, a kind of middah k’neged middah (quid pro quo) was set in motion between Hashem and the Jewish people: We dedicated our neshamot to Hashem, and He, in turn, enabled us to live physically in this world via the mann. Thus, for the Sefat Emet, our newly found commitment and allegiance to Hashem became the preeminent factor in our salvation at the yam suf, and the reason He decided to sustain us with the miracle of the mann.
 
May we emulate our ancestors of old and rededicate ourselves to Avinu b’shamayim so that we, too, may once again receive His lechem min hashamayim. V’chane yihi ratzon.
 
Shabbat Shalom
 
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