We are Still Eating the Manna

By Rabbi Moshe Krieger, Yeshivas Bircas HaTorah

This week’s parsha introduces the manna, the celestial bread that was to sustain the Jews for the coming forty years of wandering before entering the Land of Israel. As miraculous as it was, manna became a daily reality for each and every Jew.

In verse 16:32, Moshe commanded Aharon to place a measure of manna in a jar that would remain in the Mishkan, and later in the Beis Hamikdash, as a reminder for all generations of this miracle.

The Slonimer Rebbe asks: Many miracles occurred during the forty years of wandering in the desert, and yet no other miracle was preserved and placed on exhibit as was the manna. What makes the manna different from the other miracles of that era?

The answer is that the same lesson of the manna applies to all of us in our everyday lives. Just as Hashem provided sustenance to the generation of the desert, He continues to do so to this day. Even though the manna was given openly and today our sustenance reaches us in more hidden ways, Hashem is still the One sustaining us.

A basic lesson from this is not to worry about parnassah (livelihood, sustenance). Just as Hashem provided manna on a daily basis to the generation of the desert, and has seen to our sustenance from our infancy until today, so too we can trust that He will continue to do so. How much calmer and healthier many of us would be if we would internalize this lesson. For some, the joy of having a baby is diminished by worries about how it will be possible to support and educate the child. Even far-off worries such as marriage expenses begin looming on the horizon and lead to high blood pressure, ulcers and a host of other conditions that could have been avoided had the parents lived with the bitachon in Hashem that the manna teaches.

Many people have reduced their Torah study to a bare minimum out of concerns of parnassah. This tragic error is nothing new. Rashi describes (16:32) how the prophet Yirmiyahu rebuked his generation about this, making use of the jar of manna that Aharon had put aside close to 1,000 years earlier.

“Why aren’t you engaging in Torah,” Yirmiyahu would ask people.

“We should put aside our work and engage in Torah? How will we live?” they replied.

Yirmiyahu would then show them the jar of manna. “Behold the word of Hashem. With this your forefathers were sustained. Hashem has many channels by which to provide sustenance to those who fear Him.”

Clearly, if Hashem commanded us to learn Torah and He is the One providing parnassah, then we can surely rely on Him and take time away from work to learn His Torah.

Another facet of the manna is: “One who increases does not add, and one who detracts does not lack” (16:18). While we are commanded to make efforts in earning a living, we are also commanded not to overdo it. Those who are forever searching for new ways to make money, be it in stocks, the lottery, business deals, etc., are also in need of the lesson of the manna. No one earns even a penny more than what Hashem allots. One may earn more, but his expenses will increase in kind. Rav Yechezkel Levinstein adds that just as manna was given out in limited quantity to each person, and if he took more, it would spoil; so, too, if a person exerts himself too much for his parnassa, additional money he may earn will bring him no blessing.

The Shulchan Aruch (1:5) states that one should recite the verses pertaining to the manna (found in this week’s parsha) every day. The Mishna Berura (13) explains that one must not simply say the words, but rather to ponder their meaning. Namely, that Hashem gives us all our needs in the most precise way. Even if one puts in more efforts, “one who increases does not add, and one who detracts does not lack.” The Mishna Berura concludes that if a person says the verses and truly reflects on their meaning, and he does so every day, he is promised that he will never lack parnassa!

Rav Aharon Yehuda Leib Steinman advises that another way to make parnassa easier is to first understand that we need spirituality more than parnassa. If we live with the outlook that the main focus of our lives is Torah and spirituality, with parnassa only a means to serve the main goal, we are more worthy of receiving parnassa from heaven.

The generation of the desert also had to develop a spiritual outlook in order to partake of the manna, explains Rav Steinman. The Ramban (16:6) notes that the awesome revelation the Jews witnessed at the Red Sea was what gave them this spiritual preparation. Evidence of this is that whenever the Jews suffered a drop in their spiritual level during the 40 years of wandering, they immediately began complaining about the manna. The loss of spirituality took away their ability to derive benefit from this heavenly food.

The Sefas Emess finds this idea as well in Moshe Rabbeinu’s description of the manna: “Hashem afflicted you and starved you and fed you the manna” (Devarim 8:3). The Jews had to hunger for spirituality in order to receive the manna.

The sages describe how a person who puts the correct emphasis on his avodas Hashem gains a special blessing in all of his efforts, be they spiritual or material: “The earlier generations made their Torah primary and their work secondary and succeeded in both. Later generations made their work primary and their Torah secondary, and did not succeed in either” (Brachos 35b).

Once, Rav Chaim Sofer Zussman (author of Machaneh Chaim) received a visit from a destitute man, and people of the town were surprised that their Rav spent an unusually long time speaking with him, and then trying to help him. Their Rav never had this much time even for his closest talmidim! Why was he devoting so much attention to this unknown, impoverished Jew?

When the visitor left, the Rav explained:

“When I was a boy, a Jewish doctor who had abandoned Torah observance asked my father: ‘How can you send your sons to a yeshiva? One day they will have to support themselves. How can they devote themselves to Torah study alone and not learn viable professions?’

“My father answered: ‘Hashem gave me these children in order that they study Torah and keep the mitzvos. How will they support themselves? This is for Hashem to worry about, not me. My job is to make sure that they study Torah and grow up as upstanding Jews.’

“Today, all my brothers serve either as rabbanim or dayanim of established Jewish communities. That destitute man, however, was the son of that doctor. Every moment I spent with him reinforced my understanding of the special bracha Hashem gives those who study His Torah.”

May we be zoche to learn the lessons of the manna!