Exodus: Gift of Manna

If God's desire to belong to Israel is clear from the way He gives them a special place, a special land, for them to dwell in together, it is also clear that He wants this desire to be reciprocal. The Israelites wandered through the desert for forty years --- long enough for an entire generation to pass away, and for an entire generation to have lived the bulk of their lives on a journey. The memory of Egypt had to be purged, and the desire to be fully consecrated to the Lord had to grow. God gives a new gift to the people of Israel on their journey: the manna. “It was now necessary for the people to entrust the task of each and every person's subsistence --- as families --- to divine Providence and in conformity to the law of the Shabbat.”[footnote:La voix de la Thora : l'Exode, p. 170°1.] As slaves, the Israelites would depend upon their masters for food. Now that they are free, they must depend upon God for their subsistence. God will show them that they can, and must come to depend upon His gift --- His providence. “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or not.”[footnote:Ex. 16: 4.] The ability to follow the law of the Lord is rooted in the trust we have in His providence. The first and fundamental consecration to the Lord is trusting that if we go out to gather what is needed for the day, the Lord will not fail to provide it, to give it to us. But if the Lord gives providentially, even to those who do not trust Him, He does so with a deeper consecration in mind: adhering or clinging to His Law. This is clear not only from the verses that follow regarding the Sabbath, but from the quality of the bread provided:

This “bread from heaven,” enveloped with dew, constitutes, according to the opinion of R. Aquilia, the food of angels (Yoma 75b) or the bread emanating from the kingdom of angels (Haguiga 12b; cf. Targoum Ps. LXXVIII, 25). Created at the very end of the work of Creation (Aboth V, 6), it was reserved to the just and fervent disciples of the Thora for future ages (Haguiga ibid.). The Torah was only given to be studied by those who consumed the manna, said R. Simon ben Yohaï (Hekilta). For food, explains the Zohar, is one of the factors upon which hinges man's aptitude for knowing the eternal truths. Unclean and fatty foods makes “the heart insensible.” (Yoma 39b), but the slighter the food, the more it renders the spirit apt to rise up to the knowledge of God. Therefore, one of the first measures taken for the future people of the Thora, immediately following their liberation, was changing foods. The people would now eat unleavened bread, which, having not risen, is slighter than ordinary bread. Once the people “had finished t heir provision of crackers” (Rachi), the children of Israel were nourished by an even more ethereal bread. This bread was the manna, so slight that it didn't even contain matter which needed to be evacuated from the body by the usual ways. (Yoma 75b)...[footnote:La voix de la Thora: l'Exode, p 170--171; 16: 4.]

God doubles His providential gift of the manna on the sixth day --- yet the people are not obliged to work harder to gather more. What has been gathered on the sixth day will also suffice for the seventh, the Sabbath. The only additional concern was preparing half the manna gathered on the sixth day for consumption on the Sabbath, and, interestingly enough, holiness was always manifest in Israel at times when the precepts of this preparation were taken seriously.[footnote:ibid., 16: 5.] Holiness, turning towards God, was therefore the aim of the Sabbath, to give thanks for God's abundance and to allow hearts left unsatisfied by the manna to be satisfied by the Lord, by the study and reading of the Thora.[footnote:ibid., p. 175; Ex. 16: 23.] The importance involved in keeping the Sabbath also touches the fruitfulness in the lives of the people. The Sabbath is itself a gift[footnote:Ex. 16: 29.] whose reception requires the observance of certain laws or commandments. In order to fully know the good of the Sabbath as a gift, certain attitudes and preparations are necessary. The gift of the Sabbath is not only for the people to rest and enjoy the Lord, but the Sabbath is also given so that the people might become gifts for one another. When the Lord commands everyone to stay in their place, Rabbinical commentaries understood it as encouraging not only the inward journey, the journey towards God, but also the return towards family and neighbor.[footnote:La voix de la Thora: l'Exode; p. 177, Ex. 16: 29.]

One final remark about the gift of manna has to do with verse 31 of chapter sixteen of Exodus. The mysterious bread was named by the women. “מן food (received) shared by God (מן is derived from מנה, gift, as in Leviticus 7:20 and מנה, a share, as in Psalm XVI, 11).”[footnote:ibid. p. 178.] “The women are the ones responsible for keeping up the spirit of trust in God, of sobriety and peaceful assurance in the future that the gift of the manna kindled. It is also worth note that the women were the first to designate the manna as the providential gift assuring each one his portion.”[footnote:ibid. p. 178; Ex. 16:31.] Recognizing the manna for what it is --- God's providential bread --- and naming it as such was a very astute way to keep the faith and hope of Israel alive. The gestures of God's love do not always come from Him in an obvious way, the role of the faithful is to “call a spade a spade,” in other words, when God provides providentially even though it may not be obvious, it is important to recognize and proclaim the gift of God. It is perhaps especially the woman's role to remind the family of God's providential gifts --- to remind the family of the presence of God's hand in our daily lives.