Manna and... Cosmetics?
(based on the Soncino)
It is written (Numbers 11:9) "And when the dew fell upon the camp at night [the Manna fell upon it]" and it's written (Exodus 16:4) "And the nation went out and gathered it" and it's written (Numbers 11:8) "The nation searched and gathered it."
Question: Which one was it- did it fall right outside their tent, did they have to go out to gather it or did they have to search and gather it?
Answer: The righteous tzadikkim had the Manna fall right outside their tents. The beinonim (in-betweeners, average people) had to go out and find it and the reshaim (wicked ones) had to search for it and gather it.
It's written "bread" and "cakes" and "and they ground it up." Question: So which is it- did the Manna fall in bread form, as a doughy cake or as something they had to grind up?
Answer: For the tzadikim it fell in its final form as bread. For the beinonim it was doughy cakes (seems like they still needed to be baked). For the reshaim, it was a substance that still needed to be ground up and then baked.
R' Yehuda says that Rav said in the name of R' Chama son of Chaninah that we can learn that women's cosmetics fell with the Manna because it says "and they ground up" while the Manna was baked (so it has to be something else that was being ground up).
R' Chama says that we can learn that necessities for cooking fell with the Manna. It says in Exodus 36:3 "And they would bring free-will offerings each day." R' Shmuel bar Nachmani says R' Yonatan says that each day precious stones would fall with their allotment of Manna and the princes (leaders of each tribe) brought the onyx Shoham stones (from their manna precious stone allotment). [...]
There is also a statement in Bamidbar that the taste of the Manna was like the taste of "shed hashemen" (something fried in oil). But you should read sheid like an infant who tastes many tastes in his mother's milk, so too the manna had many tastes (just like the sheid can transform into many colors).
תכשיטי נשים - בשמים שהן דוכות במדוכה ומתקשטות בהן להיות ריחן ערב לבעליהן:
ציקי קדירה - תבלין לתבשיל ערב ומבושם:
שירדו להן אבנים טובות - הביאו נדבה ממה שמוצאין בבקר בבקר כשיוצאין ללקוט את המן שנאמר וילקטו אותו בבקר בבקר:
Cosmetics of Women- Fragrant spices that they would pound with a mortar and apply so that their scent would be pleasing to their husbands.
Necessities for (Cooking in) Pots-Spices for cooking
That precious stones fell for them-They would bring a free will offering from what they would find each morning when they would go out to gather the Manna as it says "And they would gather it morning by morning."
Artscroll on Yoma 75a (thanks Malka Kadish for scanning it)
All the relevant verses imply that the manna resembled some form of bread, which is processed by grinding and baking rather than by pounding in a mortar and cooking. Thus, this verse, which relates that the Israelites "pounded in a mortar," does not refer to the manna itself, but to something extraneous that fell along with it- women's cosmetics, which require pounding in a mortar (Maharsha).
Cf. Ben Yehoyadah, who understands that "pounded in a mortar" indeed refers to the manna, and teaches that the manna itself possessed the qualities of those herbs and spices that are pounded in a mortar to produce the oils, rouges, lipsticks and perfumes that women normally use to beautify themselves. For the women of the Wilderness generation, eating manna produced all the desirable cosmetic effects.
Takanos of Ezra HaSofer
עשרה תקנות תיקן עזרא ... ושיהו רוכלין מחזירין בעיירות
The Sages taught that Ezra the Scribe instituted ten ordinances: ... and that peddlers of cosmetics and perfumes should travel around through all the towns. The Gemara analyzes these ordinance...
ושיהו רוכלין מחזרין בעיירות משום תכשיטי נשים כדי שלא יתגנו על בעליהם:
The Gemara discusses the next of Ezra’s ordinances: And that peddlers should circulate through all the towns. This Gemara explains that this is because peddlers supply women’s cosmetics, and therefore Ezra instituted this practice so that women should not become unattractive to their husbands.