Parashat Haazinu: Previewing Midweek Manna

(10) He found him in a desert region, In an empty howling waste. He engirded him, watched over him, Guarded him as the pupil of His eye.

(1) ימצאהו בארץ מדבר HE FOUND HIM IN A DESERT LAND — for them (Jacob’s sons) he found to be faithful to Him in the desert land, when they accepted His Torah, His sovereignty and His yoke, something that Ishmael and Esau had refused to do, as it is said, (Deuteronomy 33:2) “And He shone from the Seir (Esau) unto them, He appeared from Mount Paran (Ishmael)” (cf. Rashi on that verse).

(6) כאישון עינו AS THE אישון OF HIS EYE — that is the black in the eye from which the light comes. Onkelos, however, rendered ימצאהו by “He provided Him” with all He needed in the wilderness. It took the words to be of the same meaning as, (Numbers 11:22) “[Shall the flocks … be slain for them] to suffice (ומצא) them?” and (Joshua 17:16) “The hill is not enough (ימצא) for us”.

(22) Could enough flocks and herds be slaughtered to suffice them? Or could all the fish of the sea be gathered for them to suffice them?”

(8) The people would go about and gather it, grind it between millstones or pound it in a mortar, boil it in a pot, and make it into cakes. It tasted like rich cream.

It was also said with regard to the manna: “And its taste was as the taste of a cake [shad] baked with oil [hashamen]” (Numbers 11:8). Rabbi Abbahu said: Shad means breast. Just as a baby tastes different flavors from the breast, since the taste of the milk changes somewhat depending on what foods his mother eats, so too with the manna, every time that the Jewish people ate the manna, they found in it many different flavors, based on their preferences. There are those who say that the word is written as shed and means literally a demon. How so? Just as a demon changes into different forms and colors, so too, the manna changed into different flavors.

(An excerpt)

The manna is an awesome topic. Our rabbis in Mesechet Yoma 75b say: "Man did eat the bread of the mighty" (Psalms 78:25). This is the bread that the ministering angels eat according to Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Yishmael said to Rabbi Akiva, "You are mistaken, for do ministering angels eat bread? Doesn't it say in Deuteronomy 9:9 "Bread I did not eat and water I did not drink"? Rather, you should read this as bread for the limbs- bread that is absorbed into the limbs (which leaves no waste product so Bnei Yisrael never needed to go to the bathroom). And what R' Akiva is saying is that the Brightness of the Shechina sustains the angels. And God kept all the people alive= מחיה- it can also be read as sustenance, מחיה. It is said that "Light is sweet" (Ecclesiastes 11:7) and if light is sweet it is pleasurable to be sustained off of it. The manna is somehow a second generation from the Ohr Elyon-primary light. Somehow this light took on a physicality so man could be sustained by this "Light Bread." So in the Midbar we and the angels are being sustained by the same sort of thing. And because its source was entirely spiritual, then obviously you could taste whatever you like- all you have to do is think. It was a pleasing thing for the Almighty to give us this.