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BEGIN WITH A GRIN

A man moves into a new neighborhood closer to his workplace so he can walk to work.

On his first day walking to work in the morning, he’s walking past a house and in the window he sees a woman hit her son over the head with a loaf of bread.

Each morning as he walks to work he sees the woman hit the boy over the head with a loaf of bread. Everyday it’s the same. Then one day as he’s walking by, he’s surprised to see the woman hit the boy over the head with a cake.

Overwhelmed with curiosity he knocks on the door and when the woman answers he asks her. “I hope you’ll forgive the intrusion but I had to ask. I walk by here everyday on my way to work and each day you hit the boy over the head with a loaf of bread. But today you hit him with a cake.”

She says, “Today’s his birthday!”

HEAVEN-SENT

One of the things we encounter this week in Parshas Behaaloscha is the manna, the mysterious desert bread that fell to the Jewish people during their journey in the wilderness, bread that fell for forty years and since then… has disappeared!

Is this the end of the manna? Will the manna never return? Will we merit to taste this heavenly bread? After all, in this week’s parsha, the Torah describes the manna with the words: “And they made it into cakes, and its taste was like the taste of oil cake.” This sounds much more tempting than a chocolate croissant and a cup of coffee, and even more than a slice of shoulder roast alongside a glass of fine wine, doesn’t it?!

An interesting fact about the manna is that the manna is called in the Torah: “bread from heaven.” In Tehillim, Dovid HaMelech calls the manna: “grain of heaven” and “bread of the mighty.” In light of the above, there are opinions among the early authorities (Sefer Chassidim) that the Jewish people recited a very special blessing over the manna. We are all accustomed to blessing “Who brings forth bread from the earth” over bread made from wheat (or another type of grain) that grows from the earth, but what blessing do we recite over “bread from heaven” made from “grain of heaven”?

Rabbi Yehuda HaChassid rules that the blessing over the manna is: HaNosen lechem min ha’shomayim (Who gives bread from heaven)!

This sounds a bit funny – how can one rule on something that will never happen? After all, no one has manna, you can’t buy it at the supermarket, and you also can’t order it at the finest bakeries, and even if you search on Amazon, it’s likely you won’t find someone selling “bread from heaven.” So what is the point of Rabbi Yehuda HaChassid’s ruling?

The Rama of Fano, in his essay “Shabbasos Hashem,” presents a marvelous, innovative idea that somewhat explains Rabbi Yehuda HaChassid’s puzzling ruling. Everyone knows that in Yemos HaMoshiach, a grand feast will take place, a dreamlike and magnificent feast known as: “the feast of the Livyasan and the Shor HaBar.” It’s reasonable to assume that as a first course they will serve the Livyasan (a fish, right?!) and as the main course they will serve ribs of the wild ox (and regarding desserts perhaps we’ll discuss another time…) but what bread will they eat at that feast? Over what will they say “HaMotzi”? After all, there is no feast without bread, and no bread without a blessing!

The Rama of Fano explains that at this feast they will eat manna! Bread from heaven! And then, indeed, they will bless over it, “HaMotzi lechem min ha’shomayim (Who brings forth bread from heaven)!

A TASTE OF HEAVEN

But where will we get manna from? Did someone hide manna for emergency purposes thousands of years ago?

The Yalkut Shimoni (Yirmiyahu, remez 267) solves the mystery: “And this is one of three things that Eliyahu is destined to establish for Israel: the jar of manna, the flask of purification water, and the flask of anointing oil.” Eliyahu is destined to bring the jar of manna that Aharon HaKohen placed for safekeeping before G-d during the time of the Mishkan, and we will eat from that jar.

Another possibility is that just as Moshe, the “first redeemer,” brought down the manna in his time for his generation, so too Moshiach Tzidkeinu, the “final redeemer,” will bring down new manna for the Jewish people in his generation. Because who wants to eat bread that’s thousands of years old…

All this is good and fine, but what does this teach us today and now? We don’t have manna, and we are hungry for bread of another kind…

The Rebbe explains that even today there is manna! It is, indeed, not physical manna, and we don’t recite a special blessing over it, but it is “bread from heaven,” and it also nourishes and satisfies. The bread is a metaphor for Torah study, as the verse says: “Come, eat of My bread.” Bread from the earth alludes to the study of the revealed Torah, while bread from heaven symbolizes the study of the inner dimension of Torah, the teachings of Chassidus.

Just as in the desert, all the Jewish people, without exception – tzaddik, beinoni, and rasha – ate the manna, so too today, all the Jewish people, without exception – tzaddik, beinoni, and rasha – need to “taste and eat” from the teachings of Chassidus. And just as then, the eating of manna by the wicked effected a significant positive change in them, the bread from heaven “burned within them” and gave them no inner peace until they repented, so too, today, the study of Chassidus by each and every Jew will effect, without doubt, a significant positive change in their conduct.

On one occasion (Shabbos Parshas Pinchas 5746, Vol. 3 p. 145), the Rebbe explained the comparison between Moshe, the first redeemer, and Moshiach, the final redeemer, in a similar manner. Moshe gave ‘manna’ even to servants and maidservants, due to his great humility (which we also read about in this week’s parsha), and likewise Moshiach, who will be greatly humble, will also engage with and influence even the most distant ones, and give them to taste the true taste of “bread from heaven,” the Torah of Chassidus, sweeter than honey.

Specifically through spreading Chassidus everywhere and to everyone, we can merit to already sit at the feast of the Livyasan and Shor HaBar, and taste physically from that wonderful “manna”!

TO CONCLUDE WITH A STORY

We’ll end with a mysterious story about eating manna in the previous generation. Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Charlop zt’l (d. 1951), was one of the great rabbis f Yerushalayim in halacha, a rosh yeshiva and also a major mekubal. One of his deepest sefarim is called Lechem Abirim. In the introduction to the sefer it says: “I called the work by the name Lechem Abirim, for reasons hidden with me.”

What might be those hidden reasons?

Mrs. Chava Dina Bari-Schlesinger a’h, the youngest daughter of Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Charlop, related that when she was a small child, one evening vigorous knocks were heard at the gate of the house. At the door stood a group of Kabbalists who were in constant contact with Rabbi Charlop. They appeared very excited and requested to speak urgently with the rabbi. The Kabbalists demanded that all household members leave the room, but they allowed her, since she was a child who doesn’t understand, to remain.

When the door was closed, the head of the group related that they found in sefarim that unique individuals worthy of it could find remnants of the manna, and whoever merits to eat from it will merit great and special insights in Torah. Also, the discovery of manna remnants would be a sign of the speedy approaching of the Geula. The group members went out to search for it in the Sinai desert, and after tefillos with certain kavanos and extensive searches, they merited to find what they sought. In one of the rock crevices, they found a hidden layer of manna, and immediately hurried to the rabbi’s house to tell him about the shocking discovery.

Rabbi Charlop was very excited and asked to see the manna. The head of the group opened his dusty bag and took out from it a jar with a little food of white color. They divided the manna among themselves, and each of those present said a bracha and ate a little with tremendous kavana. (What bracha they recited she didn’t remember, but the Rama of Fano rules as mentioned above that one says, “Who brings forth bread from heaven”).

It’s possible that the book Lechem Abirim contains within it the revelations that came as a result of eating the manna.

Good Shabbos!

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