MaNishma with Rabbi Arnold Goodman

We remember the fish, which we used to eat in Egypt for nothing; the cucumbers, the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic, but now our soul is dried away, there is nothing at all. We have nothing but this manna to look to (Numbers 11.5-9).

… the people spoke against God and Moses, '… we have come to loathe this miserable bread' (Ibid 21:5).

And let the graciousness of the Lord our God be upon us. Establish Thou the work of our hands; Yea the work of our hands establish Thou it (Psalm 90:17).

What was their problem with the manna? Why did they loathe it as lechem haklokel– this miserable bread? Obviously, the complaint that they had better food while enslaved in Egypt was a combination of "normal" memory tricks and their basic frustration with manna and the lack of fresh food in the desert.

The first problem flowed from sheer boredom. While the manna was a Heaven-sent gift of a sweet tasting wafer, its very sameness ran counter to the human desire for variety in our diets. Few, if any of us, would enjoy a diet limited to the same foods all the time.

The Midrash, aware of this very human reaction, posited that the magic of manna was that, with fertile imagination at play, manna could taste like steak or bagels and lox or any  desired food of the moment. (Perhaps the only limitation was that it could not acquire the taste of non-kosher food or food that violated the separation of meat and dairy!) Yet, despite this Midrash, the reality was that manna suffered from sameness.

The second problem was precisely its availability without requiring any effort on the Israelite's part. Every morning, the daily supply was at the entrance to their tents; it was simply there. Daily sustenance was assured without any fuss and bother. The only limitation was the command not to put even a minute portion of manna aside for the next day, except on Friday. On Friday morning, a double portion was collected so that there would be sufficient food for Shabbat, the only day when there was no manna from Heaven.

This easily accessible daily bread conflicted with the critical human need of accomplishment. Our ancestors in the desert were often bored and unfulfilled.

The desert generation's total dependence upon God for sustenance conflicted with the Divine charge to Adam/Eve to have dominion over the newly created natural world. Their mandate—and ours—is to rise to the challenge of functioning as His partner in the ongoing process of creation.

A basic reality of human existence is the inherent tension between our need to be independent and the realization that we can't always make it without the support of others. We all desire to be in control of our destiny, but it's a great blessing to have faith that, when needed, God—and others—will be at our side.

May we always feel productive and rejoice in the work of our hands, and may the "work of our hands" indeed be pleasing to God, to others and to ourselves.

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From the holy city of Jerusalem my best wishes for a Shabbat Shalom U'Mevorach, a Shabbat of peace and of blessing.