פירוש על דברים 8:3

AND HE FED THEE WITH MANNA, WHICH THOU KNOWEST NOT, NEITHER DID THY FATHERS KNOW. The purport thereof is that you did not know about the manna that you could live by it for many years, nor did such a tradition reach you from your fathers. Or he [Moses] may be saying that He has done with you this great kindness which your holy fathers [i.e., the patriarchs] did not obtain, for, although they walked after Him wherever He commanded them, as is stated, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house,⁶¹Genesis 12:1. yet their eminence did not suffice that He should support them with the corn of heaven⁶²Psalms 78:24. as He did for you. And so the Rabbis have said in the Midrash Bamidbar Sinai Rabbah:⁶³Bamidbar Rabbah 1:2. “Because of the merit of Moses you ate the manna that your holy fathers did not see, as it is said, neither did thy fathers know.” And he explained that He did this in order to inform them that it is He Who preserves man with whatever He decrees, and if so observe His commandments, and live.⁶⁴Proverbs 4:4.
It is possible to explain that the expressions And He afflicted thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna refer to different subjects. He is stating that He afflicted you when you travelled in the wilderness for forty years, similar to the verse, He afflicted my strength in the way,⁶⁵Psalms 102:24. [meaning that travel drains the strength]. And He suffered thee to hunger, at the beginning [of the journey in the wilderness] as the people said, to kill this whole assembly with hunger,⁶⁶Exodus 16:3. and afterwards He fed you with the manna to make you aware that by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Eternal doth man live.⁶⁷Verse 3 before us. So also, Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not,⁶⁸Further, Verse 16. telling them of the miracle that was done to them. And the expression that He might afflict thee [further in Verse 16] reverts to that which he said [in the preceding Verse 15], Who led thee through the great and dreadful wilderness, wherein were serpents, fiery serpents, and scorpions, and draught etc.⁶⁹Ibid., Verse 15. In other words, since according to Ramban’s interpretation before us, the expression that He might afflict thee refers not to the manna but to the journey through the wilderness, then we must also say that the expression that He might afflict thee in Verse 16 preceding the subject of the manna (Verse 17) is to be interpreted as reverting to the beginning of Verse 15, where the subject of the wilderness is mentioned. But that which He said in the section of the manna, that I may, try them, whether they will walk in My law or not⁷⁰Exodus 16:4. means that I will provide them their needs and fulfill their request and [then] see if they will hearken to Me when goods increase.⁷¹Ecclesiastes 5:10. It is the evil of riches which leads to temptation (Proverbs 30:8). This is in consonance with the plain meaning of Scripture, but the first interpretation is true and correct.

He fed you the mon … in order to inform you. This teaches that eating mon gives them intelligence. Similarly Ezra states, “You also gave Your good spirit to instruct them, and did not withhold Your mon from their mouth” (Nechemia 9:20). This is the meaning of the statement (Yalkus Shimoni Shemos 13): The Torah was only given to those who eat mon.

ויענך וירעבך, "He afflicted you and made you suffer hunger, etc." Why did Moses link the afflictions to G'd feeding the Israelites the manna? Does this not project the idea that manna was something of low rank, its only function being to save the Israelites from the pangs of hunger? How can we reconcile this with the many complimentary descriptions the Torah makes about the manna extolling its superiority as heavenly food? The Sifri in its commentary on Numbers 11,7 insists that the reason for that whole verse was to extol the virtues of the manna! Moreover, we are told in Yuma 75 that manna is the food of the angels based on לחם אבירים אכל כל איש, "each man ate the bread of heroes" (Psalms 78,25). I believe that here too Moses spoke of the excellence of the manna. There are two kinds of foods. Some foods are absorbed without negative side-effects by both healthy and sick people. The reason is that these foods do not contain any harmful impurities (additives). The entire food is capable of being digested by our system and is absorbed by our various organs. Such food reinforces our health. There are other kinds of food which, while good for the healthy person, pose a danger for the sick and may even cause his death. This is the reason our verse speaks of ויענך וירעבך ויאכלך, "He afflicted you, He starved you, and He fed you." The afflictions Moses speaks of refer to the tedium of the journey through the desert. The words "He starved you," refer to the absence of food; it is a well known fact that as a result of the discomfort experienced while wandering in the desert bodily functions such as those of the digestive tract are impaired. If, under such circumstances, a person consumes the kind of food which is difficult to digest it will certainly harm him. Even if such a person eats such food only because he is very hungry it is liable to make him sick. We know from daily experience that when a person suffers afflictions he detests the thought of food even if according to his regular meal times he should be very hungry. Moses therefore speaks of G'd feeding the Israelites the manna, the kind of food which even people who suffer from afflictions can eat without danger to their health. This is something quite independent of the fact that manna tasted pleasantly, "like wafers with honey."