Komentarz do Powtórzonego Prawa 29:5

YE HAVE NOT EATEN BREAD, NEITHER HAVE YE DRUNK WINE OR STRONG DRINK. The meaning thereof is “You have not eaten [sufficiently] thereof that you should be able to live by it,” for their principal sustenance was the manna. THAT YE MIGHT KNOW THAT I AM THE ETERNAL YOUR G-D Who keeps you alive miraculously. Now, it could not mean that they did not eat bread at all, as Scripture [says of Moses], I did neither eat bread nor drink water¹⁵¹Above 9:9. for on some occasions Israel did have bread in the wilderness, as it is written, Thou shalt sell me food for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink; as the children of Esau that dwell in Seir, and the Moabites that dwell in Ar, did unto me.¹⁵²Ibid., 2:28-29. And our Rabbis mentioned¹⁵³Yoma 75 b. that the merchants of the peoples of the world brought them [various foods] in the desert.
It is further possible that from the time the manna descended until they came to Seir they did not eat bread at all, for they travelled through the great and dreadful wilderness.¹⁵⁴Above, 8:15. But in the fortieth year they approached inhabited land, and it was said to them, Ye are to pass through the border of your brethren the children of Esau;¹⁵⁵Ibid., 2:3. Ye shall purchase food of them.¹⁵⁶Ibid., Verse 6. There it is written, these forty years the Eternal thy G-d hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.¹⁵⁷Ibid., Verse 7. And from that time on, the Edomites and the Moabites¹⁵⁸See Ramban above, 23:5. met them with food and drink and prominent Israelites would buy from them for pleasure, not for necessity, nor for satiety, because their principal sustenance was [still] the manna.
Nitzavim

לחם לא אכלתם ויין ושכר לא שתיתם, “you ate neither bread nor drank wine or other alcoholic drink;” Nachmanides writes that Moses meant that the people, during the last forty years, had not subsisted on the food relied on by ordinary human beings, but they had subsisted exclusively on the manna, the “bread” that came down from heaven.

למען תדעו כי אני ה' אלוקיכם, in order that you will know that I am the Lord your G-d.” Moses had not spoken these words (i.e. at his own initiative), but from the words: ואלך אתכם at the beginning of verse 4, until the end of this Parshah, we are reading G-d’s word, as our sages have already explained on Exodus 32,13, in respect of the words: וכל הארץ הזאת אשר אמרתי, “and this whole land of which I have spoken;” we would actually have expected there the word: אמרת, “which You spoke of,” as Moses had been the speaker at the beginning of that verse.” The truth is that as far as there we read the words of the student, from there on we read the words of the Teacher.

למען תדעו כי אני ה' אלוקיכם, “in order to convince you beyond any doubt that I am the Lord your G’d.” Moses means that Hashem had kept them alive by miraculous means during all these years. The word לחם in this paragraph is not to be understood in the same way as when Moses told the people that during the forty days he spent on Mount Sinai he had neither eaten לחם nor drunk מים. Moses meant that he had not eaten or drunk anything during his stay on the Mountain, had led an “angel-like” existence. The people of Israel, even while in the desert, had tasted bread on occasion, such as when they had bought flour from some surrounding nation, but they had not needed it for their survival. Moses himself is on record as reminding the people that the Edomites had sold them food and drink. (Deut. 2,28-29) Our sages (Yuma 75) have said that the merchants of the whole region were offering to sell food and drink to the Israelites in the desert. It is also possible that the period when the Israelites subsisted exclusively on a diet of manna began 30 days after the Exodus when the manna fell for the first time, and it continued into the fortieth year when the Edomites sold them food and drink, around the time when they made war against Sichon, after which they possessed normal lands, land on which crops were growing and on which cattle were grazing. At that time G’d had said to Moses: (Deut. 2,4) “command the people you are passing through the territory of your brethren the children of Esau you may buy food from them and you may dig for water in their soil, etc.” In that context the Torah had also written that G’d had blessed them during the forty years they traversed a fearsome desert, etc. From that point onwards the people had enjoyed access to normal food and drink, but presumably in very limited quantities. Whatever normal food they consumed, or the wealthy ones among them consumed, was in the nature of indulging themselves, not something they relied on for survival. Their basic food continued to be the manna until they crossed the river Jordan.