Midrasz do Psalmów 78:25

[(Numb. 14:11:) HOW LONG WILL THIS PEOPLE SCORN ME?: This text is related (to Is. 5:4): WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO DO FOR MY VINEYARD THAT I HAVE NOT DONE FOR IT? WHEN I HOPED FOR IT TO PRODUCE GRAPES, WHY DID IT PRODUCE SOUR GRAPES?⁸The beginning of this section is not found in Numb. R. The Holy One said: <Consider> what good things I have created within my world! Did I not make them for you? Yet with the very good that I made for you, you provoked me. I brought you out of Egypt. Then when I came to the sea, I made it as if it were full of clay.⁹Exod. R. 24:1; cf. Tanh., Numb. 4:13. Thus it is stated (in Hab. 3:15): YOU TROD THE SEA WITH YOUR HORSES, THE MORTAR OF MANY WATERS. They walked in it and talked to each other. A certain Reubenite said: Where are we? Do you not know that he has brought us away from clay and bricks and returned us to clay? Thus it is stated (in Exod. 1:14): AND THEY MADE THEIR LIVES BITTER WITH HARD LABOR AT MORTAR AND BRICKS. So similarly (in Hab. 3:15): YOU TROD THE SEA WITH YOUR HORSES, THE MORTAR OF MANY WATERS. The Holy One said to them: Yet with the good that I brought upon you, you provoked me. When they came to the desert, I brought the manna down to you for forty years.¹⁰With this sentence, the text again parallels Numb. R. 16:24. Moreover, none of them had to ease nature for those forty years. Rather when they ate the manna, it <simply> became flesh for them, as stated (in Ps. 78:25, 27) EACH ONE ATE THE BREAD OF THE MIGHTY (rt.: 'BR); [….AND HE RAINED DOWN MEAT UPON THEM LIKE DUST….] When <the manna> became body members (rt.: 'BR) and flesh,¹¹Numb. R. 7:4; Mekhilta deRabbi Ishmael, Wayassa‘ 4 (on Exod. 16:15); Sifre to Numb. 11:4 (88); Yoma 74b. they provoked him with it. Seeing for themselves that they did not have to go out <to ease nature> like <other> humans, they began saying to each other: Do you not know that we have had twenty days, even thirty [days], without easing nature? What is this? When a person does not ease nature for four or five days, does he not die or burst open? Now as for us, (according to Numb. 21:5), OUR SOUL LOATHES THIS MISERABLE FOOD. Why was it said to be MISERABLE (rt.: QLL)? Because it was light (rt.: QLL) within their bowels.

Our Rabbis have been taught: (Ps. 78, 25) The bread of Abirim did man eat. R. Akiba said: "That means, the bread that angels eat." When this was told to R. Ishmael, he said to them: "Go and tell unto R. Akiba: Thou hast been in error. Do then angels eat bread? Behold it is written (Deut. 9, 9) Bread did I not eat, and water did I not drink?" But how is the passage, bread of Abirim, to be explained? Do not read Abirim (angels), but Ebrim (members); i.e., it was absorbed by all the two hundred and forty-eight members (no refuse was left).

Another interpretation (of Numb. 14:27). By universal custom one buys himself a servant so that his servant will bake bread for him and so that his buyer may eat, but I did not do so. Rather, though you are my servants, I baked for you so that you might eat. It is so stated (in Exod. 16:4): BEHOLD, I WILL RAIN DOWN BREAD FROM THE HEAVENS FOR YOU. And so it says (in Ps. 78:25): EACH ONE ATE THE BREAD OF THE MIGHTY. After all these good things that I did for you, you provoke me. How long shall I endure <you>? (Numb. 14:27:) HOW LONG SHALL THIS EVIL CONGREGATION <BE MURMURING AGAINST ME>?