Comentários de Citação sobre Jó 28:5

הנני ממטיר לכם לחם מן השמים, “I am about to make bread rain down for you from heaven.” According to the plain meaning of the text the word לחם is appropriate because the people would make bread out of the manna though the manna itself was not bread.

BREAD. Because they made bread out of the manna — as it is written, and they made cakes of it³⁰⁰Numbers 11:8. — [Scripture calls it lechem (bread)], for every form of bread is called lechem, not just those of wheat and barley. It says cause to rain bread [although it did not come down in the form of bread, for the meaning thereof is] that He is causing it to come down for them to make it into bread. Similarly: As for the earth, out of it cometh bread,³⁰¹Job 28:5. [meaning: “out of it cometh the wheat from which bread is made”]. So also: To bring forth bread out of the earth,³⁰²Psalms 104:14. which means that He brings forth the wheat from which people make bread. And some scholars³⁰³Ibn Ezra, and R’dak in his Sefer Hashorashim, under the root lechem. interpret: Behold, I will cause to rain bread, meaning food. Similarly: ‘lechem’ of the offering;³⁰⁴Leviticus 3:16. For he offereth the ‘lechem’ of thy G-d;³⁰⁵Ibid., 21:8. When thou sittest ‘lilchom’ with a ruler³⁰⁶Proverbs 23:1. — all are expressions of food.³⁰⁷Thus is the opinion of Ibn Ezra and R’dak (see Note 303). But, continues Ramban, the correct interpretation is, etc. The correct interpretation is that lilchom³⁰⁶Proverbs 23:1. means “to eat bread,” and ‘lechem’ of thy G-d³⁰⁵Ibid., 21:8. is a euphemism, meaning that it is “the food” for G-d even as bread is for man, for we find it said, Man doth not live by bread only.³⁰⁸Deuteronomy 8:3.

The text further states: “Earth, out of which food grows, is changed below as if into fire. Its rocks are a source of sapphires; it contains gold dust too” [Job 28:5–6]. That locus which is the origin of existence, the awakening of desire, is designated as the “earth.”²⁹ In the sense of a divine “ground of being.” The passage refers to keter, the primal will of God. Providing sustenance for all things, it is the source of life, supplying the needs of the upper and lower worlds. “[It] is changed below as if into fire“: the figure refers to its wondrous illumination and pure light, transcending all likeness and comparison.³⁰ The light flowing forth from keter, the channel of infinite divine energy.

And they became haughty She and her daughters, as is delineated in Job (28:5): “A land from which bread emerged,” and the entire piece (ibid. 4-9). [The Sodomites grew in haughtiness] until they said, “Let us cause the habit of traveling [lit. the foot] to be forgotten from our land, for they come only to cause us loss.”