Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Mga Awit 127:2

There is a single verse in Psalms 127,2 which sums it all up: “He provides as much for His loved ones while they sleep.” The psalmist teaches that what all the people who rise early and stay up late (beginning of same verse) achieve only after expending much energy and not even enjoying the bread they eat, the Jewish people (who observe G’d’s commandments) find that G’d provides for them without any effort on their part. In other words, those people’s toil and fatigue was really all in vain.
What is the meaning of the words ועינו כעין הבדולח “its appearance was like the color of bedolach” in Numbers 11,7 where we are given another aspect of the appearance of the manna? This is an indication that the color of the manna was of an extraordinary nature, similar to the diamond known as perla as described in Exodus 28,18. It is a derivative of a supernatural light described by Ezekiel 1,24. On the breastplate of the High Priest the precious stone called יהלום had the name of the tribe Zevulun engraved upon it. This stone emitted this light. It is recorded in a book by R' David Kimchi called Sefer Michlol under the root בדולח. The manna descended in the form of a fine drizzle, similar to what is meant by Psalms 147,16-17: “He scatters frost like ashes, He tosses down hail like crumbs.” This is why David explained in Psalms 78,23: “He commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven, and rained manna upon them to eat, giving them heavenly grain.” This teaches that the origin of the (color) light of the manna was supernatural which prompted David to describe it as “heavenly grain.” David mentioned further that G’d opened the doors of heaven in order to cause it to rain down from those regions because concerning this supernatural light we have been told in Ezekiel 1,1: “the heavens opened and I beheld visions of the Divine.”
You will note that this paragraph which acquaints us with the manna contains the word מן five times. This corresponds to the five occasions that the word אור, “light,” is mentioned in the first paragraph of the Book of Genesis (Genesis 1,1-5). This teaches that the manna is a derivative of G’d’s first physical creation, of the original light which was withdrawn after Adam sinned. Just as the light was created on the first day, so the manna was released on the first day (compare what we wrote on verse 1).
In interpreting the meaning of Psalms 78,25 לחם אבירים אכל איש, “each man ate a hero’s meal,” our sages (Yuma 75) comment that the reference is to the kind of food which the angels consume (view of Rabbi Akiva). Rabbi Yishmael countered saying that the angels do not consume any material food at all. He based himself on Moses who had said that during the forty days he had been in heaven, in the domain of the angels, he had neither eaten bread nor drunk water. The idea was that when in celestial regions one conducts oneself like celestial beings whereas when the angels visited earth, i.e. Avraham or Lot, the Torah reports them as partaking of the food offered to them by earthly beings (compare Deut. 9,9 and Genesis 18,8 as well as 19,3). Rabbi Yishmael understood the meaning of the word אבירים as food which was totally absorbed by the organs of those who ate it, there being no need to excrete any of it. [The word אבירים is equated with אברים, organs, human tissue.] As a result of this discussion our sages in Yuma found that the numerical value of the word מחספס is 248, i.e. the number of bones in the human skeleton. This is the background to the claim that people eating an exclusive manna diet did not ever have to excrete any of their food intake. We have a further comment in Bamidbar Rabbah 7,4 on Numbers 14,11 “how long will this people spurn Me and how long will they not have faith in Me after the all the miracles I have performed ‘within them?’” The word בקרבו, “inside it” is a reference to all the manna dissolving in their tissue instead of in their entrails.

We know of three reasons that people cannot rent and live with a landlord. The first is the one who cannot rent because he is afraid that he will not be able to pursue his business in the landlord’s house. [The landlord] might compete with his merchandise or might give loans to gentiles. He thinks that the landlord will say that he has priority and he is afraid to show his money because of the tax collectors. The second one cannot rent because he has a large household with many children. The third one cannot rent because he is afraid that the landlord will tell everyone about his behavior, with fancy food and how he spends his money. Similarly, if he is very stingy with his food and does not want people to know how despicably stingy he is. Therefore, he does not rent and must build a house for himself. Concerning these three, the verse first said, “In vain do you rise early and stay up late, you who toil for the bread you eat; He provides as much for His loved ones while they sleep” [Psalms, 127:2]. That is to say, the person should know that in his house he is like someone who rents and the Holy One is the landlord. However, he should not fear that the landlord would take away his livelihood, since the Holy One gives each person his or her livelihood. Therefore the verse says, “in vain do you rise early” [Psalms, 127:2]. That is, your waking up early to go after your livelihood does not help, if the Holy One does not want to help. However, the one who relies on the Holy One, the Holy One sends him his livelihood even when he is asleep in his bed. This is the meaning of “He provides as much for His loved ones while they sleep” [Psalms, 127:2].

It is possible that the expression: “you will not eat bread in poverty in that land,” refers to something spiritual, i.e. that the word לחם, “bread,” does not refer to physical food. This would not be the first time that Torah has been compared to לחם. Compare Proverbs 9,5 where Solomon, quoting the Torah called “Wisdom,” says: “come eat my bread”. Seeing that it is impossible to acquire Torah and wisdom in the full sense of the word without proper preparation designed to facilitate its study, Moses may indicate here that the ideal such preparation is residence in the land of Israel, which possesses the physical conditions such as ideal climate to enable people to study Torah successfully. Scholars studying Torah in that land do not suffer from the handicaps which scholars in other countries suffer from. Those scholars belong to the category of people known as eating לחם העצבים, “the bread of troubles” (Psalms 127,2), in contrast to the people in Israel. The true wealth of the people in Israel is the quality of their Torah knowledge which was acquired with the help of the superior climate and therefore food produced in the Land of Israel. This is why Moses underlines this thought by adding לא תחסר כל בה, “nothing is lacking in that land.” The blessing is anchored in the word בכל; compare Genesis 24,1 “and the Lord had blessed Avraham בכל.” The reason Moses adds that the stones of the Land of Israel yield iron, is to tell us that in places where one expects to encounter only stone one will be surprised to find iron. A similar surprise awaits those who see nothing more than high piles of rock in the mountains of that land. These mountains are filled with copper. Seeing that copper and iron are used as raw materials for most of man’s utensils, a land which yields such raw material can aptly be described as “lacking nothing.” A people who have to import all these raw materials are at a serious disadvantage, aware of real shortcomings in their land. If the earth of a land does not yield silver or gold this is at best considered a minor shortcoming. Moses praised the availability of those ores which are needed daily in people’s lives. Moses includes this kind of blessing once more at the end of the last portion of Deuteronomy when he praises the soil of Asher’s section of Eretz Yisrael (33,25).
Our sages in Taanit 4 take a Midrashic approach to the words ארץ אשר אבניה ברזל by suggesting that instead of reading אבניה, “its stones,” we might read this as בוניה, “its builders,” i.e. the Torah scholars are possessed of a faith as strong as iron.