וְהַטּ֖וּר הַשֵּׁנִ֑י נֹ֥פֶךְ סַפִּ֖יר וְיָהֲלֹֽם׃
און די צװײטע צײל: גאַרפֿונקל, סאַפּירשטײן, און דימענט;
Rabbeinu Bahya
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 This teaches that the manna is a derivative of G’d’s first physical creation, of the original light which was withdrawn after Adam sinned.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.
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.
Ibn Ezra
סוערה Tempestuous; comp. סוער (Jon. 1:11); or Tossed with tempest. Jerusalem is meant.22aThe Hebrew text has the words והיא זאת ירושלים; either והיא or זאת is superfluous, or בת is to be read instead of זאת.
Ibn Ezra
פוך A precious stone of black colour. Some think that it is the same as נפך, an emerald (Ex. 28:18).