The Weekly Sedra – Parshas Beha’aloscha

The Rebbe says:

1. This week’s Torah portion discusses the Manna which fell from Heaven for the Jewish people.

2. Regarding the Manna the Talmud says:

“It is written in one verse, ‘When the dew would descend upon it’, which implies that the Manna fell in the camp itself, and it is written elsewhere, ‘And the people shall go out and collect each day’s portion of Manna’, which implies that the Manna fell just outside the camp, and it is written in yet another verse, ‘The people would roam and collect it’, which implies that they had to wander far from the camp before encountering the Manna’.

How do we reconcile these three conflicting verses?

We must say that the three situations described here applied to three different groups of people, as follows: For the righteous, the Manna fell inside the camp at the entrance of their homes. For the average people, the Manna fell just outside the camp; hence, they went out of the camp and collected their portions. For the wicked, the Manna fell at a great distance from the camp, and so they roamed far into the fields and collected their portions”.

3. The Rebbe now begins discussing the Manna and explaining the difference between bread from the earth and bread from heaven:

The Torah refers to the Manna as “Bread from Heaven”, and therefore some of our Sages are of the opinion that the Brachah (Blessing) which the Jewish people used to make on the Manna was, “Blessed are you L-rd, our G-d, King of the universe, Who brings forth bread from heaven” (unlike the Brachah which we make over bread now, “… Who brings forth bread from the earth”).

The difference between bread from the earth and bread from heaven is that bread from the earth only grows after much work and toil, and even then the bread which you have is not completely clean of any unwanted ingredients, whereas the bread from heaven does not have these two downsides; it falls from heaven without any work, and it is absolutely pure bread.

What’s more, this effortless and pure bread from heaven was not exclusive; it was for every single Jew, even the average ones and the wicked ones.

Furthermore, even after a wicked person ate this uncontaminated and pure bread and it became part of his flesh and blood, it remained the same as it was beforehand and did not become contaminated by the wicked person. Additionally, this bread not only retained its previous status of pure bread, it even changed the wicked person in some way.

This doesn’t mean to say that when a wicked person ate the Manna he immediately did complete Teshuvah (repentance). The wicked person was still a wicked person; however, he was affected in some way.

4. The Rebbe now points out that according to this understanding of what Manna is we can explain a certain Halachah (Jewish law):

Our Sages tell us that if circumstances have forced us to spend Shabbos (the Sabbath) in a distant land and we do not know which Torah portion to read that Shabbos, we should read the portion that discusses the Manna.

Some commentaries would like to answer that the reason for this Halachah (that we read the portion of the Manna when we don’t know what portion to read) is because the portion discussing the Manna was said to us on Shabbos. However, this answer does not suffice because there are other portions which were said on Shabbos, including the portion of the Ten Commandments. Therefore, if the point is to read a portion which was said on Shabbos, wouldn’t a portion like the Ten Commandments be more fitting?

However in light of the abovementioned explanation that the Manna did not lose its great quality even though it descended so low (into the wicked person), the special connection between the portion of the Manna and Shabbos is readily understood:

Shabbos is also something which is very lofty but is able to come down into this world as the world is on “its own terms”, while retaining its great holiness.

An example of this can be seen from the Halachah that, “It is a Mitzvah (commandment) for one to have pleasure from eating and drinking on Shabbos”; not only is it a Mitzvah to eat and drink on Shabbos, it is also a Mitzvah to enjoy it. In other words, Shabbos doesn’t change the world’s characteristics and features, because as we see, the person is deriving pleasure from eating and drinking. However, Shabbos elevates the world so that his pleasure and eating and drinking is not a “Grubeh” (coarse) thing, it is a Mitzvah and a holy thing.

Another example of Shabbos totally permeating physicality and affecting it to be on a higher level while still staying in its previous status can be seen from the Halachah that, “even a totally wicked person will not lie on Shabbos”,. In other words, he is still a wicked person, he has not felt this sudden urge to do Teshuvah because it is Shabbos, however, he has been affected somewhat by Shabbos so that he will not lie.

Now we can understand why we read the portion discussing the Manna on a Shabbos that we don’t know what we are supposed to read:

All Divine energy comes into this world through the Torah. Therefore, in order to influence the world with the idea of Shabbos, that the lofty level of Shabbos goes down and permeates even the lowest levels of the world, we need to read the portion of the Torah which is specifically connected to and fitting for that Shabbos. However, if we don’t know which exact portion to read, we must read the next best thing- the portion of the Torah which generally deals with this idea that the most elevated levels permeate the lowest levels. And this is the portion of the Manna.

5. The Rebbe now tells us the lesson which we can learn from this:

Everything in this physical world comes from ideas in the Torah. Therefore, being that our sages refer to the Torah as “bread” , we can understand that there are two types of “bread” in the Torah: “Bread from the earth” is the revealed aspect of the Torah, and “Bread from Heaven” is the inner, hidden part of the Torah. Just like “Bread from the earth” only comes about through hard work, so too the style of the revealed part of Torah is in a way of questions, rebuttals, arguments, and counter attacks. However the “Bread from Heaven” comes without this kind work, so too the style of the inner part of Torah is in a smooth and easy way.

However we cannot think to ourselves that since the inner part of Torah is “Bread from Heaven” it is not connected to us. The lesson from all the above is that just like the Manna which was of the highest levels was able to come to the level of every Jew, so too does the inner part of the apply to every Jew.

Translated and adapted by Shalom Goldberg. Taken from Likutei Sichos volume four.