"Rich Man, Poor Man"

In this week's section of Eikev, Moshe tells the Jewish people that their forty-year sojourn in the desert was a time of their being tested by G-d -- "to test you, to see what is within your heart, whether you would observe His commandments or not."[590]

Tests such as these are generally divided into two categories: the test of poverty and the test of wealth.[591] While in the desert, the Jews as well underwent both manner of tests. Both these tests related to the manna, the miraculous food from heaven that served as the Jews' sustenance during these forty years.

On the one hand, the manna possessed the greatest magnitude of wealth and riches. For in addition to its being a bread from heaven without any waste products[592] and a food that tasted of any food one desired,[593] it also brought with it precious gems and pearls[594] -- tangible wealth.

On the other hand, the manna also possessed the test of poverty, as the verse states[595] "Who gave you manna to eat ... in order to afflict you." The Gemara explains[596] that the "affliction" of the manna consisted of it not being able to truly satiate the person who ate it. Two reasons are provided by the Gemara why this was so:

1. "There is no comparison between [the degree of satiation of] a person who has 'bread in his basket,' to an individual who lacks 'bread in his basket.'" That is to say, since only the exact amount of manna necessary for a given day would fall on that day and there was none for the morrow, a person eating the manna felt the lack of satiation that resulted from the lack of "bread in one's basket."

2. "There is no comparison between [the degree of satiation of] a person who sees what he is eating and a person who doesn't see what he is eating." Since one could only see the manna and not the various foods that one tasted while eating the manna, the feeling was of one who doesn't see what he is eating.

How was it possible for the very same manna to possess these two very opposite qualities of wealth and poverty?

The manna possessed wealth as it was heavenly bread, it was an entirely spiritual entity. As such, the manna possessed no limitations, as there are no limitations on G-dliness. It was therefore able to retain its spirituality even after it descended below[597] -- it had no waste, it wasn't limited to a specific taste, it wasn't even limited to the category of food, as it brought with it precious gems and pearls.

Just as the manna transcended the world, not being subject to plowing, planting and the like, it also transcended the general aspects of space and time. The world, however, is composed specifically of space and time -- each day an entity unto itself.[598] Thus, when the gift of manna would descend within the world, it would do so on the basis of the needs of that particular day.

It was also impossible to see all the things that the manna could taste like, since a physical and thus limited eye cannot possibly absorb the limitlessness of G-dliness.

This resulted in the two opposite aspects of wealth and poverty that were at one and the same time found within the manna:

In and of itself, the manna was the archetype of wealth, for as something whose essence is spiritual it had no limitations. However, apropos the world and man, manna was also categorical poverty, for as it descended as a gift from above, man could not demand it as something that was rightfully his -- "he had no bread in his basket."

Concomitantly, man's eye could not possibly embrace the true wealth of the manna and it therefore didn't even seem like regular food -- the person would eat it without seeing what it was that he was eating.[599]

The manna was thus entirely unlike possessing something physical: Every person owns at least something -- even if of extremely limited value -- that is exclusively his. Concerning the manna, however, although it was the ultimate in wealth, as regards the person it was considered to be the most abject poverty -- there was no aspect of the manna that the person could point to and say that it was truly and rightfully his.

This is also the meaning of the verse,[600] "He made you hungry and gave you manna to eat,"[601] i.e., not only didn't the manna satisfy, it made the person even hungrier. How did the manna elicit a feeling of hunger?

When a physically limited human being would eat the spiritually limitless manna, he knew that he was incapable of enjoying all of it; there would always remain an unlimited number of heavenly and spiritual tastes that escaped him. This would arouse a feeling of hunger -- hungering and craving that level of G-dly infinity that escaped his finite grasp.

The only way to receive the limitless manna-bounty of above was by divesting oneself of one's own limited existence and being, thereby becoming a vessel to G-d's limitlessness.

Based on Likkutei Sichos, Vol. IV, pp. 1098-1100

   

Notes:

590. (Back to text) Devarim 8:2.

591. (Back to text) See Likkutei Torah, Discourses of Rosh HaShanah, p. 60a.

592. (Back to text) Yoma 75b.

593. (Back to text) Ibid. 75a.

594. (Back to text) Ibid.

595. (Back to text) Devarim 8:2.

596. (Back to text) Yoma 74b

597. (Back to text) See also Likkutei Sichos, Vol. IV, Sicha of Behaalos'cha, and sources cited there.

598. (Back to text) Nazir 7a.

599. (Back to text) Similar to a light so bright that it is blinding.

600. (Back to text) Devarim 8:3.

601. (Back to text) See Koheles Rabbah 5:10; Lekach Tov (Devarim 8:2).