A.
Continuing his farewell address to Israel, Moshe declares: וזכרת את כל הדרך אשר הוליכך ד' אלוקיך וכו' ויענך וירעבך ויאכלך את המן אשר לא ידעת ולא ידעון אבותיך למען הוגיעך כי לו על הלחם לבדו יחי' האשדם כי על כל מוצא פי ד' יחי' האשם: (“And you shall remember the whole way along which Ha-Shem your G-d has brought you.... And he tormented you and starved you and fed you the man which you did not know and which your fathers did not know, in order to make known to you that it is not on bread alone that a person lives, for on everything which comes out of Ha-Shem’s mouth does a person live”; VIII,2-3).
The clear meaning of the above passage seems to be an historical reference; during their sojourn in the desert, Israel were tormented by hunger pangs, until G-d fed them the miraculous man which fell from the sky each day, and served their nutritional needs. If we turn to the midrash, however, we find v. 3 above cited followed by the comment: מכאל שמדליקין נרות בשבת (“From here [we learn] that one lights candles on shabbath”; מובא ע"י הרב חיד"א בשם המדרש כדאיתא בספר אור האורות, אור ההלכה סי' ג').
What in the world has the man to do with hadlaqath néroth bë-shabbath?
B.
We begin our journey by turning to the Talmud.
In the course of a discussion of the meaning of ‘innuy nefesh, “self-affliction” on Yom Kippur, the Talmud cites our verse, and goes on to comment אינו דומה מי שרואה ואוכל למי שאימו רואה ואוכל. אמר רב יוסף מכאן רמז לסומין שאוכלין ואין סבעין. אמר אביי הלכך מאן דאית לי' סעודתא לא ליכלה אלא ביממא (“One who sees and eats is not comparable to one who does not see and eats. Said Rav Yosef, 'From here [we find] an allusion to the blind, that they eat and are not satisfied.' Said Abbayei, 'Therefore one who has a meal should only eat it by day'”; יומא ע"ד: ע"ע ילקוט שמעוני רמז תת"נ ).
The miraculous man was eerie and unnatural in a number of ways. Not only did it descend daily from the Heavens (save on shabbath and yom tov, when a double portion fell the day before), but the man resembled in flavor whatever food the recipient desired, though visually it never changed, and was always the same undifferentiated stuff. Once consumed, it was completely absorbed into the body; there were no waste products to be excreted. No wonder that the longer they subsisted on this stuff, the more unsettled and uneasy the bënei Yisra’él grew (cf., e.g., Numbers XXI, 5, Rashi ad loc.).
And so Rashi explains that Rav Yoséf’s statement was based on אכילת המן, טועם טעם כל המינים ואינו רואה אלא מן (“eating the man; one tasted the flavors of all types [of food], but did not see anything but man”). Rav Yoséf made the ready connection to the experience of a blind man, since he himself was blind.
The unnerving spectacle of the ever shifting kaleidoscope of flavors associated with the same generalized substance apparently rendered it unsatisfying to the appetite, even though it took care of every nutritional need. This also serves to explain some of the otherwise inexplicable complaints about food which the Torah records that the bënei Yisra’él voiced in the desert (cf., e.g., Numbers XI, 1-8). Eventually, it came to be called lechem ha-qëloqél; note the emphatic reduplication of the word qal, “light, insubstantial” – “very light bread” (Numbers XXI, 5).
It is with this in mind that the Chida reads our passage. The initial verb in the verse, va-yë‘annë-cha, is active – “and He afflicted you”; it was G-d Himself Who had done the tormenting by means of the weird man, which they ate only because va-yar‘ivecha, “He starved you.”
Why? To drive home the lesson that there is only one, true, sustaining power in the cosmos, and that it does not matter whether one eats bread or meat or fruit or fish, ultimately it is all man, and all provided miraculously; על פי כל מוצא ד' יחי' האדם, according to what comes from the mouth of G-d does a person live.
The Maharsha comments on our Talmudic passage ואפי' בלילה לאור הנר (“and [one may eat] even at night by the light of a candle”), i.e. the shabbath and yom tov lights alleviate the discomfort and unease caused by being unable to discern what one is eating. Thus, the Maharsha serves to support the Chida’s conclusion concerning the midrash cited supra. There are three reasons for the custom of lighting candles on shabbath and yom tov: כבוד שבת ויו"ט, the honor of the sabbath and holidays; שלום בית, peace and harmony in the household; and עונג שבת ושמחת יו"ט, “the delight of the shabbath and joy of the holiday.” To eat a disquieting meal in pitch darkness would hardly contribute to either of the latter category, and might also affect the second category; hence, it is because of the sort of unease first experienced with the man that we light candles, as the midrash says.
D.
As we now find ourselves in the second of the weeks of consolation which follow on the wrenching emotions of the Three Weeks from 17 Tammuz, when the walls of the Holy City were breached, to 9 Av, when the siege was over and the Temple set afire, it seems fitting to mention another Talmudic context in which our passage occurs: תניא ר' אליעזר אומר כתיב הכא "ויענך וירעיבך ויאכילך" וכתיב התם "שמחנו כימות עניתנו שנות ראינו רעה", מכאן לימות המשיח שהם ארבעים שנה (“It is taught, R’ Eli‘ezer says, It is written here, ‘And He tormented you and starved you and fed you’, and it is written there, ‘We shall rejoice completely according to the says You tormented us, the years we saw evil’ [Psalms XC, 16]; whence [we learn] concerning the days of Mashiach that they are forty years”; סנהדרין צ"ט.).
The Torah Tëmima explains Rabbi Eli‘ezer’s reference in light of what Chazal tell us about the Anointed King, as summarized by Rambam, that we shall recognize him in a lineal, paternal descendant of King David who will restore the royal dynasty in Jerusalem, build the Bayith Shëlishi, gather in the dispersed of Israel from all parts of the earth, re-establish the Sanhedrin and the rule of halacha in all spheres of our national life, and reinaugurate the sacrificial service.
This, says Rabbi Eli‘ezer, will be accomplished during a period spanning forty years, commensurate with the שנות ראינו רעה, the years of privation and hardship in the desert, and thereafter we shall see the final gë’ula, the final redemption of which the prophets of Israel speak.
Our haftara this week assures us that all the travail of this long and bitter exile will prove to have been worth it, that however small the remnant of faithful Israel at its end, we shall yet all see that redemption. It concludes: שמעו אלי רדפי צדק מבקשי ד' הביטו אל צור חצבתם ואל מכבת בור נקרתם: הביטו אל אברהם אביכם ואל שרה תחוללכם כי אחד קראתיו ואסרכהו וארבהו: כי נחם ד' ציון נחם כל חרבותי' וישם מדברה כעדן וערבתה כגן ד' ששון ושמחה ימצא בה תודה וקול זמרה: (“Listen to Me, pursuers of justice and seekers of Ha-Shem, look to the rock whence you were carved, the quarry whence you were cut. Look to Avraham your father and to Sara who bore you, for [he was] one [when] I called him, and I blessed him and made him many. For Ha-Shem will comfort Tziyyon completely, He will comfort all her ruins and make her desert like ‘Eden and her wasteland like the garden of Ha-Shem; rejoicing and joy will be found in it, thanksgiving and the sound of music”; Isaiah LI, 1-3).
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