(1) Setting out from Elim, the whole Israelite community came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. (2) In the wilderness, the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. (3) The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Eternal in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, when we ate our fill of bread! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to starve this whole congregation to death.” (4) And the Eternal said to Moses, “I will rain down bread for you from the sky, and the people shall go out and gather each day that day’s portion—that I may thus test them, to see whether they will follow My instructions or not. (5) But on the sixth day, when they apportion what they have brought in, it shall prove to be double the amount they gather each day.”
(13) In the evening quail appeared and covered the camp; in the morning there was a fall of dew about the camp. (14) When the fall of dew lifted, there, over the surface of the wilderness, lay a fine and flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. (15) When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?”—for they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “That is the bread which the Eternal has given you to eat..."
(19) And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over until morning.” (20) But they paid no attention to Moses; some of them left of it until morning, and it became infested with maggots and stank. And Moses was angry with them. (21) So they gathered it every morning, each as much as he needed to eat; for when the sun grew hot, it would melt. (22) On the sixth day they gathered double the amount of food, two omers for each; and when all the chieftains of the community came and told Moses, (23) he said to them, “This is what the Eternal meant: Tomorrow is a day of rest, a holy sabbath of the Eternal. Bake what you would bake and boil what you would boil; and all that is left put aside to be kept until morning.” (24) So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered; and it did not turn foul, and there were no maggots in it. (25) Then Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a sabbath of the Eternal; you will not find it today on the plain. (26) Six days you shall gather it; on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none.”
(3) God subjected you to the hardship of hunger and then gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had ever known, in order to teach you that no one lives on bread alone, but that all may live on anything that the Eternal decrees.
(יז) וַיּוֹסִ֣יפוּ ע֭וֹד לַחֲטֹא־ל֑וֹ לַֽמְר֥וֹת עֶ֝לְי֗וֹן בַּצִּיָּֽה׃ (יח) וַיְנַסּוּ־אֵ֥ל בִּלְבָבָ֑ם לִֽשְׁאׇל־אֹ֥כֶל לְנַפְשָֽׁם׃ (יט) וַֽיְדַבְּר֗וּ בֵּאלֹ֫הִ֥ים אָ֭מְרוּ הֲי֣וּכַל אֵ֑ל לַעֲרֹ֥ךְ שֻׁ֝לְחָ֗ן בַּמִּדְבָּֽר׃ (כ) הֵ֤ן הִכָּה־צ֨וּר ׀ וַיָּז֣וּבוּ מַיִם֮ וּנְחָלִ֢ים יִ֫שְׁטֹ֥פוּ הֲגַם־לֶ֭חֶם י֣וּכַל תֵּ֑ת אִם־יָכִ֖ין שְׁאֵ֣ר לְעַמּֽוֹ׃ (כא) לָכֵ֤ן ׀ שָׁמַ֥ע יְהֹוָ֗ה וַֽיִּתְעַ֫בָּ֥ר וְ֭אֵשׁ נִשְּׂקָ֣ה בְיַעֲקֹ֑ב וְגַם־אַ֝֗ף עָלָ֥ה בְיִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ (כב) כִּ֤י לֹ֣א הֶ֭אֱמִינוּ בֵּאלֹהִ֑ים וְלֹ֥א בָ֝טְח֗וּ בִּישֽׁוּעָתֽוֹ׃ (כג) וַיְצַ֣ו שְׁחָקִ֣ים מִמָּ֑עַל וְדַלְתֵ֖י שָׁמַ֣יִם פָּתָֽח׃ (כד) וַיַּמְטֵ֬ר עֲלֵיהֶ֣ם מָ֣ן לֶאֱכֹ֑ל וּדְגַן־שָׁ֝מַ֗יִם נָ֣תַן לָֽמוֹ׃ (כה) לֶ֣חֶם אַ֭בִּירִים אָ֣כַל אִ֑ישׁ צֵידָ֬ה שָׁלַ֖ח לָהֶ֣ם לָשֹֽׂבַע׃ (כו) יַסַּ֣ע קָ֭דִים בַּשָּׁמָ֑יִם וַיְנַהֵ֖ג בְּעֻזּ֣וֹ תֵימָֽן׃ (כז) וַיַּמְטֵ֬ר עֲלֵיהֶ֣ם כֶּעָפָ֣ר שְׁאֵ֑ר וּֽכְח֥וֹל יַ֝מִּ֗ים ע֣וֹף כָּנָֽף׃ (כח) וַ֭יַּפֵּל בְּקֶ֣רֶב מַחֲנֵ֑הוּ סָ֝בִ֗יב לְמִשְׁכְּנֹתָֽיו׃ (כט) וַיֹּאכְל֣וּ וַיִּשְׂבְּע֣וּ מְאֹ֑ד וְ֝תַאֲוָתָ֗ם יָבִ֥א לָהֶֽם׃
(17) But they went on sinning against God, defying the Most High in the parched land. (18) To test God was in their mind when they demanded food for themselves. (19) They spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a feast in the wilderness? (20) True, God struck the rock and waters flowed, streams gushed forth; but can God provide bread? Supply the people with meat?” (21) The Eternal heard and raged; fire broke out against Jacob, anger flared up at Israel, (22) because they did not put their trust in God, did not rely on divine deliverance. (23) So God commanded the skies above, opened the doors of heaven (24) and rained manna upon them for food, giving them heavenly grain. (25) Each person ate a hero’s meal; God sent them provision in plenty. (26) God set the east wind moving in heaven, and drove the south wind with divine might. (27) Rained meat on them like dust, winged birds like the sands of the sea, (28) making them come down inside God's camp, around God's dwelling-place. (29) They ate till they were sated; God gave them what they craved.
Man hu - Rashi explains that this is the language of appointing, as it says: "And God appointed a big fish" (Jonah 2) "and the king appointed for them" (Daniel 1) but that doesn't seem right to me, because they didn't know what it was, so how could they have called it by their name? But in fact they hadn't yet given it a name. And also they didn't know it had been appointed for them. And thus it seems to me that 'Man' in the Egyptian language is like 'Mah - what' in Hebrew. They were asking each other "what is it?" because they didn't know what it was. Therefore they asked until Moses explained to them that it was the bread, thereupon they called it Manna from that day on.
It was 1968, just a few months after the end of the Six-Day War, when Avinoam Danin, the late professor of botany, embarked on an expedition to the Sinai Desert, the historic land recently taken by Israel from Egypt. Danin and his colleagues at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem noticed white drops on the green stem of a desert shrub. The plant, Haloxylon salicornicum, is found all over the Middle East. “We asked a passing Bedouin: ‘What is this?’” Danin wrote many years later in an article published on the website Flora of Israel Online. The Bedouin responded: “This is mann-Rimth that you ate when you left Egypt.” The Rimth shrub is the Bedouin name for the Haloxylon salicornicum. Was this the answer, Danin wondered, to a thousands-years-old mystery about the miraculous food from heaven that sustained the people of Israel on their way to the promised land?...
The description of manna in the Bible matches what Danin found in the Sinai Desert. He soon discovered that the white drops on the shrub’s stems were the digestive byproduct of insects that feed on the plant’s sap, known as honeydew. The secretion, formed at night, is loaded with sugar. The sweet liquid hardens to the form of white granules and is still collected from spring to early fall in many places in the Middle East today....
But although we cannot be certain which plant produced the “bread from heaven” that the Jewish people ate on their journey, we do know that “manna” is still harvested and used in parts of Iran and Iraq. The word refers to either sweet sap of any plant (tree or bush) that appears in the region or the secretion from insects that feed on trees such as the tamarisk. Modern chefs in the United States have also begun to experiment with it. Recently, chef Todd Gray of Manna restaurant in the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC used manna imported from Iran as a delicate garnish. Still, this is rare, since sanctions on Iran make it almost impossible to import.
If you visit Iraq, you can try mann al-sama (manna from heaven, or in Arabic, from the sky), a chewy, white, nougat-like confection spiced with cardamom and mixed with nuts. Traditionally, it was prepared with manna gathered beneath the tamarisk trees, which is naturally mixed with leaves and impurities from the ground. It is cleaned by boiling and straining through a sieve and then shaped into balls. According to Nawal Nasrallah’s Delights from the Garden of Eden, the time-consuming task of making mann al-sama was the specialty of Jewish confectioners in Baghdad, who called it baba kadrasi. These days, the candy is rarely made with manna but is prepared instead with a more readily available and affordable mixture of sugar and egg whites.
