The Miracle of the Mahn - Then and Now (Repost)

Author's note - This is a repost from Parshas Beshalach in 2009. Enjoy!

ויאמר ה' אל משה, הנני ממטיר לכם לחם מן השמים ויצא העם ולקטו דבר יום ביומו למען אנסנו הילך בתורתי אם לא 

The Midrash tells us (Mechilta Shmos 16:3):

דבר יום ביומו - מי שברא יום ברא פרנסתו מכאן היה ר' אלעזר המודעי אומר כל מי שיש לו מה יאכל היום ואומר מה אוכל למחר הרי זה מחוסרי אמנה שנאמר למען אנסנו הילך בתורתי אם לא

Dvar yom b'yomo - He who created "day" likewise created [each man's] livelihood. From here Rabi Eliezer HaModai would say, "Anyone who has what to eat today and asks 'What will I eat tomorrow?' is from those who lack belief, as it is written, 'So that I may test them to see if they go in the way of my Torah or not.'"

ר' יהושע אומר שונה אדם שתי הלכות בשחרית ושתים בערבית ועוסק במלאכתו כל היום מעלין עליו כאלו קיים כל התורה כולה מכאן היה ר' שמעון בן יוחאי אומר לא נתנה תורה לדרוש אלא לאוכלי המן הא כיצד היה יושב ודורש ולא היה יודע מהיכן אוכל ושותה ומהיכן היה לובש ומכסה לא נתנה תורה לדרוש אלא לאוכלי המן

Rabi Yehoshua says, "A person can merely review two Halachot each morning and two each evening and engage in his crafts all day long and it can be considered as if he sustained the entire Torah."

From here Rabi Shimon ben Yochai would say, "The Torah was only allowed to be expounded by those who subsist on the mahn (i.e., those who do not need to be distracted by their personal necessities). How is this applied? Can one sit and expound while he [is concerned that he] does not know from where he will he will eat and drink and from where he will dress and cover? (I.e., such a person cannot have a clear mind to expound in Torah.) [But, in truth,] the Torah was only allowed to be expounded by those who subsist on the mahn."

Who are theאוכלי המן  of today?

To answer this question, I am going to post the story of Perl the Peanut-Woman.

This story comes from a book that I found laying around my house when I was a kid. I say that it was found laying around the house meaning that I had no idea it was there until I chanced across it. Nobody ever read to me or my siblings out of the book and nobody ever mentioned that the book exists or referred to anything that it says. My siblings did not know about it, either. I have no idea how it even got into our house as it certainly was not bought new. I just happened to come across it sitting on some shelf one day and I opened it up and couldn't close it. And I have saved it as a treasure.

The book is a collection of very inspiring childrens' stories about G-d fearing Jews who were quite ordinary and quite extraordinary at the same time. Each story bespoke how these people displayed enormous courage and strength of character in the most adverse of circumstances. I have never stopped wondering if these stories are based on actual people but, as Moshe Yess says about his Zaidy character, it is certainly "partly about my bubby and zaidy and partly about yours".

The title of the book is Kasriel the Watchman and Other Stories. It was written in English in the early part of the 20th century by a man who called himself Rufus Learsi. Rufus Learsi is backward for Israel Sufur (Sofer?) but I discovered that his real name was Israel Goldberg. He was a historian and an ardent Zionist. It is difficult to determine from his later writings to what extent he was observant of Torah and Mitzvos but one thing is certain - he had a full-scale "chareidi" education.

The book tells tales about a number of characters including Kasriel the Watchman, Feivel the Fiddler, Jakie and Ruby, and Perl the Peanut-Woman. Perl was an elderly widow who had immigrated to America after the death of her husband and was spending her waning years living alone in a boarding house on the Lower East Side. She supported herself by selling peanuts at a local park and so she was known as Perl the Peanut-Woman. Despite her infirmities and her loneliness she was always in high spirits and a most selfless and G-d fearing woman. She would look after the sick and stand up for the orphans. She was the official “sounding board” for anybody's troubles and she would always delight the neighborhood children with her stories. And all her stories were about "hers" - her late husband, her "Talmid Chacham".

Her sole comfort in life was to reminisce over her early years of glory. And what was her glory? To earn the necessities and keep home so that her husband could be free to do nothing but learn Torah.

This book was first published in the United States in 1925!!

1925! And in in all my 50 some odd years I have not seen a children's book in English that so aptly characterizes genuine Yiddishkeit. I was just so fascinated to see that in 1920s America, Jewish childrens' books, of which there were not many (in English, for certain) were promoting Torah values that only became popular decades later. And this, written by a renown Zionist activist! Incidentally, the author, who published the book in 1925, calls the book A medley of childhood memories as he dedicates it to his mother.

So now I present one chapter from the Perl the Peanut-Woman section of this book. It tells over the Rabi Shimon ben Yochai's message of the opening Midrash:

The ability to expound the Torah was only given to those who subsist on mahn.

And it tells a second message:

The ability to subsist on mahn was only given to those who expound the Torah.

(Copyright is held by the Jewish Publication Society of Philadelphia until 2020)

A MANNA SABBATH MEAL

ON FRIDAY night, when, after the lighting and blessing of the candles, Perl the Peanut-Woman sits down in the new-cleaned parlor of the house where she boards and waits for the return of the men-folk from synagogue, her appearance is so changed that she might be taken for a different woman. The red bandanna kerchief has made way for a bright black wig; in place of the red waist and green skirt she has put on a glossy brown dress; but above all, her face seems to have grown fresher, smoother, younger. The other women-folk sit in the parlor with her, the children crowd and chatter around her. That hour between the completion of the Sabbath preparations and the home-coming of the men from synagogue has such wonderful power and peace that it alone seems sufficient to bring rest from all the fatigues of the week's labors.

That hour, especially, brings to Perl hosts of memories of her toilsome past, memories made holy by the figure of him, her pious and learned husband whom she used to maintain in the study of the Law. A stranger in a strange house and strange land, she nevertheless loves to beguile herself by making all the Sabbath preparations every Friday, and waiting expectantly for the men to come back from synagogue, just as though her own would be among them.

To the children of the house and of the neighbors she has deeply endeared herself, and they come and make her tell stories of her past glory. Without knowing it, she often tells them the same ones over again, but they all listen with attentive faces and make believe it is all new and wonderful. And if any there are inclined to smile secretly or openly, little Jakie the newsboy threatens heavy punishment. For Jakie is Perl's most ardent friend, and often plays hooky from synagogue in order to sit with her.

"The `apikorsim', the unbelievers, these days, make fun of everything", says Perl but that is because mine, peace unto him, is no longer living. In his day he did things which would make them stop laughing fast enough."

Then all the children know they may expect a story of the wonderful powers of "hers", peace unto him.

"I am an ignorant woman," begins Perl; “but he, mine, taught me one chapter in the Scriptures, the one you will hear the men say when they return in a little while. It begins like this: ‘A woman of valor who can find her? For her price is far above rubies.' That chapter he made me learn because, he used to say, the great King Solomon had written it in my honor! And on Friday nights when he returned from synagogue and sang that chapter after his Sabbath greeting, he kept looking at me all the time, and my heart melted with happiness and pride.

"But, one Friday night—do you hear, kinderlach?—instead of pleasure I felt only pain and shame. What the trouble was? The trouble was a very great trouble. There was nothing to eat. I had worked and slaved like a horse that week, but the peasants had asked unheard-of prices, the mistresses refused to buy, competition was plentiful, and even old debts I was unable to collect. So all I could prepare for that Sabbath was some white bread and a soup seasoned with a piece of fat I had gotten from one of the cooks. You can imagine what kind of soup it must have been! Very bad, no? Well, just wait and see.

"Mine, peace unto him, enters with his Sabbath greetings as usual and begins the 'Woman of Valor,' walking up and down and stopping often to look at me and smile. I sat like a stone and would have liked the earth to open under me and swallow me. Mind you, I understood everything he was saying in the Holy Tongue. Finally, when he came to the verse `She is like the merchant-ships; she bringeth her food from afar', I could bear it no longer. The shame came up to my very heart and I began to cry bitterly.

"He, my Talmid-Chochem,—be the memory of the righteous for a blessing—just looked at me once—no more—and he knew everything at once. But he went right on and finished the 'Woman of Valor' right up to the end, just as though I deserved all the praise that was in it. But something there came into his face, I noticed, as if an angel from God had touched it. And I felt in my heart that something great, some miracle, was going to happen.

"He made Kiddush over the two white loaves, and when he tasted the first morsel his face just beamed with wonder.

“‘A taste like Paradise!' he said and smacked his lips. I took some after him, and I couldn't understand how the white bread, which I had made without even one egg, could taste like the best egg-cake I had ever eaten.

"'Perele,' says he to me again, 'tonight you will stay in your seat and I will do the serving.'

"Of course, I was going to protest, but, as I said before, he looked so strange, so serious, that I obeyed without a word.

"Then he takes one of the loaves, cuts off two slices, puts them into plates, keeps one for himself, gives me the other, and says:
“`Fish! Gefillte fish!'

“`Ah, you are laughing? Laugh, laugh! You wouldn't have laughed if you had tasted it. To tell you it tasted like fish is nothing! It tasted like the best fish that was ever cooked!

"Mine, may his favor shield us, was no more the same man. I looked at him and I had to turn away my eyes. His face was shining. The Presence itself seemed to be resting on it.

"After fish comes meat. He cut off two more slices of white bread and says: `Meat, chicken meat.'

"You can laugh as much as you like. But it had the taste of real chicken. Mine tasted like the drumstick. After the meat be served the soup I had made,—and what was that I said before about the soup? Never mind, but that soup was no soup; it was the richest and sweetest broth ever set on table. The taste of it is even now in my mouth.

"He filled the plates again—I had made plenty of it—and took some of the white bread and broke it into the soup.

"' Tzimmes,' says he. `Turnip tzimmes!'

"Well, you think it's a joke, hey? But the tzimmes was like all the things that came before. It was sweet and well-seasoned and of the freshest turnips.

"That night, kinderlach, I was in such a state that I did not dare ask him any questions. And for weeks afterwards I felt too great an awe to speak to him about the wonders he brought about that Friday night. But there came a time when he explained it all to me. And now I shall see how you will laugh!

"Do you know, my wise ones, what the children of Israel ate in the desert? Manna, no? Well, and do you know what the taste of the manna was? Yes, it was like wafers made with honey, as the Holy Book tells us. But it was more, and you can ask any scholar about it. The taste of the Manna was like the taste of any kind of food that the one who ate it was longing for. There! Now will you laugh? Could not he, my Talmid-Chochem, bring to pass what the Children of Israel could pass in the desert?"

And the face of Perl the Peanut-Woman beams upon her audience with triumph and exultation.

Three Years of Parnassah…Up Front!

Firstly, I do want to apologize for not following up on my Shidduch Crisis post that I launched last spring. I do hope to get to it eventually but for now, I need to digress. I hope to follow the crude advice of Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel to "never let a crisis go to waste".

The Yomim Noraim of 5774 have come and gone. What did we daven for?

Well, if you are like me, a heartfelt entreaty for parnassah was probably at the top of the list. After all, the world economy in general and Yechezkel Hirshman's economy in particular are what we call here al hapanim (the pits). I mean really bad shape. My own trade deficit (income vs. outgo) rivals that of Uncle Sam. My income cannot cover my basic day to day expenses and I have been forced to supplement my meager earnings with reserve money to the point of near total depletion. Cutbacks and mounting short term debt have taken their toll. I have IOU notes in my cookie jar. Not to mention at least 3 offspring on the Shadchan's sights (getting back to the Shidduch crisis…)

Of course, the Yad Hashem is always evident. About six months back I calculated that I have enough reserve to keep me afloat until June. When June came around, a long overdue and hard fought payoff came through and I revised my calculation that I now have enough to hold me until Rosh Hashannah. To me this was quite significant because every Rosh Hashannah is another chance to reset the tables. I saw that HKBH's plan for me for 5773 was fulfilled. But what's in store for 5774?

So when the Days of Mercy came around three weeks ago, like so many others, I poured out my heart for financial salvation.

But it struck me recently that perhaps, we who live here in Eretz Yisrael didn't have to. For us, there is no need to worry about parnassah this year. For 5774, parnassah is guaranteed. GUARANTEED!

And not just one year of parnassah. Three years. Three whole years of parnassah to be dealt out in 5774. GUARANTEED!

Where is it guaranteed?

Right here in my chumash. In Vayikra 25:20,21. Here it clearly states:

וכי תאמרו מה נאכל בשנה השביעית הן לא נזרע ולא נאסף את תבואתנו: וציויתי את ברכתי לכם בשנה הששית ועשת את התבואה לשלש השנים:

Free translation:

And should you ask "What shall we eat on the seventh year? Alas, we cannot sow and we cannot gather our produce?" And I will order My blessing on the sixth year and it will yield its produce for the amount of three years.

That's right, for those who intend to uphold the laws of shemitta, we have a guarantee that on the sixth year the GDP will do a threefold performance and we'll pull in enough to keep us afloat for three whole years. What a deal!!

Of course this probably won't apply to everybody. There are those Jews who rely on the Hetter Mechira and by so doing, treat the seventh year like every other year.

In a previous post (see my post about Ki LiHaAretz - Eminent Domain), I wrote at length that the validity of the Hetter Mechira needs to be reviewed because some of the key factors that were used to justify it in the first place are no longer applicable. But regardless of whether it is still Halachically valid it may not be a good idea to rely on it.

Why?

Because it probably voids the guarantee.

You see, this guarantee is earmarked for people who ask: "What shall we eat on the seventh year? Alas, we cannot sow and we cannot gather our produce?"

G-d is making this guarantee for those who intend to follow the basic laws and not to sow and not to gather the produce. For those who will use Halachic loopholes to circumvent the prohibitions, I am sure G-d can find some loopholes in His guarantee.

So now, 5774, the sixth year of the cycle, is the time for all of us Jews living in E"Y to decide how we intend to keep the upcoming Shmitta year. The genuine way that comes with a three year guarantee or the convoluted way that doesn't.

Remember: הטורח בערב שבת הוא יאכל בשבת.

Now, I personally identify with the follow-the-rules-as-written (WYSIWYG) clan so I do hope that the guarantee applies to me. Of course, one may argue that this guarantee is only applicable to those who actually work the land, not to those who get their sustenance from Technical Writing or the benefits of a US based family business.

This may indeed be so. But since 5774 is indeed the sixth year of the cycle, people like me can always fall back on preservation plan B…

…5774 is a Maaser Ohni year!