Maghen Abraham - Thoughts From Mayer Sasson

The source of our sustenance

"And Moshe said, this is that which G-d commands – an Omer full of it is to be kept for your generations that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness when I brought you forth from… Egypt." (16, 32)

The Divrei Yisrael says that even after the Manna has ceased coming down from Heaven, G-d continues to bring sustenance to every Jew according to his level of faith in this, as he says: "Lo, the Manna is the source of sustenance for generations, so one's sustenance is always prepared for every person, as we say in the Grace After Meals, "and He prepares food for all his creations", as it says in the Midrash "The people sleep on their beds and G-d brings down rain and makes things grow and He prepares a table for every person… but not every one sees his sustenance equally, rather each one according to his level of faith – that is how he sees the sustenance that G-d has prepared for him. Just as it was with the Manna, so too is it always, the righteous people, the ones with faith, immediately in the morning when they open their houses, they see their sustenance ready for them from Heaven. The mediocre, the ones who don't have so much faith – bypass the sustenance that is ready for them and "go out and gather" – they have to go out and look in the markets and streets until they see and find their sustenance. The wicked, who do not have any faith, "wander and collect" – they have to wonder far away in long distances until they see and find their sustenance."

Accordingly, the Divrei Yisrael explains the verse, "And Moshe said, this is that which G-d commands – an Omer full of it is to be kept for your generations that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness when I brought you forth from …Egypt" - G-d said specifically "that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness when I brought you forth from the Land of Egypt" because each person's sustenance is prepared for him but not every person sees his sustenance and it depends on one's faith whose source is in the Manna which is the source of sustenance for all generations, and that is what the commandment, "an Omer full of it is to be kept for your generations" – we should implant in our hearts a faith for all generations "that they may see the bread" means – that we should see the sustenance that G-d has prepared, which depends on our faith."

This is what David Hamelech said, "All eyes look towards You and You give… their food in its due time – You open Your Hands… You satiate every living creature per his will." In other words, by our canceling our desire to find our sustenance with our own might, and instead looking towards G-d with great faith and eyes upwards towards G-d to feed us and give us sustenance – in this merit "You give them their food in their due time."

SHABBAT SHALOM!!!