LESSON 45: Supernatural Channels

The difference between the two approaches is very distinct: it is a much greater miracle and source of joy to watch one omer of munn miraculously become two omers. For two omers of munn to not become one may also be miraculous, but it is also the kind of miracle for which the scientific world as a name: phenomenon. The event, according to all known rules, should not have occurred, but you can’t deny reality. You can only analyze it to understand the new rule the phenomenon teaches.
What was the message that the munn of Erev Shabbos was supposed to teach the Jewish people? That material success, for the Jew, ideally, should come through spiritual channels. For, the journey through the desert was all for the sake of preparing the Jewish people for living in Eretz Yisroel, and this lesson of the munn was the very underpinning of daily life in Eretz Yisroel, a place where material success comes through spiritual channels:

The land you are about to possess is not like Egypt from where you came, and in which, if you sowed seeds, you had to bring water to them as you would for a garden of green herbs. The land you are about to possess has mountains and deep valleys, and is watered by rain from the sky — a land which God, your God, cares for, God, your God pays attention to continuously the entire year. (Devarim 11:11-12)

It is a lesson about life that we struggle with to this very day. And, to make sure the point was not lost forever, it was repeated in the incident with the rock that Moshe was told to speak to in order to bring forth water for the thirsty Jewish nation (Bamidbar 20:1). At the end of the 40 years in the desert, poised to enter Eretz Yisroel, it was crucial to learn the lesson of “Yaish m’Ayin”.
Yaish M’Ayin, or “something from nothing”, is usually the term used to describe a crucial aspect of the Creation process. Historically, there was a time when nothing physical existed anywhere, just the completely spiritual light of God. And then, God made Creation, which is quite physical. That critical moment of time that God’s completely spiritual light created something physical is called “Yaish m’Ayin.”
Of course, “nothing” is a relative term. To a physical being, it’s as if the spiritual world doesn’t even exist, even though it is more “real” than the physical world. We can’t see it, touch it, smell it, or interact with it using any of our five, physical senses. That is not a limitation of the spiritual world, but of our five senses.
Physical solutions to physical problems begin in the spiritual realm. The Jewish people needed two portions of munn for Shabbos, which, as God had told Moshe, had already been set aside in the spiritual realm. This is what the gemora means when it says that, when it comes to the Jewish people, the remedy is prepared before the illness (Megillah 10b).
On Erev Shabbos, by saying the words, “This is for the honor of Shabbos” before collecting it, each Jew would have been able to draw that spiritual reality into the physical realm — on his own. The previous five days of the week, God did it for the nation.
Likewise, the first time Moshe Rabbeinu brought forth water from the rock, he struck it with his staff, a physical act. Even though it was a miracle, physical interaction to produce the water made it less so, more yaish m’yaish, something from something, so-to-speak. That time, it was only to provide water for a complaining, thirsty people.
However, the second time Moshe Rabbeinu brought forth water from the rock, it was to teach the Jewish people how blessing is accessed in Eretz Yisroel: yaish m’Ayin — directly from God, direct from the spiritual realm. By talking to the rock, a spiritual act, Moshe Rabbeinu was mimicking life in Eretz Yisroel.
Needless to say, just as the lesson was not taught through the munn, it was not taught through the incident with the rock either, forcing us to learn it the hard way, throughout history. Perhaps, our miraculous survival over the course of 3,319 very difficult years itself is meant to be the proof, that when it comes to the Jewish people, it is a matter of yaish m’Ayin — survival direct from the hand of God.
As the end of history approaches, you can expect to see life become a test, for the Jew, of belief in this concept. By anticipating it, and preparing for it, it will be a smoother transition, and a safer one, and a great source of merit in this world, and the next one.

Sunday, February 17, 2008