Mahn, berur, and the Tree of Life

והנה כתיב כמתאוננים רע כו'.

Now it is written, "like those who complain of evil" (Bamidbar 11:1).

The Torah describes the people as complainers; the Sefas Emes will explain that their complaint was not simple wickedness but something subtler.

ביאור הענין כי בודאי לא הי' מחשבותם להרע.

The explanation of the matter is that surely their intent was not to do evil.

Their inner motivation was not rebellion or malice against Hashem.

רק שרצו בחי' עץ הדעת טוב ורע כמו חטא הראשון.

Rather, they desired the aspect of the Eitz HaDaas (Tree of Knowledge) of good and evil, like the first sin.

Like Adam, they craved the realm of moral choice and discernment between good and evil — wanting to refine the world through their own daas (knowledge) rather than simply clinging to Hashem.

ובאמת עתה אחר החטא שנתערב טוב ורע בעולם אין הנפש יכול להתתקן רק בכח הבירור.

And in truth, now, after the sin — when good and evil have become intermingled in the world — the nefesh can be rectified only through the power of berur (sifting and clarification).

Since the cheit of Adam mixed good and evil together, the lower soul can no longer be perfected passively; it must do the work of separating good from bad.

וזה רמז הפסוק גם בלא דעת נפש לא טוב.

This is the hint of the pasuk, "Also, without daas the nefesh is not good" (Mishlei 19:2).

The nefesh requires daas — the capacity to discern — in order to attain its good.

מאי גם.

What is the meaning of "also"?

The extra word "gam" (also) signals an additional, deeper point.

רק להיות כי עיקר הרצון הי' שיתדבק האדם בעץ החיים תורה וחקים ומצות שהוא למעלה מהשגת דעת האדם.

It is because the primary ratzon (will of Hashem) was that a person cling to the Eitz HaChaim — Torah, chukim, and mitzvos — which is above the grasp of human daas.

The ideal is for a person to bind himself to the Tree of Life, the Torah, which transcends his own intellect entirely; that is the higher path.

אבל עתה אין הנפש בטוב רק ע"י הדעת.

But now the nefesh attains its good only by means of daas.

"Also" (gam) hints that beyond the ideal path of pure clinging, there is now a second, lower route: the nefesh must reach its good through discernment.

ואכילת לחם מן הארץ הוא הדעת המברר בין טוב ורע ובורר אוכל מתוך פסולת כמ"ש בגמ' אין תינוק יודע לקרוא אבא ואימא עד שטועם טעם דגן.

The eating of bread from the earth is this daas that sifts between good and evil and separates food from waste, as the Gemara says: an infant does not know how to call "Abba" and "Imma" until he tastes the taste of grain (Berachos 40a).

Earthly bread, grown from the soil, symbolizes the labor of berur — sorting the edible from the refuse. Just as grain awakens a child's awareness, so the "bread of the land" represents the daas that comes through engaging with a mixed world.

וכן אין מרחיקין מצואת קטן עד שאוכל כזית דגן שבלחם מן הארץ מתערב פסולת.

Likewise, one does not distance oneself from an infant's waste until he eats a kezayis of grain — for in bread from the earth, waste becomes mixed in.

Earthly food inherently contains pesoles (waste matter); only once grain is eaten does the child's body produce real refuse. This shows that "bread from the earth" belongs to the realm of mixed good and bad.

וכמו כן בע"ח שהם גדולי קרקע ונזונין מעשב הארץ.

And likewise the animals, which are products of the ground and are nourished from the grass of the earth.

Living creatures too draw their sustenance from the earth, and so they belong to this lower, intermixed order.

אבל לחם מן השמים הוא בלי פסולת.

But bread from heaven is without any waste.

The Mahn (manna), bread from Shomayim, contained no refuse at all — it belonged to a pure, unmixed realm.

ובאמת האדם כולל כל המדריגות.

In truth, the human being encompasses all the levels.

Man is a microcosm, containing within himself every rung of creation.

כדאיתא שיש צורה וחומר.

As it is taught, that there is tzurah (form) and chomer (matter).

Creation is built of form and matter — the spiritual and the physical.

פשוט ומורכב.

Simple and composite.

There is the simple, unmixed substance and the composite, compounded one.

והאדם יש בו נר"נ כולל כל המדריגות.

And in man there is Nefesh, Ruach, and Neshamah — encompassing all the levels.

The three levels of the soul span the entire range, from the highest spiritual to the level closest to the body.

ונפש שהיא מדריגה התחתונה יש בה שייכות להגוף המורכב ע"י נפש בהמיות שבו.

And the nefesh, which is the lowest level, has a connection to the composite body by way of the nefesh habahamis (animal soul) within it.

The lowest level of the soul, the nefesh, links to the physical, compounded body through its animating, animalistic dimension.

וע"ז מי יודע רוח בני האדם כו'.

Of this it is said, "Who knows the spirit of the children of man…" (Koheles 3:21).

The lower spirit, bound to the body, is the place where this hidden struggle of refinement occurs.

פי' שכאן מקום הדעת ובירור כנ"ל.

That is, here is the place of daas and berur, as above.

It is precisely on this lowest level, where soul meets body, that the work of discernment and sifting takes place.

והמן לחם שמלאכי השרת אוכלין.

And the Mahn is the bread that the ministering angels eat (Yoma 75b).

The manna is angelic food — belonging to a realm above the body's struggles.

והוא חומר פשוט.

And it is simple matter.

The Mahn is "simple" substance, uncompounded and pure.

רק כשהשפע בא בכח הקרקע מורכב הוא מד' יסודות.

It is only when the shefa (divine flow) comes through the power of the earth that it becomes composite, made of the four elements.

When divine sustenance passes through the ground, it gets compounded into the four elements and thereby acquires waste; the Mahn, bypassing the earth, did not.

אבל כשקיבלו מן השמים שהוא חומר פשוט לא הי' בו פסולת לכן כתיב לבן.

But when they received it from Shomayim, which is simple matter, it had no waste; therefore it is written that it was white (lavan) (Shemos 16:31).

Because the Mahn came directly from heaven as pure, simple substance, it had no pesoles, and so the Torah describes it as white.

וכ' תופל ולבן שתפלו על המן שהי' לבן.

And it is written, "Tofel and Lavan" (Devarim 1:1) — that they cast aspersions (taflu) upon the Mahn, which was white (lavan).

Chazal read these place-names as a rebuke: the people "found fault" with the white Mahn.

פי' לבן הוא פשוט שמקבל אח"כ כל הגוונין.

The meaning: white (lavan) is the simple, which can afterward receive all the colors.

White symbolizes pure, undifferentiated simplicity — a blank potential able to take on every hue, just as the Mahn could taste of anything.

אבל באמת הנפש צריך בירור הנ"ל.

But in truth the nefesh requires the aforementioned berur.

Yet the lower soul still needs its work of sifting and cannot be satisfied by purity alone.

וז"ש נפשנו יבשה.

This is the meaning of "our nefesh is dried out" (Bamidbar 11:6).

The people sensed that their nefesh — the level that thrives on berur — was being "starved," because the Mahn gave it no material to refine.

ואמרנו זכרנו את הדגה כו' נאכל במצרים.

And we said, "We remember the fish… that we ate in Mitzrayim" (Bamidbar 11:5).

They longed for the earthly food of Egypt, which engaged the nefesh in discernment.

פי' במצרים נעשה בירור הדעת הנ"ל והי' הכנה שיכנסו אח"כ לארץ ישראל ויבררו הלחם מן הארץ.

That is, in Mitzrayim the aforementioned berur of daas took place, and it was a preparation so that they would afterward enter Eretz Yisrael and refine the bread from the earth.

The Egyptian galus was itself a training in berur — refining sparks from impurity — preparing Bnei Yisrael for the avodah of the Land, where they would elevate earthly food.

וז"ש אשר נאכל שבכח יצ"מ זכו לידע ולברר זה המאכל.

This is the meaning of "which we ate" — that by the power of Yetzias Mitzrayim they merited to know and to sift this food.

The Exodus gave them the capacity of daas to engage and refine the physical world.

אכן בדור המדבר כתיב אני אמרתי אלקים אתם והיו מוכנים להתדבק בעץ החיים.

However, of the generation of the midbar it is written, "I said, you are angels (elohim)" (Tehillim 82:6), and they were prepared to cling to the Eitz HaChaim.

The Dor HaMidbar stood on a far higher level — fit to bind themselves directly to the Tree of Life, the Torah, above the realm of berur.

והנה ארבעים שנה היו נזונים מן המן שביצ"מ נעשו כברי' חדשה וכמו תינוק יונק משדי אמו קודם שיש בו כח לעכל המאכל לברר אוכל מתוך פסולת.

For forty years they were nourished by the Mahn, for through Yetzias Mitzrayim they became as new creations — like an infant nursing from his mother's breast before he has the strength to digest solid food and to separate food from waste.

Reborn at the Exodus, the generation was spiritually like a newborn, fed the pure "milk" of the Mahn because it was not yet meant to engage in the heavier labor of refining earthly food.

כן בנ"י כתיב שני שדיך כו' שבזכות משה ואהרן נזונו מלחם מן השמים שעוד לא היו בכח לברר לחם מן הארץ.

So too regarding Bnei Yisrael it is written, "your two breasts…" (Shir HaShirim 4:5) — for in the merit of Moshe and Aharon they were nourished with bread from heaven, since they did not yet have the strength to refine bread from the earth.

Moshe and Aharon are the "two breasts" that nursed the people with the pure heavenly Mahn, sustaining them while they were still spiritual infants.

ואם היו נמשכין אחריהן בתמימות היו מתקנין כל חטא האדם.

And had they followed them with temimus (wholehearted simplicity), they would have rectified the entire sin of Adam.

Had the people clung in pure faith to this heavenly path, they would have repaired the original cheit and restored the world to the Eitz HaChaim.

אבל הם היו מתאוננים על חסרון בחי' הבירור עץ הדעת טוב ורע שניטל מהם.

But they complained over the lack of the aspect of berur — the Eitz HaDaas of good and evil — which had been taken from them.

Their complaint was precisely that they missed the work of discernment; they wanted the Tree of Knowledge back, not realizing that the higher path of pure clinging was greater.

לכן כתיב כמתאוננים רע שהגם שלא כוונו להרע ח"ו רק על בירור טוב ורע.

Therefore it is written, "like those who complain of evil" — for although they did not intend evil, chas v'shalom, but only sought the sifting of good and evil…

The word "like" softens the charge: their intent was not wicked, only a misplaced craving for the realm of moral discernment.

סוף סוף בחרו במקום זה שיש בו תערובות טו"ר.

…ultimately, they chose this place that contains a mixture of good and evil.

By desiring the Eitz HaDaas, they were in effect choosing the lower, intermixed world over the pure heavenly one — and that itself was the failing.

והמן הי' למעלה מבחי' הנ"ל.

And the Mahn was above the aforementioned aspect.

The manna transcended the entire realm of good-and-evil mixture.

לכן כתיב בי' לא ידעו מה כו'.

Therefore it is written of it, "they did not know what it was" (Shemos 16:15).

Because the Mahn was above human daas, it could not be "known" — it belonged to a level beyond grasp.

את המן אשר לא ידעת כו':

"…the Mahn which you did not know" (Devarim 8:3).

The Mahn's very inscrutability testifies that it came from the realm of the Eitz HaChaim, above the daas of good and evil — the path the people were meant to embrace.

Summary: The complaint at Kivros HaTaavah was not outright wickedness but a craving for the Eitz HaDaas — the avodah of berur, sifting good from evil in the earthly world. The Mahn, "bread from heaven," was pure simple substance from the Eitz HaChaim, above all daas; the Dor HaMidbar was nursed on it like infants, and had they clung to it in temimus they would have rectified Adam's sin. By longing instead for earthly food and the work of discernment, they chose the lower, intermixed realm over the higher path of pure dveikus.