Manna And Creation's Roots

בפסוק ויאכילך את המן כו' לא על הלחם לבדו

Regarding the verse, "And He fed you the manna... so that He could make known to you that man does not live by bread alone" (Devarim 8:3).

The Sfas Emes opens with the pasuk about the manna, which teaches that man's true sustenance is not physical bread but something deeper.

דקשה כי סדר הבריאה הצומח מכח הדומם וכן הב"ח ניזון מהצומח

There is a difficulty here, for the order of creation is that the plant kingdom is nourished from the power of the inanimate (the mineral), and likewise the living creatures are nourished from the plant kingdom.

He raises a difficulty from the natural order: the mineral feeds the plant, and the plant feeds the animal, each level drawing nourishment from the one below it.

והמדבר מב"ח כי הוא מעלה את כולם

And the speaking being (man) is nourished from the living creatures, for he elevates them all.

Man stands at the top of this chain, eating from the animal world and thereby raising up all the lower levels of creation.

ואיך אכלו בנ"י המן

If so, how did Bnei Yisrael eat the manna?

Given this natural order, the question arises: how could Bnei Yisrael sustain themselves on manna alone, which is not part of that ordinary chain?

והי' לכאורה חסרון להבריאה דצ"ח

It would seemingly have been a deficiency in the chain of creation made up of the inanimate, the plant, and the living being.

Eating only manna would seem to break the system, leaving the mineral, plant, and animal levels with no one to elevate them.

אבל האמת הוא כי לכל הברואים יש שורש למעלה

But the truth is that all created things have a root Above.

The Sfas Emes answers that every created thing has a spiritual source rooted Above, beyond its physical form.

ובוודאי המן שהוא רוחניות המזון הי' נמצא [*בו] שורש דומם צומח חי והכלל כי כפי עמידת האדם כך נמשכו אחריו כל הברואים כי הוא נק' עולם קטן שכולל את כולם

And surely the manna, which is the spiritual essence of food, contained within it the root of the inanimate, the plant, and the living. The principle is that according to a person's spiritual standing, so are all the created things drawn after him, for he is called a "small world" (olam katan) that includes all of them within himself.

The manna, being the spiritual essence of food, already contained the roots of mineral, plant, and animal within it. The deeper principle is that a person draws all of creation after him according to his spiritual level, since man is a "small world" that contains everything.

וכשהוא בגשמיות צריך לאכול דצ"ח בגשמיות

When a person is in a physical state, he must eat the inanimate, the plant, and the living in their physical form.

When a person lives on a merely physical plane, he must consume mineral, plant, and animal in their coarse physical form.

וכשהיו בנ"י במעלה עליונה היו כלולין בהם שורשי דצ"ח כנ"ל

But when Bnei Yisrael were at an exalted spiritual level, the roots of the inanimate, the plant, and the living were included within them, as explained above.

But because Bnei Yisrael stood at such a lofty level, the very roots of mineral, plant, and animal were already contained within them, so they needed no physical chain of eating.

וז"ש על כל מוצא פי ה' פי' שאדם כולל שורשי הברואים כולם גם ברוחניותם עד שורש הראשון

And this is the meaning of "but by everything that comes forth from the mouth of Hashem does man live" (Devarim 8:3) — that man includes within himself the roots of all the created things, even in their spiritual dimension, all the way up to the very first root.

This explains the end of the pasuk: man truly lives by the word of Hashem, because within him are gathered the spiritual roots of all creation, reaching up to the first source.

שהרי כולם נמשכו ממוצא פי ה'

For indeed they were all drawn forth from that which comes forth from the mouth of Hashem.

Everything in creation ultimately flows from the word of Hashem, so it is through that word that man is sustained.

והבן:

And understand this.

The Sfas Emes closes by inviting the reader to contemplate this idea.

Summary: The Sfas Emes addresses how Bnei Yisrael could survive on the manna alone, when the natural order has man being nourished through the chain of mineral, plant, and animal, elevating each level as he consumes from it. He answers that every creation has a spiritual root Above, and the manna, as the spiritual essence of food, already contained the roots of mineral, plant, and living within it. The deeper principle is that man is a "small world" who draws all of creation after him according to his spiritual standing; when he lives physically he must eat physically, but when Bnei Yisrael stood at their exalted level, the roots of all creation were already included within them. Thus the pasuk teaches that man lives "by everything that comes forth from the mouth of Hashem," for the spiritual roots of all created things, traced back to their first source, are gathered within him.