The miraculous bread from heaven that nourished Israel in the desert. A type of divine sustenance or “spiritual dew” symbolizing grace.
Ambrosia Amrita
Manna (Hebrew: מָן, romanized: mān, Greek: μάννα; Arabic: اَلْمَنُّ), sometimes or archaically spelled Mahna or Mana, is described in the Bible and the Quran as an edible substance that God bestowed upon the Israelites while they were wandering the desert during the 40-year period that followed the Exodus and preceded the conquest of Canaan.
in the Book of Exodus, manna is described as being "a fine, flake-like thing" like the frost on the ground.[1] It is described in the Book of Numbers as arriving with the dew during the night.[2] Exodus adds that it had to be collected before it was melted by the heat of the Sun[3] and that it was like a coriander seed in size, but white in colour.
Numbers describes it as having the appearance of bdellium[5] adding that the Israelites ground it and pounded it into cakes, which were then baked, resulting in something that tasted like cakes baked with oil.[6] Exodus states that raw manna tasted like wafers that had been made with honey.[4] The Israelites were instructed to eat only the manna they had gathered for each day. Stored manna "bred worms and stank",[7] the exception being that stored the day before the Sabbath (Preparation Day), when twice the amount of manna was gathered. This manna did not spoil overnight. Exodus 16:23–24 states:
This is what the LORD commanded: "Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning". So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it.
The Babylonian Talmud states that the differences in description were due to the taste varying depending on who ate it, with it tasting like honey for small children, like bread for youths, and like oil for the elderly.
They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. - John 6:30-35
In the Mishnah, manna is treated as a natural but unique substance, "created during the twilight of the sixth day of Creation",[29] and ensured to be clean, before it arrives, by the sweeping of the ground by a northern wind and subsequent rains.[30] According to classical rabbinical literature, manna was ground in a heavenly mill for the use of the righteous, but some of it was allocated to the wicked and left for them to grind themselves.
Exodus states that the Israelites consumed the manna for 40 years, starting from the fifteenth day of the second month (Iyar 15),[48] but that it then ceased to appear once they had reached a settled land, and once they had reached the borders of Canaan (inhabited by the Canaanites).[49] Form critics attribute this variation to the view that each expression of the manna ceasing derives from different lore; the "settled land" is attributed to the Priestly tradition,[24] and "Canaan's borders" to the Yahwist tradition, or to a hypothetical later redaction to synchronize the account with that of the Book of Joshua[24] which states that the manna ceased to appear on the day after the annual Passover festival (Nisan 14), when the Israelites had reached Gilgal.[50] The duration from Iyar 15 to Nisan 14, taken literally, is forty years less one month.