A vort from the Rebbe on this week's parshah, Parshat Beshalach. In Parshat Beshalach, the Torah tells us that after the Yidden complained that they don't have any food, Hashem said, \"I'm going to give you the man.\" And from then on, every day man came down for the Yidden to eat. It says in Mechilta, this is written by the Tannaim, this is a commentary on Chumash, that לא ניתנה תורה לדרוש אלא לאוכלי המן, the Torah was given to darshan, to learn, only to those people who ate the man. Now, simple peshat, it would seem that the Mechilta is telling us that the Torah was given only to the Jews that lived in the desert at that time. The Torah was only given to the אוכלי המן. The only ones that are able to darshan the Torah is the people who ate the man, the people who got the man in the midbar, only for them the Torah was given. But you can't say that that's the peshat, because the Torah was given to all generations. Wasn't only given to the Yidden at that time, the 40 years in the desert, it was given to all the Yidden. So, must be a deeper meaning.

So, some meforshim say what the peshat is, that the Torah was given only to people who are similar to the אוכלי המן, similar to the people who ate the man. Just like the people who ate the man had no worries on their mind, they didn't have to worry for a livelihood, they didn't have to worry where they're going to get food, because the Eibershter gave them the food every day, the man. They didn't have to worry about water, because they had the בארה של מרים, the water from the well of Miriam. They didn't even have to worry about their clothes, because it says their clothes grew with them. It says ענני הכבוד even pressed and cleaned their clothes that they were wearing. They didn't have to worry about protection, because the cloud, the ענני הכבוד protected them. So, they had no worries. So, that's what the Mechilta means, that the Torah was given to darshan to those people who have no worries, like the אוכלי המן, like the people in the desert that ate the man. But the truth is that that's also is not the complete pshat. Because what about a person who does have worries? A person who has to work for a living, and he has to worry about where he's going to get his parnassah, where he's going to get his money, etc., etc. He is not obligated to learn Torah? The Torah was not given to him? If you look in Hilchot Talmud Torah, every Yid, no matter what situation is, have to learn Torah.

So, the Rebbe's pshat says that the pshat is what the Mekhilta is telling us, which situation a person should be in, how should a person feel when he's going to learn Torah. When a person learns Torah, as much as he has worries, at that time he has to feel like the אוכלי המן. You have to take away all your worries from your mind, as if you have no worry in the world. And it might be that it's only a short while that you're learning, because most of the time you're busy looking for a parnassah. But that little time that you are spending to learn, the way you'll succeed is if you are, at that moment, like the אוכלי המן, like the people who ate the man, that you have no worries. All the worries should be taken out of your mind, and nothing should bother you at that moment, should focus only on the Torah that you're learning. The Rebbe expressed himself once, he says it should be like Shabbos. Imagine Shabbos, you're sitting and learning, and the phone rings. You don't care, you don't even have a thought, \"Maybe I should pick it up,\" chas v'shalom. It's Shabbos, and you can't do anything about it anyway, so doesn't bother you. So as if, and there's no worry, as if, and it says in Shulchan Aruch that on Shabbos you should feel כאילו כל מלאכתך עשויה, as if everything is done and you have no worries. The same thing the Mekhilta tells us, that the learning Torah, that everybody is obligated to learn Torah, even people have a lot of worries on their head. But when it comes to the learning time, it should be like אוכלי המן. You should be like a person who ate the man that had no worries. We should take away all our worries from our mind, and focus on the learning Torah, and then we will matzliach and learn Torah. And the truth is, the Eibershter helps that if that's what you do, the Eibershter takeh takes away the person's worries, and he has no worry at all, and this hastens the coming of Mashiach, when nobody is going to have worries because everything will be plenty, and we'll only be involved in learning about Hashem.