In Parashas Behaalotcha, in קאפיטל י״א, the Torah tells us about the complaints the Yidden had in the desert against the man. And the pasuk says in קאפיטל י״א פסוק ז׳ that even though the Yidden complained against the man, the Torah testifies that the man was very good. And the pasuk says: והמן כזרע גד הוא ועינו כעין הבדולח, which means that the man was round like a coriander seed, and its appearance was appearance of crystal. And by this, the Torah is trying to reject the complaints of the Yidden. They complained that all they have is man, they have nothing else to eat but the man. So the Torah said, who cares if you have nothing to eat but the man? Look what the man is! Look how great the man is, how special the man is! The man was round like זרע גד, and the man, its appearance was like crystal. So lichorah we have to understand: When the Torah wants to tell us how special the man is, and therefore to reject the ta'anot of the Bnei Yisrael, why does the Torah do it by saying that the man was round, and by saying that the appearance of the man was like crystal? Who cares if it was round? Who cares what shape it had? What difference does it make, or what color it had? If the Torah would say that how could you complain against the man when the man tasted very good, then we could understand that this is an answer to their complaint. They complained that they have nothing to eat but the man, so Hashem says, but who cares, the man is very good. And as we know that the Chazal say that a Yid was able to taste in the man any taste that he wanted. So that's what the Torah should have said. But that's not what the Torah says. The Torah says that the reason the man is so special because the man was round like זרע גד, and it looked like crystal. Does that answer the טענות of the Bnei Yisrael? So we must say that within these words, the Torah hints to us the specialty of the מן, and therefore this is the real rejection of the טענות, of the complaints, of the Bnei Yisrael. Concerning the מן, we know, as we said before, the מן had all the tastes.

Another thing that Chazal say concerning the מן is that לא היה בו פסולת, the מן had no waste, which means that when they ate the מן, there was no waste. Normally when you eat food, part of it becomes blood and flesh of the person, it becomes the life of the person, and part of it is thrown out of the body because that's the waste. But the מן, לא היה בו פסולת, the מן had no waste. The reason the מן had no waste is very simple, because the מן was לחם מן השמים, it was bread from heaven, as the pasuk actually says in Parshat Beshalach, קאפיטל ט״ז פסוק ד׳, or as it says in Tehillim קאפיטל ע״ח פסוק כ״ד, it's called דגן שמים, the דגן, the grain of the heaven. And that's the reason why we find in some Rishonim that they used to make a bracha on the מן, and the bracha was המוציא לחם מן השמים. That's what it says in Sefer Chassidim סימן תתתת״מ, that on the מן they used to make a ברכה, הנותן לחם מן השמים. In the Rema MiPano, in Sefer Maamar Shabtot Hashem חלק ב׳ in the beginning, he writes that when Mashiach will come and we will all have a taste of the מן, we will make a bracha on the מן, המוציא לחם מן השמים. So the מן was לחם מן השמים. And being that it was לחם מן השמים, bread from heaven, that's the reason why it had no waste. Because the difference between bread from heaven and bread from the earth is: bread from the earth, being that it's part of this physical world, there must be some waste in it, because in this physical world there is a mixture, a ta'arovet of טוב ורע, of good and bad. So everything has some good in it and some bad in it. And the food, too, has some good and some bad, therefore some of it becomes the life of the person, and some of it becomes waste. But לחם מן השמים, being that it came down from שמים, it has no waste, because in שמים, by Hashem, it says in the pasuk: לא יגורך רע, there is no evil there, so there is no waste. And the chiddush of the man is that not only was its source לחם מן השמים, but obviously even when it came down into this physical world, and it was so to speak turned into physical food that they physically ate, it still remained down here לחם מן השמים. And therefore, even though it was physical food down here in this physical world, there was no waste in it, because the man did not change from its status the way it was in shamayim, even after it came down to this physical world. And the interesting part of it is that this was food in its status of לחם מן השמים for every single Yid, not only for the tzadikim, but even for the beinonim, and even for the resha'im, as the Gemara actually says in Yoma דף ע״ה עמוד א׳. There the Gemara asks a contradiction. In one pasuk it says, וברדת הטל על המחנה לילה ירד המן עליו, that when the tal, the dew, would come down on the camp at night, that's when the man would come. So from here we see that the man came in the machaneh, in the camp. Another pasuk says, ויצא העם ולקטו, that the people had to go out of the machaneh to collect. So it comes out that the man came down machutz lamachaneh, outside of the machaneh. Then there's a third pasuk yet that says, שטו העם ולקטו, that the people had to spread out and collect, which means not only did they have to go outside of the machaneh, but they had to go far away to collect. So there's a contradiction. And the Gemara answers that the three expressions are talking about three types of people. צדיקים, ירד על פתח בתיהם, for the tzadikim, it came right in front of their doors, in the machaneh. בינונים, יצאו ולקטו, the beinonim had to go out of the machaneh to collect. רשעים, שטו ולקטו, the resha'im had to spread out far away in order to collect. So there was a difference between the way the man came to the tzadikim, beinonim, and resha'im. And the Gemara explains that's why we find three expressions concerning the man. One place it says it was lechem, bread, another place it says that it was ugot, and the third place says וטחנו, they had to grind it. And the Gemara says, by tzadikim it came as bread, as finished bread, baked bread; by the beinonim it came as עוגות, which means they had to bake the bread; by reshaim, it came in a form that they had to still grind it, וטחנו ברחיים, they had to grind it in order to make bread out of it. First they had to make flour, and then bake, etc., etc. So we see that there was a difference in the way the man came to the tzadikim, beinonim, and reshaim. But nevertheless, the fact is that the man came to all three, that even the reshaim had the man. They had to work a little harder in order to turn it into food, they had to work a little harder in order to get it, but they also got it. And when they got it, it was man to them too, and it had the quality of לחם מן השמים even by the reshaim. And therefore, even when the reshaim ate it, it still didn't have פסולת, לא היה להם פסולת, as the Gemara says there in Yoma דף ע״ה עמוד ב׳.

And this is also the reason why we find in the Mechilta in Shemot ט״ז, ד׳, and also in the Yalkut, that לא ניתנה תורה לדרוש אלא לאוכלי המן. The Torah was not given to be drashend, to be learned, only by those that ate the man. The simple peshat is that in order for a person to learn Torah, he has to be similar to those people who ate the man. Just like the Yidden who ate the man didn't have any worries on their head, they had nothing else to do because the man came down to them ready מן השמים, so they didn't have to work for it, and therefore they were able to sit and learn Torah, the same too, any person who wants to learn Torah has to be similar to the אוכלי המן, similar to the Yidden who ate the man, should not have any bothers and any worries on his head. But the deeper peshat is that actually the eating of the man prepared the Yidden to learn Torah. Being that the man was לחם מן השמים, so the man, as physical as it was, remained spiritual food, it remained the גאנץ שמים, with the quality of spirituality of שמים, so therefore the Yidden who ate the man, they were able to learn Torah. Because in order to learn Torah, you have to be more spiritual, because Torah is ruchniyut. So you have to be a keli for the ruchniyut, a vessel to accept this ruchniyut. So you have to be a רוחניותדיקע person, and that's the reason why Yidden are able to learn Torah, because Yidden are רוחניותדיק, Yidden have a neshamah. But nevertheless, by the people who ate the mann, it was even more, because the food, the physical food that they ate, was also רוחניותדיקע food. It was physical food, but this physical food still had the quality of רוחניותדיקע food, because after it came down here, it still remained לחם מן השמים.

And this is the reason why when the Torah wants to describe the mann and show how great the mann was, the Torah describes it by saying that the mann was round, and the mann looked like crystal. What is the idea of being round? We know that down here in this physical world, there is nothing which is bli gvul, nothing that's unlimited. We know Hashem is unlimited, He is bli gvul, and everything that's close to Him is bli gvul, is unlimited. But this physical world is an עולם מוגבל, a limited world. There's nothing in this physical world that's unlimited. There's only one thing that's always used as a mashal for infinity, and that's a circle. A straight line must have a beginning and an end, and therefore it is limited, but a round circle, being that there is no beginning and end, you could go on and on and on and on, without an end, that's a mashal within this physical world of bli gvul, of infinity. And therefore, being that the mann Which means that even when it came into this physical limited world and became limited, it still had spiritually in it the concept of infinity. Therefore, physically the mann was round, because within this physical world the only thing that is מרמז on infinity is a round circle. And therefore the Torah says the Yidden were complaining about the mann, so Hashem says, \"What are you complaining about? Look at the mann. The mann is לחם מן השמים, the mann is an infinite food. The mann still down here in this world has the quality of infinity of shamayim in it.\" And how did it express itself? By being round. And that's what the Torah says, that the mann is round. What are you complaining about? And then the second thing that the Torah says, that its appearance was like crystal. Crystal is clear, and that too is a mashal for infinity, because colors are limited. If it's one color, it's not the other color. The only thing that can absorb all colors, or represents the idea of not being limited to any color, that is when it's crystal clear. And that's what the Torah says also, that the man looked like crystal. The reason it looked like crystal was for the same reason it was round, because essentially it remained infinite, and therefore even though it was turned into a finite limited matter, nevertheless within the finite matter it had qualities of infinity. Therefore it was round, and therefore it was crystal clear. This is actually the reason why you were able to taste in the man all tastes. Because the man was לחם מן השמים, and because of that it was infinite, so therefore it was infinite in its taste also, except those few things that Hashem wanted it not to taste, but otherwise you were able to taste any taste. Why? Because it remained infinite even though it came down to this finite world, and therefore within this limited world, you were able to taste all tastes, an infinite amount of tastes. That is also the reason why it says that along with the man also fell diamonds, אבנים טובות ומרגליות. Because the man was לחם מן השמים, and it still had the quality of infinity in it, therefore it wasn't even limited to food. It brought along other things also, because down here it was still infinite. And this is what the Torah was trying to say by telling us that the Yidden complained against the man, but really they had no reason to complain because the man was round and the man was crystal clear, to tell us that really the man still remained לחם מן השמים even though it came down to this world.

We know that lechem represents chochmah. You find many places where bread represents chochmah, and the reason is understood. Just like bread is eaten and it becomes part of the person, wisdom in a person's mind is united with the person. When a person understands something, it becomes one with the person's brain, and therefore food or lechem represents chochmah. In chochmah we also find two types of chochmah. Just like in lechem we find לחם מן הארץ and לחם מן השמים, we find in chochmah also חכמה מן הארץ and חכמה מן השמים: chochmah of this physical world, and chochmah of Shamayim. Chochmah of this physical world, that's חכמות חיצוניות, it's all the secular חכמות, the secular wisdom. And לחם מן השמים, the chochmah that comes from Shamayim, that's the Torah. And just like we explained before the difference between the לחם מן הארץ and לחם מן השמים, the same difference applies to the difference between חכמות חיצוניות, secular חכמות, and Torah. The לחם מן הארץ has פסולת, has waste. So does חכמות חיצוניות, much of it is waste, much of it is nothing, is waste. But Torah, which is לחם מן השמים, has no waste. And just like we said before concerning the mann, that not only its source was לחם מן השמים, but even when it came down to this physical world and became physical food, it still had all the qualities of לחם מן השמים, the same is with Torah. It's not only the peshat that the Torah's source is someplace in שמים in the חכמה of Hashem, but the Torah the way it came down here and was dressed into כביכול שכל אנושי, into wisdom and understanding of a human being that we are able to grasp parts of the Torah, still the Torah remains with the qualities of שמים, which means that the Torah still remains בלי גבול. Other חכמות are מוגבל, that's self-understood. Every חכמה is limited to what it is, but the חכמת התורה is בלי גבול, unlimited. It's unlimited physically in size, as it says ארוכה היא מארץ ורחבה מני ים, there's so much there that it's unlimited, but not only unlimited in size, but each word of Torah has infinity within it. Each word As the Rambam says, that הוא וחכמתו אחד, השם and His wisdom is one. So the Torah is one with Hashem, and just like Hashem is unlimited, so is the Torah unlimited. But what we have to remember is that not only the Torah, the way it's in שמים, in the mind, כביכול, of Hashem, is it unlimited, but even the way the Torah comes down to this world, and we're able to study it with our physical mind, the Torah still remains an unlimited Torah, similar to the mann, that even when it came down to this physical world, it still remained with the quality of שמים, and therefore it had all the ma'alot that we mentioned before.