In honor of the holiday of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, Lag
BaOmer.
The Remains of Mon, the Taste of Mon
"And bnei Yisroel ate the mon for forty years
until they came to a habitable land; they ate the mon
until they came to the edge of the land of Canaan"
(Shemos 16:35). This posuk seems to contain a
contradiction, for it mentions two different places that
bnei Yisroel stopped eating mon. The
gemora uses this to show that although the mon
stopped descending daily when Moshe died on the seventh of
Adar (at "the edge of the land of Canaan"), the people
subsisted on the mon that remained in their containers
until the sixteenth of Nisan when they ate from the produce
of the Land (Kiddushin 38).
Tosafos asks why the gemora didn't cite the
posuk in Yehoshua (5:12) which states
explicitly that "the mon finished on the day after
Pesach . . ." and suggests that "perhaps [the gemora]
preferred deriving it from the Torah's words" — an
answer that is not readily understandable.
The gemora brings another Beraissa that asks
that bnei Yisroel apparently did not eat mon
for forty years, as the posuk says they did. The
mon descended for the first time on the sixteenth of
Iyar, a month after they left Egypt and they consumed it
daily until the sixteenth of Nisan forty years less one
month later. The Beraissa proves from this that
the matzos that they brought out with them from Egypt, which
they ate for the first thirty days, tasted like
mon.
Still the Ideal
"Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai said, `If a person ploughs in the
ploughing season, sows in the sowing season, reaps at harvest
time, threshes in the threshing season and winnows when there
is wind, what will become of the Torah? But, when Yisroel are
fulfilling Hashem's will, their work is done by others . . .'
Abaye said, `Many people tried to emulate Rabbi Shimon ben
Yochai and were unsuccessful' " (Brochos 35).
There is a tradition from the talmidim of the Vilna
Gaon that although many were unsuccessful in emulating
Rabbi Shimon, individuals should try and do so and
they will succeed. Although there is scarcely a person in our
generation who merits studying Torah on such a level, it is
still possible to attain something of it. (Ed. Note. See
Nefesh HaChaim, shaar 1:8 and Tzidkas
Hatzaddik, p. 224).
Ploughing and sowing according to the season was the life
adopted by the generation that entered Eretz Yisroel.
The generation that lived in the desert were on a level
like that of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Their "work was done by
others"; their needs were met without requiring any effort on
their part and they studied Torah all the time. Individuals
can [still] emulate the way of life that all of Knesses
Yisroel followed to begin with. [At any rate,] the
beginning of a person's life and Torah study should be as
close to the level of Rabbi Shimon as possible.
Total Dependence
"`Who is this coming up from the desert?' (Shir
Hashirim 3:6) — Their virtues are from the desert"
(Shir Hashirim Rabba 3:7). The foundation of all of
Knesses Yisroel's qualities is the generation that
lived in the desert.
Even after "entering the Land," when the life of "ploughing
and sowing in season" began, they still clung to the life of
the generation of the desert where "work is done by others,"
subsisting on the mon that remained in their vessels
until the sixteenth of Nisan. This is why the gemora
prefers the posuk in the Torah to the one in
Yehoshua. The Torah had been given to them in the
desert by Moshe Rabbenu, on the level of Rabbi Shimon bar
Yochai, with their needs being provided without them having
to make any effort.
As soon as they left Egypt they tasted mon in the
matzos that they brought with them. Knesses Yisroel's
beginning was life lived with complete dependence upon
Hashem yisborach. The taste of mon started at
Pesach and the mon finished [forty years later] on
Pesach. The festival of Pesach carries the flavor of life
that is wholly dependent on Hashem yisborach, which
Knesses Yisroel experienced in its youth.
"Your following Me in the desert, in a land that was not
sown" (Yirmiyohu 2:2).
"`Who is this coming up from the desert?' Their virtues are
from the desert"!
