לקוטי שיחות חלק ד׳ - עקב

Bread from heaven refers to the inner dimension of Torah, which is infinite. Yet precisely because of this, studying it makes a person even more “hungry,” because he begins to sense the boundlessness of Torah.

The manna contained two seemingly opposite qualities: poverty and wealth. On the one hand, one could taste in it every flavor in the world. On the other hand, it is written, “He afflicted you, caused you to hunger, and fed you the manna.” There was a sense of hunger because a person did not have “bread in his basket”—he could not see the particular food that he was about to eat.

These two qualities were connected. Precisely because the manna was not confined to a specific physical form, and therefore did not have the appearance of any particular food, it could possess an infinite quality, enabling people to taste in it every flavor in the world.

Bread from heaven is analogous to Torah in general, and particularly to the inner dimension of Torah, which is infinite. Yet precisely because of this, studying Torah makes a person even more “hungry,” because he comes to recognize the boundlessness contained within Torah.

The yetzer hara may argue that a person does not wish to study Torah because Torah is limitless. Since he will never be able to comprehend Torah fully and completely, Torah will only produce hunger within him, as expressed in the complaint, “Our soul is disgusted with this insubstantial bread.”

The truth, however, is that the essential nature of a Jew is spiritual. Therefore, it is specifically through the bread from heaven that he becomes an empty vessel capable of containing both spiritual and material blessing.