The Morning Search for Manna | Rabbi Elazar Meisels

Living in a desert was a wondrous experience. We had manna, fresh water daily, our clothing was always freshly pressed, our shoes never wore out, and yet, it wasn't so easy. The manna did not fall for everybody the same way. The Gemara tells us the bigger a Tzaddik you were, the closer the manna fell to your tent door. And if you were a Beinoni, just kind of an average person, the manna fell a bit of a distance. And if you were less than a Beinoni, you had to hunt for your manna every morning. I always wondered, Why didn't the Beinoni or the Rasha just go to the Tzaddik’s door and collect the manna from his tent? Why go hunting when it's right there? So some have suggested that by the time the Rasha gets up in the morning and finishes rubbing his eyes, checking his WhatsApps, drinking his coffee, reading his paper, the Tzaddik has already gotten up, learned, davened, and finished his breakfast. There's nothing there for the taking. But I'd like to suggest another approach. The Chofetz Chaim in Shmiras Halashon tells us, that the same way we use our limbs in This World, we will merit to use them in the World to Come. The hand that we used to tie Tefillin will be used for an elevated, sacred purpose in the World to Come, as well. Our eyes, he says, that we use for matters of holiness, to learn, to look at the Sefer Torah, those eyes will merit to see the Holy Shechinah. That's what Dovid Hamelech davened for and asked, I want to see the pleasantness of Hashem. I want to really have a good view of matters of holiness, of the Holy Shechinah. Says the Chofetz Chaim: However, if you misused your eyes on this earth, then you will have no ability to see anything when you come into the World to Come. He should know with certainty, he says, that if a person misused his eyes, he will be like a blind man in the World to Come. I'd like to suggest that perhaps the manna fell equally. It blanketed the entire encampment. However, the manna that was near the Tzaddik’s tent was a really spiritually elevated manna. The farther away it got from the Tzaddikim, it was a lower level, lesser quality manna. When the Rasha or the Beinoni woke up in the morning and he looked for manna, he didn't have eyes to see the manna that lay right at the doorstep of the Tzaddik. For that, he had to move outside the encampment and see manna that was on a lesser level. And the lower your level, the more you misuse your eyes, the longer it'll take to find manna that you can see. Rabosai, This entire world is an analogy for that manna. There's so much that our eyes can and will be able to see, if we only learn how to close them.