Manna

Answer

I know this might be difficult for you to understand, but try to understand the following:
Imagine a person wants to learn about Judaism properly. So, he gets on a plane and goes to Israel. Now, he does not want to experience some half-baked program somewhere at some university, so he goes to an authentic rabbinic seminary in Jerusalem. Not any seminary will do, of course, so he goes to the one right across from the Western Wall called Aish HaTorah. When he gets there he enrolls for two months. During those two months he spends two hours in the morning studying Torah (5 books of Moses) four hours of Talmud in the afternoon, two hours of philosophy and then comes back after dinner for three more hours of Talmud study. Now, this boy is 18 years old. He looks around and he sees 25 year olds, 45 year olds, 85 year olds, and 95 year old men sitting there and doing the exact same thing that he is doing (with a little difference in the level of study of course). When he goes home to his parents they ask him, “John, what did you do in Israel?” He replies, I studied and learned about Judaism and now I know that I know absolutely nothing and I have to go back to continue studying for oh…about another 95 years (give or take). They do not understand and they respond, “Well, you were there for hundreds of hours, you must have something to show for your time there. Certainly you did not sit and study for two months and get “nothing” accomplished.” His reply is, “I am a new person, I got a tremendous amount accomplished.”

You see, that is a very common story and a true one.

Also, that is the story of the Jewish people. They traveled and went through their first yeshivah experience. They had to learn and understand the Torah for the first time. They were not building stone structures and selling fares to the non-Jewish tribes that would buy them. And, pardon the correction, but they did gather their food every day. As a matter of fact, on Friday they gathered a double portion because none fell on the Sabbath. That is why if you go to a traditional Jewish home on the Sabbath you will see two loaves of bread. The Jewish people were building the sanctuary to G-d and were learning how be Jews and becoming a nation for those 40 years.

It is harm to understand what it means to devote your life to study and spiritual greatness, but that is what they did. You are asking this question to a religious, observant rabbi. I cannot tell you whether there are stone carvings of the Jewish people’s travels when they were in the desert. What I can tell you is that when I was in Egypt and I went to the Cairo museum I was told that there were things there that nobody could see. I did, however, see golden calfs, statues of slaves (from an undefined non-Egyptian people) building, pulling, and pushing from the time period of the exodus. I went to Ramsees and saw the statues that are mentioned in the Torah. I wanted to see with my own eyes what my people went through and I did. Can I bring you evidence that these people were in fact the Jews – I don’t know if such evidence exists and I don’t care, either. What I do know is that anyone who will judge Judaism based on little knowledge and lots of rocks has no clue about Torah and what it really is. Rocks disappear, lands change, but the pursuit of spirituality never dies. The Jewish people spent their time learning how to devote their lives to G-d and serve Him.

Be Well,
Rabbi Litt