Tell the Eyes What to See
When the Israelites wandered through the wilderness, God provided them with manna. The tradition explains manna was this magic-like food substance that not only provided sustenance but tasted like whatever the Israelites wanted it to taste like. The Torah states, “Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance was like bdellium.” (Numbers 11)
Coriander has an earthy, slightly sweet flavor comparable to cilantro. Its leaves are often used in Middle Eastern dishes. And bdellium is a semi-transparent tree resin that has the fragrance of myrrh. Perhaps its semi-transparent appearance allowed it to take on any taste.
The Hebrew suggests a hidden meaning. The word for “appearance” is “k’ayin.” It comes from the word “eye.”
The Hasidic rebbe, Shlomo Lutzker, expands on the meaning of this word. He teaches about how God created the world with words and says, “God’s word is the animating force that gives everything life, and God’s word is akin to the appearance, taste, smell, and the pleasure within the world. The brilliance of this force is referred to as the ‘eye’ of each thing.”
In other words, the “eye” implies the essence of the physical world. The rabbi concludes, “The divine life force sparkles and glimmers through the world, just as the vitality of your intellect twinkles through your eyes.” Every living thing, everything we see, touch and smell offers glimpses of the divine. The eye must be trained to see these glimmers.
Too often we do not see the positive and focus on the negative. This is especially true when it comes to food. We complain about the cost of dinner. We protest the foods served. We say, What! Hamburgers again! I want sushi!” Imagine if said instead, “How beautiful and tasty is the food I am eating.”
That is the lesson of manna. Its secret ingredient was imagination. It was not about whether the chef seasoned the dish properly or arranged it on the plate for the perfect Instagram post. Manna tasted like we wanted it to taste. It was transparent. Each and every Israelite created their own image of it. Our food was transformed by our mind.
Art Green, a leader in the Jewish Renewal movement, adds, “The manna shows us that the physical world indeed twinkles with divine brilliance, hinting at an all-inclusive illumination just beneath the surface. The deeper truth is that the sights, sounds, and tastes of this world are a colorful representation of divine light refracted through the prism of the physical realm.”
The physical world sparkles with the divine. Even the everyday activity of eating provides an opportunity to glimpse the divine.
It is all about how our eyes choose to see things.