Why does the Torah spend so much time describing the mann? It is one of the longest sustained miracle stories in the Chumash, yet the more you read the pesukim, the stranger it becomes. Why did God insist on giving the mann only one day at a time? Why did it always look the same no matter what it tasted like? And what does any of this have to do with the matzah that Bnei Yisrael took out of Egypt?

In this episode I explore a surprising Midrash that links three completely different foods: the miraculous mann in the midbar, the matzah of Yetziat Mitzrayim, and the challah we separate from our dough. At first glance they have nothing in common. But Rashi and Chazal show that they are all part of one long educational process, teaching Bnei Yisrael how to understand their own desires. Why did the matzah last exactly thirty days? Why does the Torah call it lechem oni? And why is the mitzvah of challah triggered the moment we enter Eretz Yisrael?

By tracing these questions through Shemot, Devarim, Midrash, and Ramban, I uncover a larger story about appetite, fantasy, self control, and what it means to grow into a nation capable of receiving the Torah.

World of Medrash is where I explore the deep narrative inside Rashi and the Midrash, uncovering the hidden structure behind the Torah’s most familiar stories.