For the source text click/tap here: Yoma 76
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Our daf deals with the mannah. The rabbis do not read the manna as an allegory, but as real food provided by God so that the Israelites would not have to toil for their food, and would have the opportunity to study Torah. God’s supporting Israel with manna gave this generation the unique opportunity to study Torah full time.
According to the midrash, manna is the perfect food that gets absorbed into the body entirely, with no extraneous material. In other words, the Israelites would not have needed to defecate while in the wilderness as long as they ate only manna.
The interpretation of manna as a magical food with spiritual import takes a great leap forward in the Zohar, stressing ontological transformation, and viewing the consumption of manna as a method for internalizing divine wisdom, a transmuting of holiness into corporeality, for those who were scions of faith.