What was the manna in the Bible?

What the Torah says

A month after leaving Egypt, the people complained of hunger. God answered that He would “rain bread from heaven” (Exodus 16:4). In the morning, when the dew lifted, a fine flaky substance covered the ground; the Israelites asked one another “man hu?” – “what is it?” – and so it was called man, manna (Exodus 16:15). It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers with honey (Exodus 16:31).

Daily bread and Shabbat

Each person gathered an omer a day. What was left overnight spoiled – a lesson in trusting God for each day’s bread. On Friday a double portion fell and kept fresh, and none fell on Shabbat (Exodus 16:22–26). In memory of this, two whole loaves (lechem mishneh) are set on the table at every Shabbat meal, covered above and below as the manna was covered with dew.

How long it lasted

The manna fell for forty years and stopped the day after the people ate the produce of the land of Canaan (Joshua 5:12). A jar of it was kept before the Ark as a testimony for later generations (Exodus 16:33).

What the sages added

The Talmud teaches that the manna tasted of whatever the person eating it wished, and that it reached the righteous at their doors while others had to go out and gather it (Yoma 75a). Moses calls it a test: God fed the people with manna “that man does not live by bread alone” (Deuteronomy 8:3). Many people read the passage of the manna (Exodus 16) daily as a prayer for livelihood – a custom, not an obligation.