posted
Okay, for real now. This stuff melted in the sun and went wormy if stored for a day, except on Fridays it could be baked or preserved for the next day.
Manna, by the way, translates roughly into "What the...?"
Looking at my first paragraph, I now wonder if it wasn't some kind of pod for larvae. :jibblies:
Except bugs are non-kosher. But what if they are extra-terrestrial bugs? That's the weird thing about kashrut. Chicken is considered meat, but soy milk is not considered dairy. I mean, I believe the ultimate point is to live obedience in eating, rather than relying on your own intellect.
Anyway, I was hoping to tap on anyone's knowledge of a substance that was solar-degradeable (within one day) but would be hardened by baking. I'm not sure what the method of preserving would be. I'd guess pickling rather than sugar-preservation, just because I don't know where they would get a sugar. But then I don't know how they'd get a pickling solution except by fermenting vinegar. I don't know. Thoughts?
P.S. The reason I was interested in this is because there is a reference to a gold jar full of manna being kept in the ark of the covenant, and I hadn't picked up the reference to sabbath manna being baked or preserved until a couple of days ago. I got to the end of Rachel and Leah and in withdrawal tried actually reading the bible. I had been thinking of an archaeology adventure for a while, and thought this would be an interesting focal point.
[This message has been edited by pooka (edited May 31, 2006).]
posted
I found this on http://www.sugar-gliders.com/glidervet-2.htm ...Sugar gliders eat manna in the wild. Manna is a crusty sugar left from where sap flowed from a wound in a tree trunk or branch.
This is what Wikipedia has to say on it's site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manna ....Some modern readers believe this may have been an edible wafer or the sap of a variety of succulent plant found in the Sinai peninsula, which may have had appetite-suppressing effects. Others have hypothesized that it was one of the species of kosher locusts found in the region. The most widespread explanations, however, are either crystallized honeydew of scale insects feeding on tamarisk twigs, or thalli of the Manna Lichen (Lecanora esculenta). At the turn of the 20th century local Arabs in Palestine collected the resin of the tamarisk as mann es-sama ("heavenly manna"), and sold it to pilgrims (JE "Manna").
posted
According to Immanual Velikovsky in his WORLDS IN COLLISION, EARTH IN UPHEAVAL, and AGES IN CHAOS, Manna was the biological reaction, converting hydrocarbons that were coming in from space, into carbohydrates.
the simple surgar-like or starchy material would be similar in consistancy to honey like would condensate on the ground like dew at night. It would get into the rivers and give it a milkiness. To a people entering a new land, it would appear to be a land of milk and honey.
Being about the only food around, everything alive would eat it. bugs, sheep, people, preditors too.
quote:Experts in the fields of Ethnomycology and Entheogens such as R. Gordon Wasson, John Marco Allegro and Terence McKenna have speculated, that just as with the sacred Hindu Rigvedas' repeatedly high praise of the miraculous food Soma or the Aztecs' Teonanacatl roughly translating as "flesh of god", biblical texts also suggest psilocybe mushrooms as the prime candidate in Mannas' accurate identification. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that Jesus spoke of the hidden manna as being the source of the "inner light". This or similar intensification's of consciousness can allegedly be obtained by fasting, meditation, chanting, sensory deprivation, and other techniques.
- wikipedia (for now)
No wonder it took them forty years.
"Dude, where's my promised land?"
[This message has been edited by pooka (edited May 31, 2006).]
posted
Manna still falls at certain times of the year in northern Iraq. It's white and sticky and too sweet. Revoting stuff. I had some when I lived there.
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quote:I got to the end of Rachel and Leah and in withdrawal tried actually reading the bible.
Somehow, even though I fully understand mentally how sacrilegous we always are, it really looks very different on the internet.
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posted
The Talmudic traditions concerning the manna are very interesting, but I'm not sure if I will go with the "tastes however you want it to" idea. I am definitely wanting it to be a substance that is both supernatural but mundane. I'll have two characters, one of whom is a literalist and the other is a contextualist/figurativist.
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posted
Why bake manna only on Friday---other than religious or cultural reasons? Maybe it mattered to God, but, surely if the manna is inanimate, it wouldn't matter to the manna itself if it were baked on some other day of the week...
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posted
Robert Nowall, they were commanded to gather extra manna on Friday so they wouldn't have to work gathering it on the Sabbath. Friday was the only day they could gather extra and be able to eat it the next day. If they gathered extra on any other day, it would spoil. It was all part of keeping the Sabbath holy.
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posted
solar degradable? hmmm, I suppose you don't care if it degraded for any other reason? Plain old bacteria could do the trick. If it were a carbohidrate water would melt it instantly. Not much water in a desert but maybe it wasn't a veery dry desert, maybe some dew still collected in the mornings. So whatever was left lying around just melted into the ground. It would ferment and stink a bit. Why aren't bacteria active on fridays? Tough, I'll leave it to you.
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