Warming the bread – B’shallach
Chapter 16 verse 3 of Sh’mot – part of this week’s reading of the Torah – reports that the fleeing Israelites complained in the wilderness that life had become too difficult.
“When we sat by the flesh pots,” they said in recollection of life in Egypt, “we ate bread to the full”.
It seems that in Egypt they had to cook the meat for their masters but they were not permitted to eat it. So their task was limited to warming their bread on the vapour of the roasting meat. They enjoyed the savoury smell even if they got no actual meat.
In the wilderness they didn’t even get any meat vapour.
