וימהר אברהם האהלה אל שרה ויאמר מהרי שלש סאים קמח סלת לושי ועשי עגות ... (יח-ו)
Avraham Avinu requested from his wife Sarah to bake for the Malachim, the guests. The Medrash tells us that in the zechus of this request, Klal Yisroel was zoche to the מן while traveling in the midbar. What is the connection between these two? The מן is such an elevated holy food, far surpassing the seemingly “mundane” bread that Sarah had prepared.
There is a wonderful explanation from the Shem M’Shmuel. He writes, based on a Tana Divei Eliyahu, that Hashem made a miracle and the Malachim actually did eat. Avraham was able to transform the physical bread into something spiritual, so that even a Malach, a spiritual and heavenly being, could ingest it. In the same vein, the מן was an entirely spiritual food that Malachim could “enjoy” and thus, it was chosen as the item with which Hashem would reward our Nation in the midbar for that act of kindness.
Perhaps we can add a thought here. Since a neis took place l’maala min hateva (above the physical plane) enabling the Malachim to actually be able to eat, in return, a neis happened on our behalf as well. Chazal teach us that the מן was able to taste like anything in the world and it didn’t digest in one’s body like regular food. A neis for a neis.
There is another inspiring message we can learn from the above Medrash. At a closer look into the posukim, Rashi indicates that although Sarah Imeinu prepared the bread for the Malachim, she became tamei (פורס נדה) and therefore, it could not be served. Why then were we rewarded if the Malachim didn’t actually receive that bread?
The machshava is that Hashem, as the Zaide (Machsheves Halev) often explained, repays us for our effort expended attempting to do His will. Since Avraham and Sarah did their best to prepare the bread for the angels, they were rewarded even though it didn’t actually come to fruition. That is a lesson for us all in our respective avodas Hashem.