WISDOM FROM THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES
A Multigenerational Tapestry of Faith Program
WORKSHOP 3: MANNA IN THE WILDERNESS
BY REV. THOMAS R. SCHADE GAIL FORSYTH-VAIL
© Copyright 2011 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/30/2014 12:25:29 AM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
There are genuinely sufficient resources in the world to ensure that no one, nowhere, at no time, should go hungry. — Ed Asner, contemporary actor and activist
This workshop focuses on a story of the Hebrews after their Exodus from slavery in Egypt, during the forty year period when the people wandered in the desert wilderness before entering the Promised Land. The text reports that when the people became anxious because there was no food to eat, God delivered manna from heaven for them to make into bread for their daily use. We can imagine that the story was repeated and grew as generations retold the story of the wilderness journey, and how God delivered the food necessary for the Hebrew people to survive in a barren place. The story dwells on the idea that each person was provided with what food was needed to live, and nothing more.
Workshop participants consider how they might feel under those circumstances and ponder why this story continued to be told for centuries, until it was finally written down. Participants live into the story by remembering their own times of hunger (and complaining about being hungry!) They will touch and work with the basic ingredients of pita bread, which is similar to the bread the Hebrews lamented leaving behind in Egypt and examine coriander seed, which the Bible says is similar in appearance to manna.
This workshop continues a pattern of activities that frame all of the workshops in this program. Congregations may wish to establish their own patterns for this series of workshops, perhaps arranging for refreshments or a meal to precede or follow each workshop. Before leading this workshop, review the Accessibility Guidelines for Workshop Presenters found in the program Introduction and make any accommodations necessary for your group.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Welcoming and Entering | 0 |
Opening | 10 |
Activity 1: Manna in the Wilderness | 15 |
Activity 2: Retelling the Story | 10 |
Activity 3: Our Daily Bread | 10 |
Activity 4: Explaining Small Group Options | 5 |
Activity 5: Discussion — Option 1 | 25 |
Activity 6: A Share for All — Option 2 | 25 |
Activity 7: Making Bread — Option 3 | 25 |
Faith in Action: Bread for Everyone | |
Closing | 15 |
Alternate Activity 1: Where Does Bread Come From? | 25 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
As you prepare to facilitate this workshop, ask these key questions:
Reflect on how you might have answered these questions as an eight-year-old child, a fourteen year old youth, or a young adult making your way in the world. Envision the way you would like to respond to the third question when you are an elder, looking back on your life.
Bring each person in your group into your mind and hold them in appreciative thought and/or prayer.
WORKSHOP PLAN
WELCOMING AND ENTERING
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
As people arrive, introduce yourself and invite them to make a name tag and sign in.
OPENING (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Bring participants together and welcome them. Invite a volunteer to light the chalice as you share a favorite children's chalice lighting used by your congregation.
Invite participants to create a list of the different kinds of bread they can think of (wheat bread, rye bread, tortillas, rice cakes, and so on). Ask each person to share their name before naming a kind of bread. If anyone is having difficulty thinking of a kind of bread to add to the list, invite others to make suggestions.
ACTIVITY 1: MANNA IN THE WILDERNESS (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Ask:
Using the information in Leader Resource 1, Exodus Background Information, briefly set the stage for the story. Keep the background information brief, and offer copies of the leader resource to those who wish to take one home. Say, "In this story, God provides enough food for people to survive, and makes sure that no one takes or keeps more than they need for each day."
Read the story aloud. Pass around a small bowl of coriander seeds when you reach the passage describing manna.
ACTIVITY 2: RETELLING THE STORY (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to take on the various roles, asking questions to set the scene before choosing any volunteer actors. Ask:
After the actors are in place, ask: "What happens first? And next? Guide participants through a re-enactment of the story, asking at appropriate intervals, "What are the Hebrew people thinking and feeling? What is Moses thinking and feeling? And Aaron? What does God think about? Why is God providing this unfamiliar substance called manna instead of something the people recognize? Encourage those who are not playing roles to make suggestions and to offer encouragement to those who are acting out the story.
After the re-enactment, invite participants to offer comments, observations, and insights about the story.
ACTIVITY 3: OUR DAILY BREAD (10 MINUTES)
Description of Activity
Invite participants to discuss some of these questions:
ACTIVITY 4: EXPLAINING SMALL GROUP OPTIONS (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Explain options for small processing groups and point out breakout spaces. Explain that participants may choose any of the options that appeal to them. There is not one group for children, another for youth, and another for adults. All groups can have a mix of ages. Invite at least one adult or youth participant to take part in each breakout group, and ask those volunteers to set a tone that welcomes multigenerational participation.
ACTIVITY 5: DISCUSSION — OPTION 1 (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to discuss the questions posted on newsprint. Use some of these questions to provoke, guide or further the discussion, as needed:
ACTIVITY 6: A SHARE FOR ALL — OPTION 2 (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to imagine themselves to be the historians in King David's and King Solomon's court, deciding which legends and stories to put into the official history of the Hebrew people. When they chose the story of manna from heaven to include, they wanted to teach some important lessons. Two of those lessons are on the poster board.
Invite participants to imagine that they are scribes in today's world and they want to record a story that will help people learn those important things. Ask participants to work as one group or divide into smaller groups and create such a story to act out. Make costumes available to add to the fun and creativity.
ACTIVITY 7: MAKING BREAD — OPTION 3 (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Ask participants to wash hands before cooking. Look at a loaf of commercial pita bread and tear it apart to see the pocket inside. Explain that pita bread looks similar to what the Hebrews would have eaten in Egypt, before they went into the wilderness. Show them the risen dough and explain that they are going to make more dough, but that it takes two or three hours to rise, so some dough has already been rising.
Ask one participant to measure the warm water into the small bowl and another to add the sugar. Invite a third to put in the yeast and stir. Then leave the mixture alone for five minutes. Measure the flour into the large mixing bowl and put a depression into the center of the flour. Call attention to the look of the yeast, noting that it is foamy because it is a live plant and is growing in the presence of water and sugar. Slowly pour the yeast and water mixture, as well as the olive oil, into the depression in the flour. Mix until it makes a doughy mixture, and then set it aside. This mixture will not be eaten in the course of the workshop; it is for demonstration purposes.
Shape the prepared dough into a thick rope and cut the rope into six sections. Invite participants to shape each section into a ball. Place each ball onto a floured surface and roll it into a four or five inch circle. Place the circles on the baking sheets and place in the oven. Bake for five or six minutes and do not open the oven during this time. Take the bread out of the oven when it is light brown, putting it on a rack to cool.
While the bread is baking and cooling, tear the commercial bread into bite-sized pieces and place in a basket to be shared during the closing worship.
Including All Participants
If you have one or more participants who are sensitive to gluten, consult with them in advance and provide a bread that they can eat. Cut or tear it into bite-sized pieces and put it in a different basket from the one containing pita bread.
CLOSING (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Create a worship service, weaving together contributions from all of the breakout groups. Do not over-script the worship service, but rather create a worshipful "container" to hold all of the insights, thoughts, feelings, creations, and contributions of participants. At the end of the worship, extinguish the chalice and read the words of Elizabeth Selle Jones, Reading 456 in the hymnbook, or choose a benediction or closing words familiar to participants. Distribute Taking It Home.
FAITH IN ACTION: BREAD FOR EVERYONE
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite your guest(s) to share the story of the congregation's work to provide food for those in need. Ask the person to explain how this work is connected to their Unitarian Universalist faith.
With your group, plan a way to help with the project. You might arrange a day for sorting canned goods, or cook a needed meal together, or perform another service to contribute to the congregation's efforts.
Arrange for your group to publish reflections about the experience through your congregation's newsletter, website, or other venue.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Take a few minutes to talk with your co-facilitator about how the workshop went, using these questions as a guide:
TAKING IT HOME
There are genuinely sufficient resources in the world to ensure that no one, nowhere, at no time, should go hungry. — Ed Asner, contemporary actor and activist
With family members and friends, share stories of breads or other food that have significant meaning, because of their association with beloved cultural practices or with significant personal stories. Invite each person to consider why that particular food holds a place in their lives. What kind of hungers does it fill—physical, emotional, spiritual? Organize a family party, a dinner party, or a neighborhood or congregational gathering to share both stories and food.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: WHERE DOES BREAD COME FROM? (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to learn about the process of making bread at the time of the Hebrews' journey in the wilderness. Invite each person to put on food service gloves and to closely examine a piece of pita bread. Tear it open and note the pocket inside. Say, "Let's explore how such bread might have been made in Egypt, before the Hebrews went into the wilderness. And then, we'll think about how bread might have been made from manna."
Show pictures of wheat stalks and/or actual stalks. Look at the part of the wheat that holds the wheat berries and wheat germ. Examine wheat berries and wheat germ closely, and ask participants to guess how those things are converted into flour.
Let participants try grinding wheat berries or wheat germ with a mortar and pestle or with a stone and bowl. Show whole wheat flour and ask how that flour might come to be made into pita bread. Ask, "What needs to be added to the flour?" Affirm "water" and "yeast" as necessary to making bread from flour. Explain the use of yeast, noting that it is a tiny fungus that grows naturally in the wild. While it grows it breathes out air, which puffs up bread, or makes it rise. After it rises, the dough is shaped and cooked in the sun. Traditionally, people would save a bit of the uncooked dough in order to have yeast to make bread the next day. Point out how much work it was to make bread from wheat.
Taste a piece of pita bread.
Say, "Now imagine that you are in the wilderness, away from the wheat fields of Egypt and without the yeast needed to rise bread. You have been told that God will rain down something called manna for you to eat." Show the coriander, explaining that the Bible reports that manna looked something like coriander. Invite each participant to try grinding coriander with the mortar and pestle. Explain that the ground manna was mixed with water and then made into a sort of wafer or large cracker and put into the sun to dry. It did not rise like wheat bread. Ask, "Does anyone remember what the Bible said manna tasted like?"
Tear the pita bread loaves into bite-sized pieces and place in a basket to share at the closing worship. Practice explaining how ancient Hebrews would have ground flour or manna to make bread, so that you can share the explanation during the closing worship.
WISDOM FROM THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES: WORKSHOP 3:
STORY: MANNA IN THE WILDERNESS
Exodus 16: 1-31; 35 (New Revised Standard Version)
The whole congregation of the Israelites set out from Elim; and Israel came to the wilderness... The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."
Then the Lord said to Moses, "I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days." So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your complaining against the Lord. For what are we, that you complain against us?"...
Then Moses said to Aaron, "Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, 'Draw near to the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.' And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and said, "I have heard the complaining of the Israelites and say to them, 'At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then shall you know that I am the Lord your God.'"
In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, "It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: 'Gather as much of it as each of you needs, an omer [a unit of measure—about 3.7 quarts] to a person according to the number of persons, all providing for those in their own tents.'" The Israelites did so, some gathering more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, those who gathered more had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed. And Moses said to them, "Let no one leave any of it over until morning." But they did not listen to Moses; some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul. And Moses was angry with them. Morning by morning they gathered it, as much as each needed; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.
On the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, two omers apiece. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, he said to them, "This is what the Lord has commanded: Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy sabbath to the Lord; bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning. So they put it aside until morning, as Moses commanded them; it did not become foul, and there were no worms in it. Moses said, "Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the Lord; today you will find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is a sabbath, there will be none."
On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, and they found none. The Lord said to Moses, "How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and instructions? See! The Lord has given you the sabbath, therefore on the sixth day he gives you food for two days; each of you stay where you are; do not leave your place on the seventh day." So the people rested on the seventh day.
The house of Israel called it manna; it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey...The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a habitable land; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.
WISDOM FROM THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES: WORKSHOP 3:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: EXODUS BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The book of Exodus describes how the Israelites escaped from slavery in Egypt. It begins with the birth of Moses and the amazing story of how this Hebrew child became part of the inner circle of the Pharaoh. Exodus tells of how the Hebrews were mistreated as slaves and how Moses negotiated the release of his people from Egypt, a familiar story for all who are familiar with the Jewish Passover Seder. Exodus then tells of the Hebrews wandering in the dessert for forty years until they came to the land of Canaan, the land promised to them by YHWH (Yahweh), their God. It is during the wandering of the Hebrews in the wilderness that the covenant between YHWH and the whole Hebrew people is established in the climatic events at Mt. Sinai, where Moses receives the Ten Commandments from YHWH and delivers them to the people.
Scholars generally agree that the stories in Exodus were collected and written down by the historians who were part of King David's and King Solomon's court, as a way of documenting the story of the origins of their people.
The time of King David and his son King Solomon was about 1000 BCE. The historians were writing about events that had happened about 500 years earlier, or 1500 BCE. Because the story is told so long after the events purportedly occurred, it cannot be read as journalism or objective history, but rather as a weaving together of stories and legends that told how YHWH rescued the Hebrews from historical obscurity. There is virtually no confirmation of the stories from Exodus included in Egyptian written records, including such events as the parting of the Red Sea and the death of every first-born son in Egypt in a single night.
This workshop focuses on the story of how the Hebrews fed themselves during the Exodus, when they wandered in the desert for forty years. The text reports that God delivered manna from heaven, which they made into bread for their daily use. We can imagine that the story was repeated and grew as generations retold the story of the wilderness journey, and how God delivered the food necessary for the Hebrew to survive in a barren place.
What about this story makes it repeatable? Why did it continue to be told for centuries, until it was finally written down? Three important themes hint at some of the wisdom we might draw from this story:
Evidence suggests that the original story made no mention of the Sabbath. Later storytellers added the narrative about the collection of two days' supply of food in order to bring the story in line with Sabbath observances and practices of their own time.
WISDOM FROM THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES: WORKSHOP 3:
LEADER RESOURCE 2: PITA BREAD RECIPE
1 1/4 cup warm water (mix 1/2 cup boiling water with 3/4 cup cold water)
1 tbsp yeast
1 tbsp sugar
3 cups flour
2 tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
Pour warm water into a small bowl and stir in sugar. Add yeast and stir. Then set the mixture aside for five minutes. Measure the flour into a large mixing bowl and make a depression into the center of the flour. Slowly pour the yeast and water mixture, which will be foamy into the depression in the flour. Add the oil. Mix ingredients to form a stiff dough, and knead for ten minutes. Cover and let rise until double in bulk (approximately 2 1/2 hours).
[For the purposes of Activity 7, this concludes the preparation work. The recipe continues below.]
Knead the dough for three or four more minutes and shape it into a thick rope. Cut the rope into six sections and shape each section into a ball. Place each ball onto a floured surface and roll it into a half-inch thick circle about four or five inches in diameter. Place the circles on baking sheets and place in the oven. Bake for five or six minutes until it is light brown, and do not open the oven door while it is cooking. Each loaf should puff up, leaving a pocket in the middle. Take the pita loaves out of the oven, putting them on a rack to cool.
WISDOM FROM THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES: WORKSHOP 3:
LEADER RESOURCE 3: CREATING THE CLOSING WORSHIP
In this program, the closing worship circle offers a time for the group to come back together to enrich each other's understanding of the story and of their own life experience. This is not a show-and-tell experience, but rather a participatory, co-created worship experience. You will need to do enough planning to provide a container for participants to share with one another and grow in spirit. You cannot script a co-created worship service, but you can guide it so that all participants feel heard and valued, and all hear and value the voices and experiences of others, regardless of age or life stage. With practice, you and the participants will become adept at co-creating worship to end each workshop.
Here are suggested elements for the closing worship for Workshop 3, Manna in the Wilderness. Add, subtract, and adapt to fit your situation:
Opening words
Use the Ed Asner quote that begins this workshop:
There are genuinely sufficient resources in the world to ensure that no one, nowhere, at no time, should go hungry.
Chalice lighting
Use chalice lighting words familiar to your congregation or use Reading 452 from Singing the Living Tradition.
Where does bread come from?
If you had a group using Alternate Activity 1, Where Does Bread Come From?, invite participants to use their pictures and containers of grain to explain to the larger group how bread is made from grain.
Retelling the story
Invite the group that used Activity 6, A Share for All — Option 2, to explain that they are scribes writing 500 years after the manna in the wilderness story happened. Invite them to retell the story- and explain why they wrote it down.
Taking only our share
Invite members of the discussion group (Activity 5) to share part of their conversation about what it means to take only enough and not more. Why do they think the excess turned to rot in the story?
Mindful eating of homemade bread
Invite the group that used Activity 7, Making Bread — Option 3, to explain what they did and to pass around small pieces of the bread they made. Alternatively, invite the participants in Activity 7 or Alternate Activity 1 to pass baskets of commercial pita bread. Invite people to quietly savor a small piece and not to reach for more.
Meditation/prayer
Begin a meditation or prayer as you normally would in your congregation. Then say, "As we savor this small piece of bread, let us imagine all that went into it." Invite participants to name aloud all of the things that contributed to the making of the bread and respond to each one, "We are grateful for the sun that shone on the wheat. We are grateful for the stone that ground it into grain, and so on."
Say, "We remember those who are hungry in this world. We especially remember those who come to [name a food project in which your congregation is involved] and promise to support the work of our congregation is providing food and bread for all." End your prayer by saying, "Help us to/may we remember all that makes it possible for us to be blessed with enough food to grow and to thrive and to remember to be thankful for that every day." End the meditation or prayer as you normally would in your congregation.
Telling a Modern Story
Invite the scribes from Activity 6 to share the story they created to help people today understand the same lesson that the manna story teaches.
Music
Choose music related to bread. You might teach a traditional Gospel song such as "Honey in the Rock" or a traditional Jewish song such as "Dayenu." You might also teach a song such as Hymn 21 in Singing the Living Tradition, "For the Beauty of the Earth" or Hymn 1010 in Singing the Journey, "We Give Thanks."
Closing words
Use words familiar to your congregation.
FIND OUT MORE
For extensive information about food in cultures throughout history, visit The Food Timeline (at www.foodtimeline.org/) a website compiled by reference librarian Lynne Oliver and recognized by the American Library Association as a "Great Website for Kids."