What Is It and the Bread of the Mighty

"And the children of Israel saw it, and they said one to another, 'It is manna [man hu]'" (Exodus 16:15) - like one who says to his fellow, "What is it?" So Israel said, "What is it?" "And Moses said to them, 'It is the bread'" - Moses spoke to the elders, and the elders spoke to Israel; thus the words of Rabbi Yehoshua. Rabbi Elazar of Modi'in says: Moses spoke to the elders, and he himself spoke to all Israel. "It is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat." Rabbi Yose son of Rabbi Shimon says: Israel were fattened at that hour like horses. It says here "to eat," and it says elsewhere, "Man ate the bread of the mighty" (Psalms 78:25). He said to them: this bread that you eat is absorbed into the limbs, and so it says "flaky [mehuspas]," for it would come down into the two hundred and forty-eight limbs of a person. From where do we know there are two hundred and forty-eight limbs? From "mehuspas" [read as a hint to the count]. Another interpretation: "Man ate the bread of the mighty [abirim]" - this is Joshua, for whom manna came down equal to all Israel.