“The Lord said to Moses: Behold, I will rain down bread for you from the heavens and the people shall go out and gather each day’s portion on its day, so that I may test them, whether they will follow My Torah or not” (Exodus 16:4). “The Lord said to Moses: Behold, I will rain down bread for you from the heavens.” That is what is written: “Anything that the Lord desires to do, He does, in the heavens and on the earth” (Psalms 135:6).
Anything that the Holy One blessed be He seeks to do, He does, for everything is His in the heavens and on the earth. Reish Lakish said: When flesh and blood crafts a vessel with three compartments and places different sorts of liquids, each and every one by itself; is he able to pour them all out from one place? However, for the Holy One blessed be He it is not so. When He rained fire and brimstone upon the Sodomites it was from the heavens, as it is stated: “The Lord rained [brimstone and fire] upon Sodom [and upon Gomorrah from the Lord] from the heavens” (Genesis 19:24).
Dew is from the heavens, as it is stated: “Like dew from the Lord” (Micah 5:6). And the manna was from the heavens. This is analogous to a golden samovar; if one seeks cold water, he removes it from it, if he seeks coals, he removes it from it.1The reference is to a samovar that has a compartment for water and an adjacent compartment for coals. One can fill the samovar with cold water, or fill it with hot water and use hot coals to keep the water hot.
Alternatively, perhaps the reference is to a samovar that has an additional compartment for cold water, further away from the coals. So too, when the Holy One blessed be He brought the plagues upon the Egyptians, He brought them only from the heavens.2He brought hail upon the Egyptians, comprised of both ice and fire (see Exodus 9:23). This is parallel to the cold water and hot coals from the samovar.
When He exacted retribution from the Emorites, He exacted retribution against them only from the heavens, as it is written: “The Lord cast upon them large stones from the heavens” (Joshua 10:11). When He exacted retribution from Sisera, He exacted retribution from him only from the heavens, as it is stated: “From the heavens they battled” (Judges 5:20). And when He bestows goodness upon Israel, He bestows goodness only from the heavens, as it is stated: “The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens” (Deuteronomy 28:12).
The blessings are from the heavens, as it is stated: “Look from Your holy abode, from the heavens, [and bless Your people Israel]” (Deuteronomy 26:15).