“He was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. He wrote upon the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten precepts” (Exodus 34:28). “He was there with the Lord.” Is it possible for a person to be forty days without food and without drink?
Rabbi Tanḥuma says in the name of Rabbi Elazar ben Rabbi Avin in the name of Rabbi Meir: The proverb says: You went to the city, follow its conventions. Above, where there is no eating and drinking, Moses ascended and was like them. Below, where there is eating and drinking, the ministering angels descended and ate and drank, as it is stated: “He stood over them beneath the tree and they ate” (Genesis 18:8).9Abraham served his three guests food thinking they were men, but in fact they were angels.
Nonetheless, they ate the food. Rabbi Yoḥanan said: They appeared as though they were eating, and each morsel disappeared. Another matter, “he was there with the Lord,” there was an incident involving Rabbi Yoḥanan who was ascending from Tiberias to Tzippori. His student, Rabbi Ḥiya, was with him.
Rabbi Yoḥanan saw a vineyard. He said to Rabbi Ḥiya: ‘Do you not see that vineyard that was mine and I sold it for such and such a sum?’ At that moment Rabbi Ḥiya bar Abba wept and said to him: ‘Did you not leave anything for your old age?’ He said to him: ‘Is it insignificant in your eyes that I sold an item that was created in six days and I acquired an item that was given in forty days?
The world and all that it holds was created in six days, but the Torah was given in forty days.’ “He did not eat bread,” but he partook of the bread of Torah. “He did not drink water,” but he drank the water of Torah. He would study Torah by day and would interpret it himself at night.
Why did he do so? It was to teach Israel that they should toil in Torah by day and by night. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish would say to his students: ‘Come and study Torah in the daytime and it will become clear at night.’10Reish Lakish holds that the ideal time for intensive study is at night. Therefore he urged his students to memorize the material by day, and then to analyze it at night, when they would achieve full clarity in understanding it (Etz Yosef).
However, see Maharzu and Rabbi David Luria, who offer other interpretations of this statement. Rabbi Yoḥanan would say to his students: Come and study Torah for it is daytime. Nevertheless, Rabbi Yoḥanan would concede that the song of Torah is only at night, as it is stated: “Arise, sing at night” (Lamentations 2:19), and likewise it says: “She arises while it is still night” (Proverbs 31:15).11This passage in Proverbs is interpreted as referring to one who seeks Torah.
The Rabbis say: During the day and at night, as it is stated: “He was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights.” That is why the Sages instituted that the teachers of Mishna would have sessions in the morning and in the evening, to realize what is stated: “This book of the Torah shall not depart [from your mouth, and you shall ponder it day and night]” (Joshua 1:8). Another matter, “he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water” in this world, but in the world to come he will partake of the bread of Torah and drink its water.
That is why “He did not eat bread.” What, then, did he eat? He was sustained by the aura of the Divine Presence. Do not wonder, as the heavenly beasts that bear the Throne are sustained by the aura of the Divine Presence.