Centuries after the Exodus, the prophet Jeremiah faced a stubborn problem. The people of Israel had stopped studying Torah, and their excuse was entirely practical: "How will we feed ourselves?" They could not afford the luxury of learning when survival demanded all their energy.
Jeremiah did not argue with words. He pulled out the flask of manna — the same jar that Aaron had preserved in the wilderness — and held it up before them. "O generation, see the word of the Lord" (Jeremiah 2:31). Look at this. Your ancestors devoted themselves to Torah in a barren desert with no farms, no markets, no economy whatsoever. And God fed them every single morning with bread from the sky.
The message was devastating in its simplicity. If the Holy One Blessed be He could sustain an entire nation on miraculous food while they studied His Torah in the wilderness, He could certainly provide for people living in a settled land with fields and vinting. The manna was not just a historical relic. It was living proof that faith and study do not lead to starvation.
Rabbi Eliezer preserves this tradition in the Mekhilta to make a timeless point. Every generation finds reasons to abandon Torah — too busy, too poor, too distracted. And every generation has the same answer waiting for them in a glass jar: God provides for those who make room for His word.