Often we in the course of a conversation with someone use those or other phraseological units, the origin of which we do not even guess. Nevertheless, a very large number of them came to us from the Bible. They are distinguished by imagery of thought, and today we are talking about the phrase "manna from heaven". This phraseology is usually used in the sense of "miraculous help" or "unexpected luck".
Why so? Because according to the Bible, this legendary food God sent to the starving Jews every morning for forty years, that they followed Moses through the desert in search of the promised land - Palestine. They once saw that on the surface of the sand lies something white, small and crooked, like frost. Not knowing what it was, the Jews questioned each other in complete bewilderment, and Moses told them that it was bread that the Lord had given them for food. The sons of Israel rejoiced and called the "manna of heaven": it looked like a coriander seed, white in color, and tasted like a honey cake.
Perhaps, so it was all, but scientists suggest that this bread on In fact there was ... an edible lichen, which is very much in the desert. This assumption appeared in the 18th century, when the famous Russian academician and traveler PS Pallas, while on an expedition in the territory of present-day Kyrgyzstan, observed such a picture: during the famine, local residents gathered so-called "earthen bread" throughout the desert. The academician was interested in this product, and having carefully studied it, he discovered that it was not just a lichen, but a completely new species for science. The same "manna of heaven" was found by another traveler in the vicinity of Orenburg.
Today this type of lichen is called "aspicilia edible". Why is there so much in the desert areas? Because it's a roll-field. Such lichen grows in the mountains of the Carpathians, the Crimea and the Caucasus, in Central Asia, Algeria, Greece, Kurdistan, etc. at an altitude of 1500 to 3500 meters, attached to the soil or rocks. Over time, the edges of the lichen lobes of the lichen bend downward and, gradually enclosing clay or another substrate, grow together. After that, the "manna of heaven" completely breaks, shrinks and takes the form of a ball, which then blows away the wind. But, despite the fact that this lichen is edible, its taste does not resemble bread, cereals or any other product. Simply put, such food can be consumed only by a very, very hungry person who is ready to eat anything, just to survive. Therefore, it is possible that the Jews, wandering the Egyptian desert for 40 years, ate this particular lichen, because there was no other food in the vicinity. True, this theory has some inconsistencies. The fact is that a lichen can not grow overnight, and the Heavenly Manna appears to Jews every morning. It is also impossible to eat lichens for a long time, because it is very bitter in taste, unlike "honey cakes", and there are very few nutrients in it. And, probably, the most important discrepancy: aspicily neither in Palestine, nor in the Arabian and Sinai peninsulas practically does not occur.
Be that as it may, the expression "manna of heaven" has one meaning: "unexpected life's benefits that have been taken for nothing, for nothing, as if fallen from heaven."