Parshas Be'Haalosecha 5784

Arguably, one of the biggest hurdles of becoming a Baal Teshuva is adjusting to the significant restriction on food choices.
At the Pesach hotel I was at this past year, a woman told her story of becoming observant, and recalled how she had a crisis late at night in the parking lot of a Taco Bell sobbing to her rabbi that she just needed to get something to eat…
Baal Teshuvas come to learn pretty quickly that imitation crab and cheese come with the territory.

After the Jews in the Wildreness accepted the Torah, they were also bound by the laws of kashrus. But in the wilderness, they ate the manna, a mysterious “bread” from heaven which had an interesting stipulation: Whatever you wanted it to taste like, it would taste like.

So the question everyone lined up to ask Moshe was, “Moshe, we get it, no more bacon cheeseburgers... but what if we close our eyes and think about bacon cheeseburgers while eating our manna? Is that against the rules?"
This wild query was asked to the Chida, an 18th century Rabbi.
The Chida and other Poskim ruled that it would have been allowed because the prohibition to eat non-kosher only applies to foods with an actual non-kosher source. In other words, a person who thought about a cheeseburger while eating the manna would not have been in violation of the passuk of “Do not cook a calf in its mothers milk” because there was no actual “calf” or “milk” to speak of.
Another interesting point I saw to prove that Hashem did “allow” non kosher items was the fact that Hashem didn’t make such a stipulation, and instead used a blanket term “Whatever you want it to taste like, it can taste like”.

Two practical things came to mind when I pondered about this issue of the “non kosher” manna.
1. The concept of “non-kosher manna” conjures up the notion of making clever workarounds in the framework of Judaism. Sometimes you can be confronted with something that could technically be according to Halacha, but before exploiting acting on it, ask yourself: “Am I exploiting a technicality according to the letter of the law or am I also honoring the spirit of the law by doing this?”
2. Another lesson, more applicable to business, can also be learned from this. Hashem was well aware that there would be people who might “game the system”. By omitting to put a “No Non-Kosher Foods Allowed” into the Terms and Conditions of the manna, it meant just that; non-kosher tasting manna was fair game. Moral of the story: If you don't want people to get creative with the rules, be explicit or risk the consequences!
Good Shabbos!

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Mareh Mekomos:

Interesting mareh makom as to why the Man tasted like anything:

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Endnote:
I found in the V'Haarev Na (Parshas Shemini) in the name of Rav Eliyashiv that he said had the Chida not said this, we should stay away from things that taste like treif in line with the Chazal: