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Do the Jews know the location of the omer of manna? Is there a story? Is it lost? It sure would be helpful in proving God to Atheists.

Then Moses said, “This is the thing which the LORD has commanded: ‘Fill an omer with it, to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” 33 And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a pot and put an omer of manna in it, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations.” (Exodus 16:32-33 NKJV)

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2 Answers2

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It was hidden with the Aron (Ark of the Covenant) and some other things near the end of the first Temple by Yoshiyahu (King Josiah). Source: Talmud, Yoma 52b, תוספות הרא"ש על הגמרא בהוריות (יב.) , הרמב"ם (משנה תורה, הלכות בית הבחירה ד א) ‏

In the second Temple, a Kohen (a Priest-a descendant of Aharon, Moses brother) found a loose stone on the ground in the Lishkas Ha'etzim (the chamber where they'd check the wood if it had worms), and believed that the Aron (Ark of the Covenant) was under there, he went to tell the other Kohanim (Priests) and he told them about the loose stone, and he dropped down dead before he told them the location of the stone. Source: Shekalim 6:2 (incorporating the Kahati explanation)

user613
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    It's a Mishna in Shekalim (6:2). – Double AA Aug 18 '14 at 01:47
  • @DoubleAA btw this story proves it was hidden underground, possibly in a tunnel – user613 Aug 18 '14 at 01:51
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    OK so did this guy give the right answer? The Jewish community tends to spell things differently(because of better pronunciation or something) however, I'm not sure what half of these words mean. Could someone translate it to the "improper English version" for me lol? – Decrypted Aug 18 '14 at 03:09
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    @Onlyheisgood. I added translations in brackets. – user613 Aug 18 '14 at 03:18
  • @Onlyheisgood. I can't speak for the Jewish community but I think this is accepted as correct. – jim Aug 18 '14 at 16:14
  • @user3949142 Should we take that story literally? If the Kohen didn't live to tell the tale, how could we know what happened? – user6618 Aug 19 '14 at 19:05
  • @user6618 Good question, now that double aa told me the exact source, I checked it up with an explanation on it, so I edited my post. It says that the kohen didn't finish speaking before he died, and the explanation says that he just didn't say the location of the stone. – user613 Aug 19 '14 at 21:03
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No one today knows where the omer of manna is. It was presumably lost around the time of the Siege of Jerusalem, 597 BCE, although it is possible it could have been lost at other times, such as the descecration by Mannaseh. Its location today is a matter of speculation, similar to the location and fate of the Ark of the Covenant.

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Mike
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