What is the meaning of "Mahn Hu"?
Rashi: It means 'a preparation of food.' 1
Rashbam: It is the Egyptian term for "What is it?" - the actual expression used by the people. 2
Rashi: As in "va'Yeman Lahem ha'Melech (and the king prepared for them)" (Daniel 1:5).
Which explains why the Torah sees fit to add "because they did not know what it was," in the way that it tends to do when it uses foreign words. See for example Bereishis 31:47, and Megilas Esther 3:7 & 9:26.
What did Moshe mean when he responded, "This is the bread that Hashem has given you to eat"?
Targum Yonasan: He was telling them that this was the bread that Hashem had designated for them from the time of the creation. 1
QUESTIONS ON RASHI
Rashi writes: "For they did not know what it was - to refer to it by its name." Why explain this way?
Gur Aryeh: (Rashi explained the preceding phrase, "Mahn Hu," to mean "it is a food preparation.") But if so, how does the next phrase, "for they did not know what it was," follow as explanation? It must be explaining why they said only this, rather than calling the food by its name.
