Parashat Beshalach - how long can you keep reality from becoming legend?

Words of Torah
Parashat Beshalach
Exodus 13:17-17:16

"Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; 

that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness."

~~Exodus 16:32

First of all, my apologies for my online absence.  There is a wonderful Yiddish phrase that states, "mensch tracht an Gt lacht" (people plan and Gd laughs).  Well, with all my detailed plans and good intentions, I guess I've been giving Gd a good laugh lately :)

But seriously though, in regards to this week's parashah, I want to focus this week on the above verse from Chapter 16.  We know from verse 16:20, and then again in 16:24, that any manna kept beyond it's intended time to be eaten developed maggots and became inedible.  Of course Gd could easily have extended the "shelf life" of this particular portion, just as Gd did for the Shabbat allocation, but since it had no intention of ever being consumed why extend it's life, and more importantly, why even bother to set it aside for "generations" since there is never any intent for it to ever be consumed?

These are the moments of the Torah when I am most challenged.  Yes, there are plenty of rabbinic explanations and great prognostications by our most scholarly sages as to the rationale, but my struggle is much more simple...if there's a lesson to be learned from this action why do it in such a completely irrational or even contradictory manner?

The Great Lubavitcher Rebbe explained it thus, "The challenge is to retain this recognition also after entering the land."  It is the transition from having your bread delivered to you daily by miracle to having to make your own that will quickly be forgotten and dismissed as myth and/or legend down the road.

For instance, when WWII came to an end, and General Eisenhower saw the reality of what evils occurred in Europe firsthand, he ordered every American soldier under his command, whether personally responsible for the camp liberations or not, to visit a camp and see with their own eyes what had really gone on.  Only this way could Eisenhower try to make sure that the realities of the Nazi's attempted genocide could live on in history as "real" and not become accusations of exaggerations or turned into false-history in generations to come.

OK, so keeping the idea of the manna makes sense (not that the Torah always has to make sense to me...I am very comfortable with this reality). However, actually taking the manna and "saving" it in a container for future generations???  This is where I struggle. But that's OK, I'm not supposed to "get" everything, and I have no expectations of ever understand everything there is to know, but nonetheless, it's the struggle that I enjoy, and it's the struggle that keeps me interested and wanting more.

Shabbat shalom!