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Did the Jews make a Bracha on eating the Mahn? Which Bracha did they make?

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Apparently Rav Ovadya Yosef has a teshuva regarding this (obviously very lemaaseh) question in Yechave Daat 6:12. I bet he quotes more if not all the opinions on the matter. – Double AA♦ Feb 5 '12 at 2:47
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When I read the title, I was wondering what it meant: Adam's saying ose maase b'reshis on his own creation, perhaps? – msh210♦ Feb 5 '12 at 3:31
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@msh210 I was actually wondering in what scenario a cannibal would be worried about which bracha to make... – AviD Feb 5 '12 at 12:32
@Vram Of course. This is all likely on the level of drush. (Although interestingly, in the Shut I quote below, he mentions it will be lemaaseh when we eat the canister of man with the levyatan. I don't know how he knows we will do that though.) – Double AA♦ Feb 5 '12 at 16:40
@Vram, likely what the Rambam means is that there is no explicit pasuk, but it is learned out from a drasha. The Rambam often calls this d'rabbanan. Otherwise, the Rambam is against the gemara in Brachos 35a, plus- how could the rambam say that someone who doesn't make a bracha is "ma'al'? – YDK Feb 5 '12 at 18:41
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The sefer כמוצא שלל רב has several articles on it.

He quotes R' Yehuda Hechosid as specifying "HaMotzi Lechem Min HaShamayim" together with the Rama of Fano. Rav Tzvi Hirsch from Ziditschov quotes the mekubal R' Yisroel Dov that no brocho is to be made as mentioned anonymously in the Shut Torah Lishma 63.

Rav Aharon Levi from Reisha supports this view. The Bnei Yisoschor suggests that if it were not for the opinion of the Rama of Fano, he would have said no brocho on weekdays and "asher kideshonu bemitzvosov le'echol seudas Shabbos" on Shabbos.

Rabbi Chaim Pelagi (בספר נפש חיים מערכת מ' אות קו) from Izmir suggests "borei minei mezonos" because the mahn tasted like wafers with honey; but since they fixed their meal on it (not having any other "bread") the brocho was hamotzi.

Rabbi Eliezer Deutsch from Banihad (?) suggests that the brocho would depend on what food the eater intended. Rav Osher Weiss shlit"o points out that this depends on whether the mahn actually changed into the food imagined by the eater or just tasted like it.

There's much more in the sefer.

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+1. Side note (about your parenthetical question mark): Bonyhad is a town in Hungary, which before World War II had a respectably-sized Jewish community. R. Deutsch was the rav there from 1897-1916. – Alex Feb 5 '12 at 21:59
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Sforno (to Ex. 16:27) states that the people who attempted to gather man on Shabbos would thereby have performed the forbidden labor of oker (uprooting something from the place where it grows), a subdivision of kotzer (reaping). A marginal note in the Me'oros (Gurary) edition of Berachos (48b) cites this and points out that this implies that it could indeed be considered an earth-grown product to the extent of getting the usual berachah for such - i.e., hamotzi lechem min ha-aretz.

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Shut Torah Lishma 63 (h/t Alex for the link) quotes the Rama of Fano as saying that the bracha was HaMotzi Lechem Min HaShamayim. He personally thinks the bracha is HaMamtir Lechem Min HaShamayim following the words of the pasuk that describe the man falling. Note also that the questioner in the responsa quotes "a rabbi" who claimed that no bracha was said on the man.

The Talmud (Berachot 48b) says that Moshe established the first bracha of bentching (HaZan) when the man fell, so presumably they said that after eating the man.

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Actually, he quotes Rema of Fano as saying this. His own opinion is that the berachah was הממטיר לחם מן השמים, matching the wording in the verse (Ex. 16:4). – Alex Feb 5 '12 at 2:33
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@Alex I see you beat me to the link :) thanks – Double AA♦ Feb 5 '12 at 2:39
ולם ראיתי להגאון רבי חיים פלאג'י בספר נפש חיים (מערכת מ' אות קו) בשם אחד קדוש מרבני אשכנז הרה"ג רבי מרדכי הלוי, שאמר לו שנראה בעיניו שישראל בירכו על המן המוציא לחם מן השמים, וכתב, שהפסוק מסייעו, הנני ממטיר לכם לחם מן השמים. – Hacham Gabriel Feb 5 '12 at 15:58

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