Shemos Chapter 16 – Transcript

Shemois Chapter 16: The Story of the Manna

Structure of Sefer Shemois

Sefer Shemois divides into three parts:

Part 1: The Story of Yetzias Mitzrayim

This section ends with the Shirat Hayam—the song of praise after the Exodus. This structure appears throughout Tanach: major stories, especially significant ones, conclude with a poem or song of praise. The Shirat Hayam was sung after Krias Yam Suf (the splitting of the sea), but it also functions structurally to close the section about Yetzias Mitzrayim.

Part 2: The “Small Sefer Bamidbar”

This is the story of wanderings in the desert—not in the same sense as Sefer Bamidbar, which is much longer and includes the full 40 years in the midbar (which was not the original plan).

In today’s chapter, one sentence mentions that they ate the manna for 40 years. This is retrospective editing—written after the 40 years to tell us how long they ate the manna. But at this stage in the story itself, we don’t yet know there will be 40 years in the midbar.

The midbar in Sefer Shemois is simply the space between leaving Egypt and arriving at Har Sinai. It consists of a few stories in parshas Beshalach (and perhaps the beginning of parshas Yisro)—the travels from Mitzrayim to Sinai. From there, they have Matan Torah and make the Mishkan, and they were supposed to move directly to Eretz Canaan, as we see in parshas Behaaloscha in Sefer Bamidbar.

The rest of Sefer Bamidbar is the expanded, second version of the midbar story, where that didn’t happen. But here we have the small version. In a certain sense, all the motifs and events that happen in the midbar already occur here. Later we have the story of the Eigel (Golden Calf), which is a crisis, but not specifically about the desert—it’s a different kind of story. Here, many things that are described in Sefer Bamidbar as major crises—especially questions of food, water, and wars—are mentioned, but in a much more refined, subtle way. It’s almost like the good version of those stories: how it would have been had there not been the story that caused the whole midbar experience to become a big problem.

Part 3: The Story of the Mishkan

The third part is the creation and building of the Mishkan. This includes the story of Matan Torah, which culminates in building the Mishkan—it’s all one long story.

The Journey: Three Stages

Now let’s return to this story. After leaving Yam Suf, they travel for three days in the desert with no water.

Stage 1: Marah

They come to a place called Marah, where there is water, but it’s bitter—that’s why it’s called Marah. They complain (vayilonu—we translate this as “complain”). They complained to Moshe: “What shall we drink?”

Moshe complains—or vayitzak—to Hashem. (I think vayitzak is a kind of word meaning something like a legal complaint; we usually translate it as “scream,” but I don’t think that’s accurate—I’ve discussed this.) Hashem gives him some kind of tree or wood, which he puts into the water, and the water becomes sweet.

At this stage, we also have something that will be elaborated much more, especially in the story of Matan Torah and throughout the Torah. Many stories revolve around this point: the condition (tnai) that Hashem gives. Here, only one side of the condition is stated: “Im shamoa tishma l’kol Hashem Elokeicha” (If you will surely listen to the voice of Hashem your God).

We see how there are problems in the desert, just as being in Mitzrayim was a problem, just as the Mitzrim themselves were punished for their sins. The text says: if you listen to Me, do My mitzvos, and follow My laws and ways, then you will be protected, and I will not afflict you with those plagues. This seems to explain why Moshe was given the solution of the tree, why they got water in the desert: to the extent they followed His mitzvos, they received it; to the extent they won’t, they will not have it.

Stage 2: Eilim

They come to a place called Eilim. There is water and food: 12 mayanot (12 water sources) and 70 date trees. This is probably a symbolic number meant to convey abundance—not literally 70 versus 69. There’s plenty of food and drink, and they stay there. This is a stage where they’re in a kind of oasis with food and drink.

Stage 3: Midbar Sin

From Eilim, they move to Midbar Sin, which is between Eilim and Sinai. There’s a date for this: the 15th day of the second month—exactly one month after Yetzias Mitzrayim. This seems important. It’s like the first “15th of the month,” parallel to when they moved from Mitzrayim to Sukkos.

The big next stage—which will become the paradigm for their time in the midbar, not just small stops like Marah and Eilim—is where they arrive in the second month, precisely one month after leaving Mitzrayim.

Chapter 16 Begins: The Complaint

This is where chapter 16 starts. I’m not sure why it would start exactly here. It’s true that a new story begins—the story of the manna, a long story that takes up this whole chapter. But really, if you want to divide the book, you should have a cutoff after the story of the shira, after Yam Suf finishes. In any case, there is a new beginning here.

It starts with a complaint, just like all these stories start with complaints. As all these desert complaints go, the argument is really about Yetzias Mitzrayim. It’s directed at Moshe: “Why did you take us out of Mitzrayim? It would have been better to stay there.” This is the general point that all the complaints in the desert make.

Specifically here, they say: “We could have died in Mitzrayim—at least we would not have been hungry. We sat by the pot of meat, eating bread until we were satisfied. Now we’re going to die in the desert, all of us, from hunger.”

What we understand is that this is continually a questioning of Moshe, which Moshe understands to be a questioning of Hashem. He doesn’t ascribe Yetzias Mitzrayim to his own decision—as we read in the beginning of parshas Shemos, it’s Hashem’s decision to send Moshe to take the people out of Mitzrayim. Therefore, he reads all these complaints as really complaints against Hashem, who sent Moshe out of Mitzrayim and who has this whole plan for taking them further.

The Response: Practical and Spiritual

The response is both practical and a kind of rebuke. The practical complaint is always right—people need to eat, it’s true. But there’s also a rebuke to this doubting. Here, it’s not clear where the rebuke is; we’ll see in a bit.

The doubt is not something easy to dismiss. We sit in our easy armchairs and say, “Ah, these people didn’t have enough faith.” But just as the complaint “I don’t have anything to eat, I’m going to die of hunger and thirst” is a true, obvious need that’s correct and must be taken care of, so too the question “Why did we leave Mitzrayim at all? What are we doing here? Was this whole thing worth it?” is a correct question to ask. It just has to be asked correctly. It’s a correct question, and it’s something that Hashem and Moshe are struggling to answer—they’re trying to answer the complaint.

The Dialogue Structure

Another thing to notice in these parshiyos—and it’s somewhat hard because it goes back and forth—is that there are several parts of dialogue:

1. The people complain to Moshe – we have the text of what they say

2. Hashem answers Moshe – it doesn’t say explicitly here that Moshe complained to Hashem (earlier we had “vayitzak Moshe el Hashem”), but we assume Moshe relates the complaint to Hashem

3. Moshe and Aharon speak to the people – Hashem doesn’t speak directly to the people; Hashem speaks to Moshe, and Moshe speaks to the people, but he doesn’t say the same things

There are also two different statements: some things Moshe and Aharon say together, some things Moshe himself says. There can be many different interpretations of what’s going on.

Hashem’s Response to Moshe

Let me go through the basic structure. Hashem tells Moshe: “I will give them bread from heaven. I will make rain bread from heaven.” This language of “making rain”—rain comes from heaven, but it will be not rain, but bread. This doesn’t necessarily mean literal bread; it means something to eat. “Lechem” in Tanach sometimes means food in general.

They will be able to gather it day by day. This will be “anassenu”—to try them, or test them, or publicize them (there are different interpretations). If he will go…

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*[Transcript continues in next chunk]*

The Communication Structure and God’s Instructions

And Hashem answers Moshe. And then we have what Moshe—also Aharon here suddenly—speaking to the people. So Hashem doesn’t speak directly to the people. Hashem speaks to Moshe, and Moshe speaks to the people, but he doesn’t say the same things. And there are also two different statements. It seems like some things Moshe and Aharon say together, some things Moshe himself says. There can be many different interpretations here of what’s going on. I will just go through the story, the basic structure.

Hashem Speaks to Moshe

So Hashem tells Moshe: “I will give them bread from heaven. I will make rain bread from heaven.” This is the language—”making rain.” Rain comes from heaven, but it will be not rain but bread. It doesn’t need to mean literally bread; it means something to eat. *Lechem* in Tanakh means something like food. And they will be able to gather it day by day. And this will be in order for me to do something called *anasenu*—to try him, or to test him, or to publicize him. There are different interpretations. “If he will go in my ways, if he will go in my Torah.”

And this we already saw in the previous section. There’s something always in this whole story of the mitzvah where it’s somehow the first implementation of what it means to follow the Torah, what it means to follow the mitzvah. And this has to do with either the answer to the complaint or the correct behavior regarding the manna, which itself may be interpreted as answer to the complaint. And the behavior which He gives is that on the sixth day they will prepare what they bring, and it will be double. Double—they will be gathering double from every day. It doesn’t say more than that. That’s what Hashem tells Moshe.

Moshe and Aharon Speak to the People

Then, step two. It’s what Moshe and Aharon tell to the Bnei Yisrael, and they tell them more than Hashem told them over here. They say—and their words are divided into two parts, the evening and the morning—they say: “In the evening, you will know that Hashem took you out of Mitzrayim.”

So this is answering the people’s principal complaint. The principal complaint is: Why did we even go out of Mitzrayim? And the answer is sort of: Hashem took you out. And of course, Hashem took you out means that it’s for a good reason. There’s an explanation. It doesn’t mean it’s not really demanding, just blind faith, but it’s trying to explain by seeing that you will have food to eat. You will understand that it is Hashem, and it’s not just a bad decision which you can say is Moshe’s decision.

“And in the morning you will see Kavod Hashem. You will see the glory of Hashem because He has heard your complaints, which are about Him and not about me.”

So this is, again, going back to the general answer. The complaints are not about Moshe. In other words, he’s right for taking you out of Mitzrayim because it’s Hashem that sent him, and Hashem knows what He’s doing. But you will see this by evening and morning.

And Moshe explains this—and that was Moshe and Aharon speaking. And now Moshe explains this, and he says: “In the evening, Hashem will give you meat to eat. In the morning He will give you bread.” And like Rashi says, this seems to have been the accepted order of food, you know—in the evening you eat meat, in the morning bread. Some people still act this way. And this will show you that Hashem listened to your complaints, and the complaint is really about Him.

And I think these two statements more or less mean the same thing. Of course, there’s a question why it’s doubled, but that’s nothing.

The Rebuke

And now there’s another statement, step three. Step three, there’s another whole statement. And this, I would think, is connected with the rebuke. So there’s some rebuke. It’s not very explicit. We may have to read it between the lines, but there’s rebuke.

So now, first we had Moshe and Aharon speaking. Now we have Moshe himself speaking. And now we have Moshe speaking to Aharon that he should speak to the people. And Moshe tells Aharon: “Tell the people, come close to *lifnei Hashem*.” *Lifnei Hashem* means something like—usually later it means before the Mishkan. There must have been something that represents Hashem. There was a *makom* already here. We see later in the story of Matan Torah there was already some sense of being a *makom* before, although the *makom* of the Mishkan is obviously before the Mishkan was built.

“Come before the representation of God because He has heard your complaints.”

And this means something like: you’re being summoned, right? It’s not like He’s already going to help you—that we already heard a second ago—but you’re being summoned. And this is like, you know, when you call the ambassador for a discussion. It means like, we’re going to scream at you.

And that’s what happens. So Aharon speaks to them. As he speaks to them, they turn to the desert, and the glory of Hashem is seen in a cloud. This is how Hashem reveals Himself, always, to the people in the desert—at least, maybe even later also—in a cloud, sort of on the side of the Midbar. Maybe that’s what *lifnei Hashem* means. Something in the Midbar was a place where they assumed that that’s where Hashem is, or something like that. And it doesn’t say more than that.

And that’s obviously a rebuke. In other words, it seems to be saying: they were saying, “Oh, this is Moshe and Aharon’s adventure that he took us on here, and who knows what’s going to happen.” And now they see the cloud. And this is the cloud—remember, the cloud that takes them when they were leaving—that’s showing them that Hashem is leading them. And it has something to do with Aharon, that cloud. And the same way here, they’re seeing it, and it’s like: Wait, I’m here. This is not just Moshe and Aharon.

Then again, *vayedaber Hashem el Moshe*—Hashem speaks to Moshe. And this is really where Hashem says what Moshe has already said. Maybe this really should—we should understand that as having already happened. Or we could understand all these things having happened simultaneously. We discussed that some parts in the Torah, I think, should be read simultaneously. It’s not like one thing after the other, because this is where Hashem told Moshe what He already told the people—that they will have meat in the evenings and bread in the morning, and the glory of Hashem will be seen. That’s exactly what Moshe already told the people. So maybe this had already happened, or maybe this whole story of them going to the Midbar and seeing the Kavod had already happened really, and we heard it backwards.

The Implementation

Okay, now step four. We have the implementation, the story. What Hashem said will happen actually happened.

In the evening, there was *slav*, which is some kind of bird, some kind of meat which covered the *machaneh*, covered the camp. And in the morning there was—so there’s always like a covering of the *machaneh*. It’s interesting that there’s something to do with like a cloud that covers, or something like the *lechem* and the *shamayim*. And in the morning there was a *shichvah*, like a covering of *tal*, of dew, around the *machaneh*—not on the *machaneh*, around it.

And as the dew rose, they saw something. The *pasuk* now has words that are not mentioned in many other places. He says: *dak*, something thin; *mechuspas*; *dak kakfor*, like ice—some kind of white thing. It appears like some kind of white dust, something you would expect to be something like ice or something like diamonds ground, or something like that.

And just like we’re wondering right now what it is, the *pasuk* tells us that the Bnei Yisrael were wondering. They were telling one another: “What is it? *Man hu*?” And apparently that’s why it was called *man*.

And Moshe answers their question, which they might have asked him, or they might have implied the question. He says: “This is the bread that Hashem spoke about to you.”

The First Mitzvah: Taking the Proper Amount

And then he gives them a command. “This is what Hashem commanded you. It’s a mitzvah. Each person should take one *omer*”—a certain amount—”according to his heads.” *Omer lagulgolet*—one *omer* per head. This is interesting because this prefigures all the countings *lagulgolet* that we’ll have later. Each person—and “each” means like the head of each family—should take for the people in his tent, people in his family that are his responsibility before. Take only one for each person.

So this is the important mitzvah. Remember, we saw this seems to be the first mitzvah regarding the manna. First mitzvah. So first we had the story—Hashem did what He promised, the manna came—and now the first mitzvah regarding it is that each person should take only the amount that he deserves, the correct amount.

And it says that’s what they did. Both who took more, took less. In the end they measured, and whoever took more didn’t have more. Whoever took less didn’t have less. There are different readings of this *pasuk*, but I think the simple meaning is one of these two things: either they had some kind of distribution center where some people got more but then it was equalized, or it means whoever had a bigger family took more, but in the end it’s still not more because it goes each person according to his eaters—how many people he had to eat. So that’s probably the meaning. There are different readings that say there was a *nes*, but I don’t think that that’s what it literally says here.

The Second Mitzvah: Not Leaving Over Until Morning

Okay, and then there’s a second command. So that’s one mitzvah regarding the manna. Mitzvah number two: Moshe says—it doesn’t say Hashem said, Moshe says—”Do not leave over anything to the morning.”

I think that this is the same idea of what I was saying, that I think that this mitzvah has to do with the general point of the complaint, which is: Are you really ready for this adventure of the Midbar? Do you understand how to act? And the way in which the Midbar is not just some crazy thing—there’s an order here. Do you know how to live in this order?

And this, like, not taking more than your fair share, which is, of course, very basic for—you know, this is how you establish a state. This is how you establish a community. People have to take their fair share. And they have to not take more from tomorrow. And I think that’s also because that’s just a way of people accumulating wealth, and then people are going to end up having more than their fair share. I think that that’s the simple understanding. If they will manage to do this, then they will be successful in creating their community and growing from there.

So that was what Moshe commanded them. And this they didn’t do. The previous command—the one that each one should take just as much as he needs—they listened to this. They didn’t listen to this one. Some of them—some people, of course, not everyone—some people did leave over. And then those parts that they left over had worms in them and became *vayivash*—literally means they stunk. And Moshe was mad at them.

We can assume that this was also the reason why Moshe didn’t let it. Again, there’s a reading that says this was kind of a *nes*, that there were worms. But we can assume that this manna is something that gets ruined easily. And maybe some people have tricks or some ways how to make it last, but it wasn’t wanted and it wasn’t correct. And when you leave it and put it away, you’re just taking away from people that you don’t have today, and you’re not really gaining anything. So it’s understandable that Moshe would be upset. *Vayiktzof aleihem Moshe*.

The Third Mitzvah of Manna: The Shabbat Portion

Okay, now we get to the second mitzvah of manna, which also we hear backwards. And we should assume we don’t entirely hear it backwards, but we somewhat heard it in the first step, when Hashem spoke to Moshe before they spoke to the people at all. And now we’re going to hear the story from the perspective of the people and backwards. And we hear the story that each day they took…

The Double Portion on Friday

Now we get to the second mitzvah of manna, which we also hear backwards—or at least somewhat backwards. We already heard part of it in the first step, when Hashem spoke to Moshe before they spoke to the people at all. Now we’re going to hear the story from the perspective of the people, told backwards.

The story tells us that each day they gathered manna in the morning as the sun came up, and it would melt. This again shows how the manna was something very weak, very subtle—it could melt and get ruined very quickly.

Then on the sixth day they all gathered double. The nesi’im (leaders) came to Moshe. Now it’s interesting—why did they gather double? Does this mean that a lot of manna simply fell? That seems to imply there was just a lot of manna. Or did the people for some reason decide to bring more, and then Moshe justified them? It’s not entirely 100% clear to me what’s the meaning of the story. But in any case, that’s the story: on the sixth day they gathered double, lechem mishneh, and the nesi’im came to Moshe.

We can understand that the nesi’im said, “Wait, the people have gathered more. We’re the ones responsible for making sure that everyone has their fair share, and now there’s too much.” And Moshe says, “Oh no, they were right. This is what Hashem said.” Of course, this is the first time they’re hearing about it. “There’s a rest for Hashem tomorrow. Therefore, bake and cook what you need for today. And what is left over, leave over for tomorrow.”

The Mitzvot of Leaving Over

So here we see that the whole week there’s an issur—they’re not allowed to leave over. But here there’s a chiyuv that you should leave over. Not only are you allowed to, but you have to leave over for tomorrow. And that’s what they did—they followed Moshe and it did not stink and there were no worms.

Again, does this mean that there is a miracle? Or does this mean that it was a different kind of manna on Friday that didn’t get ruined? Or maybe it just means that they baked it, and everything was already baked, and “kol hanotar” (what is left over) means not what is left over unbaked, but what is left over that was baked? I don’t know.

Shabbat Morning Instructions

Then they come—we assume that they come to Moshe on Shabbat morning, or the seventh day morning—and they say, “What should we do?” And Moshe says, “Now eat it. Now eat what you have left over. And why? Because this day is Shabbat, a rest. You will not find today in the fields the manna.” Or “don’t find it. Six days you gather it, and the seventh day you rest”—and that’s a mitzvah.

Apparently Moshe is telling them each part of the mitzvah at the exact stage when it happened. He didn’t tell them before—or maybe he did and we don’t hear that—but he told them exactly at the stage that it happened. He told them the mitzvah of Friday what to do, and then he told them on Shabbat what to do.

The Mitzvot Enumerated

And then again the third thing, the third mitzvah:

– One mitzvah was to gather each person as much as you need

– Second mitzvah was not to leave over

– Third mitzvah was to leave over on Friday

– And maybe the fourth mitzvah: not to gather on Shabbat, which is what he said—”Shabbat hayom, lo timtze’u basadeh” (today is Shabbat, you will not find it in the field)

The phrase seems to be read as “you should not find,” and only later as “you will not.” And on the seventh day some of the people did go out to gather and they didn’t find, as Moshe said they wouldn’t find, but they did try to find. But we still have to read the earlier statement as “you should not find” because otherwise where did he tell them not to go out?

God’s Anger and Final Command

Now Hashem is upset. Hashem says to Moshe, “Until when do these people refuse to listen to my mitzvot? Look, I gave you Shabbat. This is why I gave you twice on Friday. Please, each of you should sit in his place. Don’t go out of your place on the seventh day.” And they actually rested on the seventh day.

So it’s interesting—a second before we had that they didn’t rest, some of them went out to gather. And the way it’s presented, maybe we have to take back what I said before. It’s not really true that they knew even that they should not go out on the Shabbat. It’s only told now that they shouldn’t go out. Maybe he said they shouldn’t find, but some people said, “Okay, we’ll check if we can find.” But now he finally told them they shouldn’t go out, and they did rest, they did follow this.

So it’s interesting—there’s one understanding that they didn’t rest even the first Shabbat, another understanding which is that they didn’t rest just because they didn’t know, but now that they knew they did rest.

But we see right away that this is something—maybe Hashem is really upset at Moshe for not telling them before, that he should have told them earlier. That’s possible.

Summary of the Manna Story

In any case, this is the story of them receiving the manna and all the rules around it, which has to do with these two things: the going out to the desert, the Yetziat Mitzrayim, all has a meaning, it’s all under Hashem’s plan. And secondly, that there is a correct way of behavior regarding this, which is what we call the Torah. So this will begin the story of the Torah. If you follow it, you will get the manna, you will get what you need.

Three Postscripts to the Manna Story

First Postscript: The Naming and Description

Now we have two notes, two postscripts to this story—notes following what just happened. The first is about the name of this thing. Like we had in Sefer Bereishit, many stories that culminate in naming, so here something culminates in a naming. The people call this “man,” and it doesn’t say “ki lo yad’u mah hi” (because they didn’t know what it was), but we can assume that it became the name “man”—not as a question mark, just the name “man”—because they didn’t know.

But we do have a description of it. It’s “k’zera gad lavan” (like white coriander seed). I think gad lavan is a kind of grass. I think we know what it is—it’s a kind of herb. I think it was cilantro, if I checked. And it tasted like some kind of honey cookie.

So it’s interesting because this is opposite—I think we have the seed of gad, and gad is a bitter herb, it’s a kind of bitter herb, but it tasted sweet. Maybe there’s something interesting where the manna has a look of something bitter but tastes sweet.

Second Postscript: The Preservation Mitzvah

And now there’s one more postscript, which is another mitzvah—the fifth mitzvah regarding the manna. Not something like a postscripted story, it’s not part of the main part of the story. Moshe tells someone, maybe generally the edah, he says, “This is what Hashem commanded: take one omer”—remember omer is a certain amount—”and you will keep it.” It’s interesting—just like there was a mishmeret (safekeeping) for Shabbat, there’s a mishmeret. And this mishmeret is that you should see the bread that Hashem gave you. This is just like we have matzah that we eat every year as a mishmeret of the Exodus.

So it says—but anyways, there’s this word, mishmeret. We eat matzah to remember the Yetziat Mitzrayim; the same way there was manna put away to remember this manna, the Yetziat Mitzrayim.

And we have the more precise instructions. Moshe tells Aharon to take a tzintzenet, some kind of jar or vessel, put one omer in and put it again, lifnei Hashem (before God). What does lifnei Hashem mean? We discussed already before. There must have been something, l’mishmeret (for safekeeping), and then we have the report that he did this.

Third Postscript: Duration and Measurement

And then we have one more postscript, a third postscript, which is how long they ate the manna. It says they ate the manna for 40 years until they came to eretz noshevet (a settled land), and repeats itself, which is the edge of Eretz Canaan.

So that’s of course not correct, not in the correct place in the chronology here—we’re just beginning the first year—but we do have this: since we’re talking about l’dorot (for generations), we’re giving you the story that there’s this manna still. If you look maybe in the lifnei Hashem, you look in the Beit HaMikdash, the Mishkan, there was always kept some kind of piece of manna over there. So maybe this has to do with the lechem hapanim (showbread), maybe I could think. But anyways, this is telling you this, and then sort of like you ask what is this, and they say, “Oh, for 40 years they ate this.”

Then there’s one more little postscript that says the size of the omer. We didn’t have this—it says take one omer for each, and put away one omer, and now it says the measurement of omer is asiris ha’eifah (a tenth of an eifah). Obviously we should know eifah—we know what it is—but omer we didn’t know what it is, and now this is just like an interpretive postscript to understand what it was.