Kommentar zu Schemot 16:16

עמר — the name of a measure.

'זה הדבר אשר צוה ה, and in the morning you will eat bread (food) to satisfy yourselves. (compare verse 12)

איש לפי אכלו, everyone according to his capacity to eat. This does not refer to the individual's eating capacity but to the number of people in his household. The reason the Torah speaks about a single individual's capacity to eat, i.e. אכלו is because the head of the household determines how many people depend on him. Nonetheless he could collect on behalf of people who though dwelling in his tent did not depend on him. You will find confirmation of this approach when you study the way the Torah describes who collected how much. In verse 17 we are told that each person had collected an amount corresponding to individual need, whereas in verse 16 we are told that after they measured what they had collected they found that each one had collected exactly one Omer per head. If that is all that mattered, why did the Torah have to add: "according to the number of persons in his tent?" Clearly, the Torah wanted to include persons in a tent for whose maintenance the head of the household was not responsible. You will find studying what the Talmud Yuma 75 has to say on the subject very illuminating.

עומר לגלגולת, “one omer (measure) per head.” According to Ibn Ezra this was the amount intended for an adult, whereas there would be a commensurably smaller amount for each child, an amount that would correspond to the nutritional needs of each child.

מספר נפשותיכם איש לאשר באהלו תקחו, as if the Torah had written לאשר באהלו, “for those who are (entitled to be) in his tent.” These include: his wife who is his legal spouse according to Jewish law. When the angel asked Avraham about the whereabouts of his wife, (Genesis 18,8) he replied: הנה באהל, “she is in the tent which is her rightful place.” We have learned from Psalms 45,14 כל כבודה בת מלך פנימה, that the entire measure of female dignity (a Jewish wife being equated with a princess) is within her home. Our verse also teaches as a corollary that the father is obliged to look after the needs of his wife and children. The Torah phrases this as מספר נפשותיכם, “the number of persons belonging to you.”

(Exodus 16:16) "This is the thing that the L rd has commanded. Gather of it, each man, etc.": They said: Now Nachshon ben Aminadav and his household will go out and will gather a lot, and an Israelite pauper will go out and gather little. And when they came to measure it (Ibid. 17) "and they gathered it, some taking more than an omer (for a head), some less," (Ibid. 18) "when they measured it in the omer" (vessel), (they found that) "he who had taken more did not exceed (the omer measure), and he who had taken less, did not diminish."

VV. 16 —18. Sie sollten in der Absicht sammeln, hinlänglich für ihren Hausbedarf, und zwar ein Omer für jedes Haupt, heimzubringen, und wenn dann dies bis zur Zeit des Verschwindens des Manna (V. 21) dem einen mehr, dem andern weniger gelungen war, so hatten sie doch alle zuletzt im Verhältnis das Gleiche, nicht mehr und nicht weniger, gesammelt. Allein die Absicht, das entsprechende Quantum zu sammeln, scheint doch wohl eine unerlässliche Bedingung gewesen zu sein, sonst hätte nach der ersten Erfahrung des Resultates jeder sich nur mit dem Aufsammeln eines Minimums zu begnügen brauchen, da doch jedenfalls der Erfolg hinreichend und keinesfalls mehr gewesen wäre. Es liegt hierin die ganze Lehre des gewissenhaften Fleißes und des providentiellen Segens für den Nahrung suchenden Menschen und Familienvater. — לקט, verwandt mit לכד fangen: aus dem herrenlosen Zustande einsammeln. — עדף, verwandt mit עטף, etwas anderes einhüllen, somit es mit seiner eigenen Masse überragen; ערף: überragen, mehr als ein anderes, gegebenes Maß sein. — לפי אכלו, eigentlich nach dem Munde, d. h. dem Ausspruch, der Anforderung seiner Nahrung.

'זה הדבר אשר צוה ה, “this is the subject concerning which Hashem has commanded: “collect some of it!” We must not misunderstand this verse as a commandment to collect ail the manna. We know from what follows that each personregardless of how much he thought he had collectedhad collected only one omer per family member. This is why the Torah could report that the people had fulfilled this command with the words: ויעשו כן בני ישראל, “the Children of Israel did so. The socalled commandment was to be an ongoing commandment valid as long as the manna descended from the celestial regions on a regular basis. The ongoing miracle, in addition to being “heavenly bread,” was that it was meant to be לשובע, “to eat enough to be satiated,” not to gorge oneself. Therefore, even an Israelite who thought that he had collected two omers, upon returning to his tent found that he had collected only one omer. The word צוה here is to be understood just as the word צוה in Psalms 33,9: הוא צוה ויעמוד, “He commanded and it endured.” In other words, the commandment in question had no time limit attached to it. It applied equally in the reverse; if someone had intended to collect only half an omer, and was sure that he had done so, upon measuring it after he came home, he found that he had in fact collected a whole omer.

מספר נפשתיכם — The second half of the verse means ACCORDING TO (supply כ before מספר) THE NUMBER OF PERSONS WHOM A MAN HAS (איש לאשר being the same as אשר לאיש) IN HIS TENT SHALL YE TAKE AN OMER FOR EVERY HEAD (לַגֻּלגֹּלֶת the definite article with the ל having distributive force: each and every).

לקטו ממנו, everyone to his heart’s desire. Some would take more, others less but איש לפי אכלו עומר לגלגלת, מספר נפשותיכם איש לאשר באהלו תקחו, it would not matter how much they would collect, for when they would measure it they would find that each one had exactly one omer per family member in his tent. Every Israelite would receive (ultimately) an equal share of the heavenly food G’d would provide. It would satisfy him in accordance with the amount of food he was used to consume regularly. If someone was in the habit of eating relatively little, he would not now be able to change his eating habits and gorge himself. On the other hand, if someone was a glutton, receiving heavenly food would not require him to downsize his appetite.