Kommentar zu Schemot 16:22

לקטו לחם משנה THEY COLLECTED DOUBLE BREAD — when they measured in their tents what they had gathered they found it double — two Omers for each person (cf. Rashi on v. 5). (Rashi appears to supply אשר before לקטו: It came to pass on the sixth day, what they gathered אשר לַקטו, was double bread.) A Midrashic explanation is that משנה in לחם משנה signifies מְשֻׁנָּה different, changed, — that day it was changed for the better as regards its smell and its taste (Tanchuma Yashan).

ויגידו למשה, they told Moses about it. This proves that Moses had not previously informed them of what G'd had said. It is hard to reconcile this with the well known prohibition for a prophet to suppress a prophecy that has been revealed to him (Sanhedrin 89). Moses' failure to inform the people seems especially peculiar seeing that by withholding such information he would prevent the performance of a מצוה. The author cites a variety of reasons why we cannot assume that Moses had forgotten to communicate part of G'd's instructions to the people.

ויגידו למשה, what they had found, i.e. that each of them had found double the usual ration. Moses had been told this by G’d already on the first day, but had withheld this information up until now.

ויהי ביום הששי לקטו לחם משנה, “when it came to Friday, they found that they had collected a double measure of bread.” Our sages interpret the wording of this verse as proving that only after the people collecting manna had returned to their respective tents, did they become aware that they had gathered twice the normal quantity. At that point Moses had not yet informed them of this. Ibn Ezra claims that according to the plain meaning of the text Moses had instructed them to collect double the usual amount; he uses the words לקטו ממנו, “they collected of it, etc.” to prove his point. Had the matter been a miracle, the Torah would have described their activity on that day as something they had ”found,” as opposed to something that they had expected to be there. As it was, the princes told Moses that the people had done what Moses had told them to do, i.e. collected double the usual amount. They then asked Moses what to do with the surplus, seeing that in their experience any surplus would rot and become worm-eaten. Moses replied that G’d had already commanded him and Aaron concerning the work stoppage to be observed on the Sabbath, and that as a result all the food needed for the Sabbath had to be prepared on Friday. He told them to conserve the second omer until the morning of the Sabbath, at which time he told them to go ahead and to eat it, as there would not be any new manna on that day. Rashi writes that the words את אשר תבשלו וגו' applied to both days, in other words they were told to prepare food for two days instead of for one. The reason why the people came to Moses on the Sabbath in the morning was that they were not willing to eat stale food, food that had been prepared on the previous day. Moses then explained that this food was not stale food, and that the reason he had asked the people to prepare all of it on Friday was precisely so that it would not be stale food on the Sabbath. The honour of the Sabbath demanded that no new manna descend on that holy day. It is possible that Moses told the people that they could eat as much of the total as they wanted on the Friday, and that any leftover, however small, proved to be adequate for their needs on the Sabbath.

They measured what they gathered. . . [Rashi is saying:] It does not mean that because they knew the manna would not descend tomorrow they intentionally gathered double, for today and tomorrow. Because if so, why did the leaders come to tell Moshe when they saw they had a double portion, to which Moshe replied, “This is what Hashem had said. . .”?

(Exodus 16:22) "And it was, on the sixth day they gathered, etc.": R. Yehoshua says: This is the "doubled" bread, two omers instead of one. "and all the princes of the congregation came, etc.": They said to Moses our teacher: Why is this day different from all the other days?

V. 22. Die bereits V. 5 dem Mosche angekündigte Erfahrung des sechsten Tages hatte Mosche dem Volke noch nicht mitzuteilen gehabt. Sie sollten die überraschende, die Tatsächlichkeit des Schabbats und die göttliche Fürsorge für das jüdische Bedürfnis bekundende Erfahrung erst völlig unvorbereitet machen, damit sich ihnen diese Tatsachen um so tiefer einprägen.

שני העומר, “two measures known as omer,” (per person). During all the weekdays in the year they made two loaves of bread from one measure of flour called omer. It follows that they were able to make four loaves from the amount of manna which fell on the Sabbath eve. The first of these were meant to be eaten on the Sabbath eve. The next two loaves were used on the meal after Kiddush on Friday night, when one of these loaves would be eaten. It was the people’s custom to eat one loaf of bread each during each meal. This left them with two loaves for the Sabbath day. This enabled them to again have two loaves at the Sabbath day meal. This serves as proof that there is no halachic requirement to have two loaves of bread for the Sabbath afternoon meal. (Compare Tur shulchan aruch, orach chayim, paragraph 298) However, I have seen a very learned Rabbi in Merinon who insisted on having two whole loaves of bread for his afternoon meal on the Sabbath, and I have been told of Rabbi Avraham that the origin of that custom is verse 29 are the words: כי ה' נתן לכם את השבת, “for the Lord has given you the Sabbath,” which were interpreted by Rabbi Yitzchok as follows: “if the gentiles ask you why you are so meticulous in observing the laws of the Sabbath, tell them of the great miracle we experienced while in the desert when on account of the Sabbath G–d gave us an extra portion of manna.” (Compare Yalkut Shimoni, section 1 paragraph 261) According to what is stated there, not only is there no need to have two loaves for the Sabbath afternoon meal, but it is even doubtful if kiddush need to be recited over wine unless one interprets the superfluous words יום השבת (Exodus 20,8) as suggested by the Talmud tractate Beytzah and Pessachim, folio 106.

לחם משנה, from the expression לחם משנה we can deduce that each person unwittingly collected two omers. Seeing that this is so, why did the Torah have to add the words: “two omers for each person?” The reason is that the second portion of manna collected on that day was destined especially for consumption on the Sabbath, and that is the reason why the letter ל at the beginning of the word לכם has the full vowel kametz under it instead of the semivowel sh’vah which we would have expected.

ויגידו למשה AND THEY TOLD IT TO MOSES — They asked him, “How is this day different from other days?” — From this we may learn that Moses had not yet told them the section regarding the Sabbath which he had been commanded to say to them: (v. 5) “And it shall come to pass on the sixth day they shall prepare etc.” — he did not do this until they asked him, “What is this?” Then he said to them, (v. 23) “This is that which the Lord hath said” this is that which I was commanded to say to you previously, but I forgot to do so (Cf. Shemot Rabbah 25:10). On this account Scripture (God) punished him, in that He said to him, (v. 28) “How long will ye refuse [to keep my commandments]”, and He did not exclude him from the general body, by saying, “how long will they refuse etc.”

Actually, Moses did have good reason to act as he did. He made this plain when he said: "this is what G'd has said: 'tomorrow is a solemn day of rest for G'd;'" You will observe that Moses did not include the customary לאמור when he referred to what G'd had said. By omitting the word "to say," Moses hinted that G'd had not instructed him to communicate this commandment to the Israelites already earlier during the week. In view of what we have learned in Yuma 4 Moses was under obligation not to reveal any communication from G'd unless he had been given either permission to do so or he had been commanded to do so. In this instance G'd had done neither. We have discussed all this in our commentary on verse 11 of this chapter. The proof of the correctness of Moses' conduct is evident from verse 5 where G'd neither told him to tell the people nor permitted him to convey the information at that time. Moses had simply not been appointed as G'd's messenger concerning this detail of the Shabbat/manna legislation. This is why after the Israelites reported to him that a double measure of manna had fallen Moses merely acknowledged that he had known about this all along. He implied that G'd had sealed his lips in this regard.

ויגידו, “They told;” the people told Moses about this phenomenon as they were afraid that if they were to hide the extra portion until the following morning he would become angry at them, as he had already previously been angry at any of the people who had saved some manna overnight against his warning not to do so. He had not informed them beforehand about the rules governing the manna on the Sabbath in order that they should not go out on the Sabbath eve to collect one omer only to find that they had come with two omers each.

We now have to analyse who gave Moses permission to reveal even at this stage that G'd had already told him about all this previously.

I believe that Moses was clever enough to figure out why G'd had not wanted him to tell the people about this at the time. He reasoned that G'd wanted to implant faith in the people that the whole Sabbath legislation was fair and justified. If they would experience the way G'd provided for them on the Sabbath by an event orchestrated by G'd Himself, as opposed to a message relayed by a prophet, the psychological effect would be so much greater. They had to be surprised to find provision for the Sabbath already on Friday. If G'd would command them not to commit certain types of work on the Sabbath after He had already made the performance of such work unnecessary, it would be easy to accept the restrictions which are part of the Sabbath. This why Shemot Rabbah 25,11 considers that observance of the Sabbath is equivalent to observing all the commandments. It was a commandment the Israelites embraced wholeheartedly after seeing that it was really a gift from G'd to them. Had Moses told the people that no manna would fall on the Sabbath and as a result the people would have tried to collect more than the usual amount on Friday, they would not have considered the fact that they came home with twice the usual amount as a miracle. By not telling them in advance, the people collected what they thought was the normal amount. When they came home and measured it and found that it was twice the usual amount they realised that G'd had performed a miracle for them and the Sabbath assumed great significance.

Should you argue that in the end Moses did issue instructions to the people not to collect more than the regular amount, this was only in order to keep them aware of the miracle that G'd provided on Fridays for the needs of the Sabbath. A miracle did not need to be performed in order to demonstrate that Moses' conduct had been justified.

Furthermore, even if G'd had informed the Israelites through Moses of the commandments for Sabbath well in advance, there would still have remained room for error. We have learned in Menachot 65 that when Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai had dealings with the heretic sect of Bayssus and he challenged them for proof of their contention that the festival of Shavuot must occur on a Sunday, one of their elders claimed that seeing that Moses loved the Jewish people and he was aware that the holiday of Shavuot is only one day, he determined that it should occur on Sunday in order for the Jews to enjoy two successive days of rest. Tossaphot on that folio comment as follows: "he (Moses) ruled that this should be so, and G'd agreed with him." This proves that there are people who believe that even though a halachic ruling originated with Moses, G'd had to give His consent to such a ruling.

You might still ask why Moses had to tell the Israelites all this at this stage. Surely the miracle they had just witnessed would have convinced them that the Sabbath legislation had originated with G'd? The fact is that once the Israelites noticed that no manna fell on the Sabbath they might have concluded that the whole manna supply had come to an end. Moses therefore had to explain to them that the only reason there was no manna on the Sabbath was because G'd had said so; there was no other reason. This would be proved to the people conclusively as soon as the manna began to descend again on the day after that Sabbath. Moses had to tell the people things that he normally should not have revealed in order to prevent them from going to collect manna on the Sabbath. Moses did not tell the people explicitly not to go out and collect manna. He only told them that they would not find any manna in the field if they went to collect it.