Kommentar zu Schemot 16:6

ערב is the same as לערב AT EVENING

AT EVEN, THEN YE SHALL KNOW THAT THE ETERNAL HATH BROUGHT YOU OUT FROM THE LAND OF EGYPT. “And it is not we. [i.e., Moses and Aaron] who have taken you out from there, as you have said, for ye have brought us forth.”³²²Above, Verse 3. 7. AND IN THE MORNING, THEN YE SHALL SEE THE GLORY OF THE ETERNAL. This does not refer to G-d’s Glory that appeared in the cloud, [mentioned further in Verse 10], for that occurred [later] in the day when Aaron spoke to them, and they looked toward the wilderness and, behold, the Glory of the Eternal appeared in the cloud.³²³Further, Verse 10. “But,” commented Rashi, “thus did Moses say to them: At even, then ye shall know that His hand has the power to give you your desire, and He will give you flesh. He will not, however, give it to you with ‘a bright countenance,’ since you were improper in asking for it, [inasmuch as one can exist without meat]. Besides, you asked for it out of a full stomach, [i.e., while still having cattle which you took along with you from Egypt]. But as regards the bread for which you properly asked out of necessity, when it falls in the morning, you will see the Glory of His countenance, as He will bring it down for you in a manner indicative of love, i.e., in the morning, while there is yet time to prepare it.”³²⁴In the printed Rashi text, it concludes: “and there shall be dew above it and dew below it as though it were packed in a chest.” The quail, on the other hand, came down at even (Verse 13) when there was not much time to prepare it. It was thus given, as the Mechilta — quoted by Ramban — said further on, b’panim chasheichoth (with a ‘dark countenance’), or as Rashi puts it, lo b’panim me’iroth (not with a ‘bright countenance’).
But it is not correct to interpret the expression, and in the morning, then ye shall see the Glory of the Eternal as applying to the gift of the manna because He gave it to them early in the morning. What Glory of the Eternal is made manifest in this? Moreover, how does it logically connect with the phrase following it, for that He hath heard your murmurings? And this Midrash of our Rabbis, [which Rashi mentions, i.e., that there was a difference in the ways the manna and the quail were given to them], is not like a comment upon the expression, then ye shall see the Glory of the Eternal. Instead, the Rabbis said it [as an explanation of the fact] that He apportioned their sustenance twice a day and did not distribute all of it in the morning. Thus the Rabbis said in the Mechilta:³²⁵Mechilta on Verse 8. “And Moses said: ‘This shall be, when the Eternal shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full.’ From here, you learn that He gave them the quail with ‘a dark countenance.’ The manna, however, which they were justified in requesting, He gave them with ‘a bright countenance.’” That is to say, in the morning.
Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra wrote that the expression, and in the morning, etc., [beginning in Verse 7], is a continuation of the previous verse. [It constitutes Moses’ answer to] what the Israelites had said, for ye have brought us forth³²⁶Verse 3. from Egypt. Moses replied: “G-d will now show two signs for you so that you may know that it was He Who brought you out from there. One, [the quail] will come in the evening of this day, and the other, [the manna] will come tomorrow in the morning.” And, [continued Ibn Ezra], it would have been proper for Scripture to say: “At even, and in the morning, then ye shall know that the Eternal hath brought you out from the land of Egypt.” The expression in the morning is not connected with then ye shall see the Glory of the Eternal, since they saw the Glory [later] on that day [and not in the following morning].³²⁷To grasp the boldness of Ibn Ezra’s explanation, one must note the following sequence of language in the two verses: (6) And Moses and Aaron said… At even, then ye shall know that the Eternal hath brought you out from the land of Egypt. (7) And in the morning, then ye shall see the Glory of the Eternal. According to Ibn Ezra’s interpretation, the expression of Verse 7, and in the morning, is to be understood together with at even (of Verse 6), thus: “at even and in the morning, then ye shall know that the Eternal hath brought you out from the land of Egypt.” The phrase, and in the morning, cannot be connected with then ye shall see the Glory of the Eternal, for as narrated in Verses 9-10, the Glory of the Eternal appeared that very same day, and not in the following morning. Ramban will further refute this explanation of Ibn Ezra on the basis of the fact that after all, the verses are not written in the way Ibn Ezra would transpose them. His own exposition will then follow. But this interpretation too does not appear to be correct.³²⁸See end of above Note.
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that the wonder inherent in the manna was extremely great, whereas He brought the quail in from the sea by a wind which came from Him.³²⁹Numbers 11:31. The manna, however, was created for them now; [it was] a new creation in heaven, similar to the process of [the original] Creation. This is the intent of what the Rabbis have said with respect to the manna, i.e., that it was created on the sixth day of creation between sundown and nightfall.³³⁰Aboth 5:6. This is why Scripture said: “By the sign He will perform for you on the coming night, you will know that He brought you out from the land of Egypt, since He prepared a table in the wilderness for you.³³¹See Psalms 78:19. But by the great wonder He will do for you in the morning, you will see the Glory of His kingdom, for what god is there in heaven or on earth that can do according to His works and according to His mighty acts?”³³²Deuteronomy 3:24. By the great and marvellous things that G-d does, He shows His Glory, similar to that which is written, I will gather all nations, and all tongues, and they shall come, and shall see My Glory.³³³Isaiah 66:18. It is further written [there], and they shall declare My Glory,³³⁴Ibid., Verse 19. and there are many other verses similar to this effect. So also is the opinion of Onkelos who rendered [the verse here]: “and you will see the Glory of G-d.” He did not translate it, “and [the Glory of G-d] will be made manifest.”³³⁵Had Onkelos translated “and the Glory of G-d will be made manifest,” it would have comprised Onkelos’ effort to remove any implication of G-d’s corporeality. But now that he translated, “and you will see the Glory of G-d,” his reference is to the great and wonderful deed G-d will do for them through the manna.
Know that the subject of the manna involves a great matter.³³⁶“Matter.” In the Ricanti quoting Ramban: “secret.” Our rabbis have alluded to it in Tractate Yoma:³³⁷Yoma 75b. “Man did eat bread of ‘abirim’ (the mighty),³³⁸Psalms 78:25. A reference to the manna which the Israelites ate in the wilderness. The question arises about the meaning of the word abirim. i.e., bread which the ministering angels eat! These are the words of Rabbi Akiba. Rabbi Yishmael said to him, ‘You have made a mistake. Do the ministering angels indeed eat bread? Has it not been said [by Moses], I did neither eat bread nor drink water?³³⁹Deuteronomy 9:9. Rather, the bread of ‘abirim’ means bread which was absorbed in the eivarim (limbs).’”³⁴⁰See Vol. I, p. 76, on the fruits of the Garden of Eden.
The purport of Rabbi Akiba’s words is that the existence of the ministering angels is sustained by the Divine Glory. And so the Rabbis interpreted:³⁴¹Shemoth Rabbah 32:4. “And Thou ‘m’chayeh’ (preservest) them all³⁴²Nehemiah 9:6. [means] He gives food (‘michyah’) to you all.” It is with reference to this that it is said, And the light is sweet,³⁴³Ecclesiastes 11:7. since through the Light, they perceive good discernment. Now the manna was a product of that Higher Light which became tangible by the will of its Creator, blessed be He, and thus [according to Rabbi Akiba], both the people who ate the manna and the ministering angels were sustained by the same substance. But Rabbi Yishmael criticized him, since the existence of the ministering angels is not dependent upon something tangible evolving from the Light. Their existence is by means of the Higher Light itself.
It was for this reason, [i.e., the heavenly origin of the manna], that the Israelites found in the manna every flavor they desired. The rational power of the soul causes it to cleave to the higher worlds, thus finding restful life and obtaining His favor.³⁴⁴See Proverbs 8:35.
And thus the Rabbis have said in the Mechilta:³⁴⁵Mechilta on Verse 25: Today ye shall not find it in the field. This teaching is that of Rabbi Eleazar Chisma. Ramban will later refer to it by name. “Today, [i.e., in this world], you will not find it, but you will find it in the World to Come.” This text [of the Mechilta] can support two explanations. We may say that among those [inheriting eternal life] in the World to Come,³⁴⁶Ramban clearly uses the concept of olam haba (the World to Come) as referring to the life after the resurrection. It is the life to be in the far hereafter, as distinguished from the olam haneshamoth (the World of the Souls), which is the life in the hereafter immediately following the demise of the body. In olam haba, body and soul will be reunited, and the manner of how the body will sustain itself is here alluded to by Ramban. See also Note 12 in Seder Va’eira. An exhaustive discussion of this whole subject is found in Ramban’s Torath Ha’adam, (Kithvei Haramban, Vol. 2, pp. 283-311). there will be some who have not achieved that high status of sustaining themselves steadily by the Divine Glory. Their existence will be made possible by something tangible evolving from that Glory, like the status of the generation of the wilderness who attained [the beholding of] the Divine Glory at the Red Sea, just as the Rabbis have said:³⁴⁷Mechilta 15:2. “A maidservant saw at the sea what the prophet Ezekiel³⁴⁸Reference is to Ezekiel, Chapter 1. In our Mechilta it states, “Isaiah and Ezekiel.” See Isaiah 6:1-6. Rashi (above. 15:2) just has: “prophets.” never saw.” From that time onward, their souls were elevated to be able to exist by the product [of the Divine Glory], which was the manna.
A more correct interpretation is that in the word today — [Verse 25: ‘Today’ ye shall not find it in the field] — Scripture is alluding according to the words of Rabbi Eleazar Chisma,³⁴⁹See above, Note 345. that those [inheriting eternal life in] the World to Come³⁴⁶Ramban clearly uses the concept of olam haba (the World to Come) as referring to the life after the resurrection. It is the life to be in the far hereafter, as distinguished from the olam haneshamoth (the World of the Souls), which is the life in the hereafter immediately following the demise of the body. In olam haba, body and soul will be reunited, and the manner of how the body will sustain itself is here alluded to by Ramban. See also Note 12 in Seder Va’eira. An exhaustive discussion of this whole subject is found in Ramban’s Torath Ha’adam, (Kithvei Haramban, Vol. 2, pp. 283-311). will exist by the substance of the manna which is the Higher Glory, just as the Rabbis have said:³⁵⁰Berachoth 17a. “[In the World to Come] there will be neither eating nor drinking. Rather, the righteous [of the World to Come] will sit with their crowns on their heads and enjoy the Divine Glory.” [This means] that those [inheriting] the World to Come will exist by their enjoyment of the Divine Glory, which will cleave to the crowns upon their heads. “The crown” is the attribute so named by Scripture when it says, In that day shall the Eternal of hosts be for a crown of Glory.³⁵¹Isaiah 28:5. And it is with reference to it that it is said, Even upon the crown wherewith his mother hath crowned him.³⁵²Song of Songs 3:11. Thus [the verses] allude to the manner in which the righteous inheriting the World to Come will be sustained, the hint being to the substance of the manna.
Now Scripture says, And He commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven; and He caused manna to rain upon them for food, and gave them of the corn of heaven. Man did eat the bread of the mighty,³⁵³Psalms 78:23-25. and it further says, And He gave them in plenty the bread of heaven.³⁵⁴Ibid., 105:40. From this, it appears that this “corn” is in heaven, and He caused it to come down for them by opening its doors. The intent thereof is, as I have explained, that the [Higher] Light was made tangible [and assumed the form of the manna], for it is of the Higher Light that Scripture speaks in this language, [such as]: the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of G-d.³⁵⁵Ezekiel 1:1. It may be that the manna was already existing in the heavens [in the form in which it came down], just as the Rabbis have said³³⁰Aboth 5:6. that it was created on the sixth day of creation between sundown and nightfall.

ערב וידעתם, may it be G’d’s will that what He said about giving you food will be such that in the evening you will receive enough for that evening so that you will all know that He has taken you out of Egypt, totally and irrevocably. You have also exited from the political leaders of that country. True, you had been sitting near the fleshpots there, but you had never been given enough time to enjoy any of the meat in these pots. You had been treated like animals which have no fixed times when they eat. This is the meaning of the passage in Yuma 75 in which we are told that at the beginning of your history (of the enslavement) you were like hens that are only able to hastily pick at the kernels given them as food. They even had to look for it in the refuse heaps. Only after Moses, their redeemer, took over their affairs did they begin to enjoy regular meals at regular times.

ערב וידעתם כי ה׳ הוציא אתכם, "in the evening you will realise that G'd took you out, etc." The fact that the Israelites had not previously asked for meat is proof that they had considered such a request unrealistic, that they did not believe that they would ever be supplied with meat in the desert. They did not even mention the word meat until they wished they had died in proximity to the flesh-pots, etc. G'd now was anxious to demonstrate that He Who had taken them out of Egypt and crushed their enemies could also provide for them wherever they were. G'd intended to teach the Israelites a moral lesson, such as we find in Isaiah 44,18 where the prophet scores the people for "having besmeared their eyes so that they neither saw nor understood." G'd insisted that they would realise that He had taken them out of Egypt when they observed what would happen in the evening as opposed to what would happen in the morning (seeing that they had considered the supply of meat the most unlikely thing that could happen).

כי ה' הוציא אתכם, not as you claimed or thought that Aaron and I took you out of Egypt.

The same as “in the evening.” [Instead of לערב ,] the correct text of Rashi reads בערב — as it says afterward (v. 8): ויאמר משה בתת ה' לכם בערב .

V. 6. אל כל בני ישראל, sowohl zu denen, die im Kreise der Ihrigen über Mosche und Aaron gemurrt, als zu denen, die mit der Anklage offen gegen Mosche und Aaron aufgetreten. ערב: noch heute Abend werdet ihr euren Irrtum einsehen, dass ihr den Auszug aus Mizrajim uns und nicht Gott zugeschrieben. Die Abendspende der Wachteln erhalten sie nur in Folge ihres Murrens, ihnen zu zeigen, dass Gott jedes Wort vernimmt. Wie gewöhnlich ist in dem Berichte der Worte Gottes an Mosche V. 4 u. 5. die Ankündigung der Wachteln nicht ausgedrückt, weil wir dies sofort aus Mosche Rede an das Volk erfahren.

ערב וידעתם, “by evening you will know; and in the morning you will see;” this sounds somewhat inverted as usually you see something before you know it. Actually, G-d is simply saying that they will see and become conscious of both blessings, meat and bread. We find a similar inverted construction in Zecharyah 9,17: דגן בחורים ותירוש ינובב בתולות, “producing young men like grain, young women like new wine.” The meaning of that verse is: “G-d will enable the young men and virgins to be receiving blessings appropriate to both genders, instead of each sex receiving only what it had hoped to receive.

וידעתם כי ה׳ הוציא אתכם מארץ מצרים YE SHALL KNOW THAT THE LORD HATH BROUGHT YOU OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT — Since you said to us, (v. 3) “for ye have brought us forth” you shall know that it was not we who brought you forth, but it was God who brought you forth for He will bring quails for you.